CRAB IMPERIAL

The poor old, but still elegant-looking, Belvedere (which I can see from my apartment) has been through many incarnations, including hotel, school, and finally condominiums. (I remember when a one-bedroom cost only about $30,000.00, which I thought was a steal.) I stayed in the hotel once, about 1942, when my parents brought me to Baltimore so that a specialist could try to determine if I had tuberculosis. (I didn't.) And I have many fond memories of lunches, and dinners, in the Owl Bar and one famous dinner in the John Eager Howard Room, when the staff had to put a table in an aisle because I refused to wait more than an hour for a table. From that time comes this wonderful recipe from the Belvedere for Crab Imperial, from an old, Maryland seafood cookbook, published by the state Department of Economic and Community Development. The cookbook cost $2.95.

CRAB IMPERIAL

(from the old Hotel Belvedere)

serves 4

l lb Maryland crab meat, regular or backfin

1/4 C mayonnaise

1 t olive oil

1/4 C chopped fresh chives OR chopped onion OR chopped shallots

1 T lemon juice

5 drops oil from a can of anchovies (or 1/4 t anchovy paste)

1/2 t capers

3 dashes liquid hot pepper sauce

3 dashes Worcestershire sauce

cracker crumbs or seasoned bread crumbs for topping

paprika for topping

butter for topping

1. Pick over crab meat carefully, to remove any cartilage.

2. Mix mayonnaise and olive oil in a large bowl. Add chopped chives, lemon juice anchovy oil, capers, liquid hot pepper sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Add crabmeat to mayonnaise mixture and mix well.

3. Place crab mixture in individual crab shells or in a shallow baking dish. Cover with cracker crumbs or seasoned bread crumbs. Sprinkle with paprika and dot with butter. Bake in a 450 degree oven until brown and bubbly, about 10 minutes.

Note: this recipe can be stretched with one or two chopped hard boiled eggs plus 1/4 C chopped black olives.

To prepare ahead: prepare and chill, covered, until ready to heat.