Raise your hand if you love crab Rangoon — the mid-century crab and cream cheese filled fried wonton snacks popularized by Vic Begeron of Trader Vic’s tiki lounge in the Bay Area
These crab Rangoon pie poppers, a recipe by Cathy Barrow in her new book, When Pies Fly, are highly unusual. They’re not fried but baked in a delicately crisp, rich shell. The shape resembles a tiny pie. Cathy is from the Midwest and adores crab Rangoon, which is why she channeled their crabby goodness into these delicious 2 or 3-bite snacks. She even makes a tangy-spicy-goopy sauce as part of her crab Rangoon pie popper recipe. I love crab Rangoon, though it’s not an Asian dish but it does show up on old school Chinese-American menus. I hadn’t seen it much on the West Coast lately but when I went to Minneapolis earlier this year, some version of crab Rangoon...