Tampa Devil Crab Recipe to die for ..Yes !

[HOTROCKS]

Croquette dough:
3 loaves stale sandwich bread
1 level tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1 loaf stale cuban bread (grind
very fine and sift)
Remove crust from 3 loaves of bread and discard crust. Soak remainder of bread in water 15 minutes. Drain water and squeeze until almost dry. Add the sifted cuban bread gradually until you have dough. Add paprika and salt. Mix thoroughly. Form dough into ball and put in fridge for approx. 2 hours.
Tips: I lay bread on baking sheets and stick in the oven for a day to make it stale. Also the first time I made this recipe, I soaked the bread in the water for 15 minutes and it turned into complete mush that could not be rung out. So, the next time I took 4 or 5 slices of bread at a time and dunked them and rung them. This worked much better.
Crabmeat filling:
5 Tablespoons oil
2 bay leaves
3 onions, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 level tsp. salt
1/2 red or green bell pepper
finely chopped
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
4 cloves garlic, mashed or
chopped fine
1 lb. can fresh crabmeat (claws),
picked over and shredded
1 level tsp. crushed red hot
pepper (Italian style)
Fry very slowly in oil, the onions, bell pepper, garlic, crushed hot pepper for 15 minutes. Add bay leaves, sugar, salt, and tomato paste. Stir, then cover and cook 15 minutes at low heat. Add crabmeat and cook for 10 minutes, uncover, put on platter in fridge for 2 hours.
Take about3 tablespoons of the bread dough and press in your hand; put in a tablespoon of crab filling, then seal like a croquette with two pointed ends. Dip into the following mixture: 2 eggs, well beaten with 1/2 c milk, salt, and a dash of pepper. Mix 1 cup cracker meal and 1/2 cup flour. Roll croquettes first in the cracker-flour mixture, then in the eggs, and again in the cracker-flour. Put in fridge for 2 hours. Fry indeep fat until brown. Make miniature size for parties.
Tip:
I used fish fry instead of the cracker-flour mixture. It gave it a much more even coat. I used my fryer to fry them, and they turned out beautifully. I do not know how they would turn out pan fried.