Crab cups

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I so wanted crab rangoons tonight (who doesn't take pleasure in deep fried trashiness from time to time?) but after lots of hard work at the gym recently I'd have felt just too guilty if I'd indulged in those naughty parcels of tastiness.

But there'll be no tears before bedtime for me, because luckily I was surfing Tastespotting and up popped a great idea and dish substitute - I could get my crab in crispy coating fix without some of the fat induced guilt.

Using gyoza wrappers as the casing, they're simply placed into a lightly greased muffin tin then sprayed with a little oil and baked until crisp. Once done you can fill them full of all kinds of things - I chose a fresh and crunchy mix of crab meat, spring onion, minced ginger, lime juice, quark cheese, mint leaves, bean shoots and Japanese pepper.

The best thing about these is how easy they are to do, and I cant stress quite how simple they are - they were made and devoured within just 30 minutes. Plus they look so cute, so would be perfect as canapes at a dinner or drinks party - bake the skins off beforehand and pile them full of lots of different fillings before people come round - easy and impressive.

For 9 crab cups
100g white crab meat
3 tablespoons quark cheese
Juice of half a lime
A small pinch of chopped fresh coriander
Half a teaspoon minced ginger
1 spring onion
A handful of fresh bean sprouts 
9 gyoza skins
Spray cooking oil
Japanese pepper
A scrunch of sea salt

Method
- Preheat your oven to 180 degrees
- Spray your muffin tin and place in the gyoza wrappers into the indentations, then spray the gyoza skins with the oil and sprinkle them with salt. Bake until turning golden - this should take around 10 minutes)
- Combine the remaining ingredients (apart from the Japanese pepper and mint leaves) in a bowl and set aside
- Remove the shells from the oven once done and leave to cool for 5 minutes
- Pile the filling into the shells and top with the mint leaves and Japanese pepper
- Job done