Crab Meat Pasta Bake

We don't often cook seafood especially crab, as it's hard to get fresh crab home in this weather, without a car. Also, I'm not sure if I could handle live crabs. 😅

But since discovering frozen crabmeat at the local grocer, it's become possible to include crab in our cooking once in a while.

Have adopted a creamy pasta bake method, and made this on a Sunday afternoon.

500g frozen crab meat, thawed
200g elbow pasta
100g button mushrooms, sliced
Half a red onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
A glug of white wine
50g cream cheese, softened
A sprinkle of dried oregano
2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons plain flour
300ml milk
A pinch of rock salt
Some ground paprika

1. Cook pasta according to instruction on the pack, reduce cooking time by a few minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a large pan, heat some vegetable oil and sautee the garlic and onion on medium heat till soften.
3. Add in the dried oregano and let it simmer for about a minute. Stir in the mushroom and cook for a few minutes, stirring regularly.
4. Add in the crab meat, stir and mix well before pouring in the white wine. Let it simmer for a couple of minutes.
5. Stir in the softened cream cheese, keep stirring till completely melted. Add in some milk or water at this point if it's too thick or dry.
6. Drain the pasta and mix it into the pan with the crab meat. Mix well and season with some rock salt, remove from heat.
7. Set the oven to 180°C. Grease the base of an 8" square oven dish with a little butter.
8. Pour the entire crab meat mixture into the dish. 
9. In a small deep pan, heat the butter on low. When melted stir in the plain flour to make a soft paste.
10. Add milk gradually while stirring constantly to make a smooth bernaise sauce. Season with a sprinkle of salt and pepper.
11. Pour the bernaise sauce all over the top of the crab meat pasta. Spread evenly to cover everything. Lightly sprinkle some paprika over the sauce.
12. Cover the dish with foil and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake for further 10 minutes at 200°C.Leave it stand for 5-10 minutes before cutting into serving portions.
13. Serve with some wild rocket and olives.

There was enough to serve four, so we freeze 2 portions which can then be prepared like ready oven meal for another day.