Even in these days of Alton Brown and FoodTV, James Beard is still my all time standard for basic cooking. 

I was trying to come up with a different dish for last night's dinner.  I had picked up several one pound tins of good crabmeat at Costco this week, and remembered a recipe I had made long ago from "James Beard's Fish Cookery" cookbook.  When I looked up Crabmeat and Rice, I saw my note written along side the recipe: "* VERY GOOD! Dec 1985". Although I had not made the dish in over 20 years, I still remembered it as worthy of note.

After serving this delicious dish for dinner, I realized that it would make a great starch side dish for a company meal.  One which would probably even steal praise from the entree.
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Ingredients:

1½ cups rice
1  lb   crabmeat
1  cup  peas, cooked *
½  cup  parsley, finely chopped
3  TBS  onion, grated *
2       pimientos, finely chopped *
        salt *
        pepper
6  TBS  butter, melted
        Parmesan cheese, grated

Process:

Cook rice as usual.  Gently mix together all the ingredients,
except the cheese and 1 TBS of the butter, being careful not to break up the crab.   Place in a greased shallow casserole dish and top with the cheese and remaining butter.  Bake in a preheated 450F oven until heated through and slightly browned on top, about 10 - 15 minutes.
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* My adaptation:

Let rice cool after cooking.
Par-cook frozen peas.
Use chopped green onion instead of regular onion.
Use ~ 1/4 cup chopped roasted red pepper instead of pimiento.
Use Goya Abobo (seasoned salt) instead of regular salt.
Add a dash of fish sauce.
Add 1/4 cup cream.

Assemble ahead, cover and refrigerate. Bake just before serving.

Reference:

"James Beard's Fish Cookery" © 1954, James E. Beard

20060720, la