Wednesday

The Best Crab Cakes you may ever eat!


Happy New Year everyone ~ 
I'm wishing you all the best in 2013!


Did you celebrate away, or at home?

We never go out on New Year's Eve, preferring instead
to celebrate at home, cozily in front of the fireplace... with a light
dinner and a glass of bubbly.  :)



 
From the images, I bet you can almost guess what celebratory dinner was
served at my house on the last day of 2012.

Correct!! 

CRAB CAKES...




 Chef Robert Irvine's fabulous Crab Cakes.
His simple recipe is my favorite. 
 
No veggies to stretch the crab or mask the flavor of the 
good, pure crab chunks, and very little binder. And
they are a fabulous party food when formed into
bite-sized portions.

Besides the crab, the list of ingredients is short:

Old Bay Seasoning,
a little mayonnaise,
Some Panko crumbs (only a quarter of a cup)
white pepper
fresh ginger juice (or ground ginger)
tabasco
1 egg
flour for dusting the cakes
grape seed oil for shallow frying

Optional: 
Juice of 1 lemon to squeeze over the
finished crab cakes.

Beware if you do a search on the Food Network site
for his crab cake recipe, there are two listed and
one of them is incorrect. (It instructs to mix the
grape seed oil into the mix of crab and seasonings.)

no, no, no!

This is the correct recipe.


You can use any crab that you prefer, but my favorite is...



Dungeness, our meaty, local & fresh Pacific Crab.


Time I served them with lemon wedges and the following simple sauce:
(It's not heavy at all so it doesn't compete with the richness
of the crab meat.) 



You can serve them plain without a sauce, but I love to contrast
the delicately crisp crust of the cakes with something saucy.
 
So I made up this accompaniment on the fly:

It's simply roasted sweet red peppers from the jar pulsed in 
the food processor with a touch of vinegar (I used Sherry vinegar,
but any favorite vinegar will do), a splash of grape seed oil or olive oil,
some sea salt, a pinch of sugar, and a couple
of shakes of hot sauce (Tabasco® is what I used.) 
All whirled in my small food processor until completely smooth;
adjust seasonings to your taste, if the sauce is too thick
add a few drops of water and continue processing. 

I also had some homemade fish taco sauce* left over in a 
squeeze bottle, so I gave the cakes a finishing touch of
that, yum!

*Fish taco sauce: Whisk equal parts mayonnaise (Best Foods/
Hellmann's) and plain, unflavored yogurt (Greek-style works
really well in this sauce.)



And finally a sparse shower of sliced scallion tops.


The next time you make crab cakes, I hope you'll
give Chef Irvine's recipe a try.  I don't think you'll be
disappointed.

Thanks for stopping by today, friends!


Blessings ~ Mari xo





14 comments:

  1. HAPPY NEW YEAR and what a beautiful recipe. You do know that you live in the perfect part of our world for crab. Since we do not get the fresh crab in our area, we can only substitute that is available. To eat at your table with be complete delight.

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  2. Like you Mari I am one who does not like to over power the taste of the crab either with a lot of veggies or filler. I have always done my crab cakes just as your recipe reads but have never used the ground ginger powder. That sounds interesting and will try that the next time I make crab cakes. I wish we got your Dungeness Crab here but we don't. However, we do have an abundance of Blue Crab along the Gulf Coast and it is available year round. I enjoyed your post.

    Carolyn

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  3. Oh Mari - you're such an artist! Your crab cakes are truly magazine worthy.

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  4. The best crab cakes are not masked by fillers or overpowered. The true delicate flavour shines through.

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  5. The best crab cakes are not masked by fillers or overpowered. The true delicate flavour shines through.

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  6. The best crab cakes are not masked by fillers or overpowered. The true delicate flavour shines through.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The best crab cakes are not masked by fillers or overpowered. The true delicate flavour shines through.

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  8. They look so good..And what pretty presentations;)

    Meilleurs Voeux pour 2013 ..
    x

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  9. Mari -- these look heavenly. Gonna have to think about a low-carb substitute for the Panko. YUMMY :)

    Happy New Year
    & Blessings to you and yours!!

    Gail

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  10. Thank you for your comments everyone!!
    You've made my week. Hope your first week of 2013
    is fabulous. :) xo ~m.

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  11. Thanks, Mari. I've been threatening to attempt crab cakes and this is the start I needed. We won't have Dungeness in Mexico, but I suspect rock crab will substitute nicely. Happy New Year, again, Sis!

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  12. I don't dislike crab, but it's not a favorite. I make salmon patties often... will try this recipe next time with salmon.

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  13. Hi Mari and Happy New Year! These look lovely. I do a similar sauce, but its a creamy version. 2 Roasted red bell peppers, 1/4 cup FF greek yogurt, 1/4 c. Mayo,clove of garlic, fresh lemon juice, smidge tobasco, fresh thyme and bl. pepper. That's it. Divine and light. Gail, I use multi-grain or WW bread crumbs in my low-carb version and some ground walnuts, plus a little Parmesano Reggiano.

    Okay Mari, WHERE or where did you find that adorable crab server for the sauce? I need to have one. :)
    (Dungeness is $3.99 a lb. here!)

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  14. This comment has been removed by the author.

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Thank you for your comments, friends ~ they make my day!

A Sampling of my food . . .

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