Eat Together, Make Life Delicious...

I was always taught that less is more when it comes to crab cakes because adding too many ingredients will ultimately drown out the delicate crab flavor. This is a mistake most often done in restaurants, and the reason I think is because most restaurants use foreign crabmeat, or blue swimming crab, to prepare their crab cakes. Foreign crabmeat has a flatter flavor that isn’t sweet like Maryland meat—so when using Maryland crabmeat for crab cakes, keep it simple: less is more.

Another note about making crab cakes is to treat the meat tenderly. You don’t want to over mix the crabmeat. And for that reason, I always mix everything else together first and then fold in the crabmeat last. Once the crabmeat is folded in, I prefer to bake my crab cakes because I am guaranteed perfection and I can basically leave the crab cakes alone for 20 minutes in the oven until they are done. Frying crab cakes in a pan also works but does require that you stand there the entire time and some skill is involved when flipping the crab cake (think of it like a really delicate burger.)

Our family motto is, “Don’t mess with it too much!” When making crab cakes, this is the best advice.

Chesapeake Crab Cakes with Tartar Sauce
Makes 4 Servings

1 large egg, beaten
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons finely chopped pimiento
8 no-salt saltine crackers, crushed 1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons seafood seasoning, such as Old Bay
2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 pound freshly picked lump crabmeat, picked over for shells and cartilage
Tartar Sauce for serving
optional: lemon zest

Preheat the oven to 400F with an oven rack set in the middle.

Prepare the crab cakes. In a medium bowl, combine the egg, mayonnaise, pimiento, half the crushed crackers, salt, seafood seasoning, and parsley. Mix well. Gently fold in the crabmeat. Avoid over-blending. Form the mixture into 4 patties, which will be fairly wet. Gently coat the patties with the remaining crackers on both sides.

Place the crab cakes on a metal sheet pan and place them in the oven to bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Half way through the cooking process turn the crab cakes around so they cook evenly. For added flavor, brush the crab cakes with butter or mayonnaise on top before baking.

Serve the crab cakes immediately with tartar sauce for dipping. You can add a sprinkle of lemon zest on the tartar sauce,

To fry your crab cakes: Choose a skillet large enough to hold all the crab cakes. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil and ½ tablespoon of unsalted butter in the skillet over medium-high heat until the oil slides easily across the surface. Fry the crab cakes until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side, gently turning once with a thin metal spatula.

Labels: american classics, Blue Crab, crab cakes

The legendary restaurant Nobu, in Manhattan’s TriBeCa, serves this, and I think it’s one of the most addictive dishes I’ve ever tasted. My sister Jennifer and I ate two servings each and even ordered one to go. The tobiko—tiny crunchy red roe—gives an incomparable texture to each mouthful. A former sous chef provided the recipe outline, which I’ve tweaked a bit for the home cook. If snow or king crab meat is hard to come up, consider using blue crabmeat. I find it works just as well. Don't use the most expensive, but backfin or even claw meat works great. If you don't want to make homemade mayo, go ahead and use store-bought.

Creamy Spicy Crab
makes 4 servings

2 egg yolks
½ teaspoon sea salt
3 turns of a pepper mill (preferably white pepper, but black pepper works)
1 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce, such as Sriracha
¼ cup tobiko (any seasoned flying fish roe)
1 pound prepared crabmeat (snow crab, king crab, or blue crab)
¼ cup scallions, sliced into 1/8-inch pieces

Make the mayonnaise: Place the egg yolks in a standing mixer and whip at
medium speed until well-mixed. Add the salt and pepper and pulse to mix well. Turn the blender to its highest speed and add ½ cup of the oil in a slow stream, until the mixture emulsifies and thickens.As it does so, you can add the oil
more quickly. Add the rice vinegar and continue blending. Add the remaining oil and continue blending. Transfer the mayonnaise to a medium bowl and stir in the chili sauce and tobiko. Taste carefully and adjust the flavor by adding
more vinegar.

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the drained crabmeat in a 9-inch casserole and toss lightly with the scallions until well combined. Gently fold in ¼ of the mayonnaise mixture and again gently toss until the crab is lightly coated. Loosely pat down the crabmeat and cover it with the remaining sauce. Bake for 15 minutes, then turn on the broiler and run the casserole under the broiler until the top is golden brown, moving the dish constantly to make sure the entire top browns evenly. Serve at once.

Labels: Appetizer, Blue Crab, Creamy Spicy Crab, King Crab, Nobu, Snow Crab