| Crab Cakes | |||||||||
| This time of year is right in the middle of Dungeness crab season. There is no better preparation of fresh crab than simply steamed or boiled and served with drawn butter. But to enjoy steamed crab at its best, the crabs must be live when cooked. Hai Thanh Market at 955 McLaughlin Ave. in San Jose has live crabs, lobsters, talapia, catfish, and shellfish and very reasonable prices, but it is quite a drive just to buy a crab. It is very much worth a side trip if you have other business in San Jose. Much more available are the fresh, steamed crab that are available in supermarkets now and for the next few months. I don’t think that steamed crab that has ever been frozen is worth bothering with because the meat turns stringy and watery. I recently bought two large crabs and set about making the perfect crab cake. The perfect crab cake should be essence of crab with no minced vegetables and the smallest possible amount of bread crumbs and a minimum of binder. It should hold its shape when sautéed and stand up to whatever sauce it is served with. Crab cakes are a labor of love because it is quite time consuming to pick out the meat and the yield is pretty modest. A pound and three-quarter whole crab will yield only about half a pound of meat. The following recipe will use the meat from three and a half pounds of whole un-cleaned crab. The secret to holding its shape is to refrigerate the uncooked cakes for at least two hours before sautéing. The panko (Japanese bread crumbs) can be found in the oriental section at Nob Hill. Panko makes an extra crispy coating and doesn’t interfere with the pure taste of the crab.Serve the crab cakes with either one of the sauces. Sue Kleber |
1 pound crabmeat 1 beaten egg 3 TB mayonnaise 2 TB Grey Poupon prepared mustard 3 TB minced flat leaf parsley 1/4 tsp. black pepper 1 tsp. Old Bay seasoning 1/4 tsp. Tabasco sauce 1/2 cup Panko or Italian flavored breadcrumbs plus additional crumbs for dredging cakes Place the crabmeat on a double thickness of paper toweling and pick it over for any tiny bits of shell. Dry the crabmeat thoroughly. Mix all the ingredients except for the crumbs and the crab in a bowl. Add the crumbs and mix and gently fold in the crabmeat trying to keep the lumps as whole as possible. Take 1/3 cup of the mixture and form into a cake. (I use a metal biscuit ring as a form to make a neat package. Just put the mixture into the ring and flatten evenly.) Dredge all sides of the cake in additional crumbs and place on paper towels. Refrigerate for at least two hours. Sauté the cakes in olive oil until crisp. Yields 10 2 1/2 inch cakes. |
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| Drizzlling Sauce 1/3 cup minced shallot 1/4 cup finely diced celery 1/3 cup finely diced red bell pepper 1 TB butter 1 minced garlic clove 3 TB minced flat leaf parsley 3 TB olive oil 1 TB lemon juice Sauté shallot, celery and bell pepper in the butter for two minutes, add garlic and sauté for an additional two minutes. Stir in parsley, olive oil and lemon juice and drizzle around the crab cake. Tartar Tapenade |
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Courtesy of:
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Real Estate & Living
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www.somocorealestate.com
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