Thursday, December 2, 2010

Crab Cakes

We had almost a pound of crab left after making the Udon Carbonara, and my mom suggested that we use it to make crab cakes. So we did.


crab cakes

I followed this recipe and it was very easy. Apparently it's based on a Frugal Gourmet recipe so it's probably a good dish to eat before you touch lil boys. Mix egg, parsley, some mayo, lemon juice, dry mustard, and salt/pepper in a bowl. Then you add in the crab and a bunch of bread crumbs, a little bit at a time so that it mixes in well. At this point in the process some naysaying emerged - my deft and dexterous mixing of the ingredients was mistaken for "smashing" by Sarah, who kept insisting that the crab cakes would end up like hockey pucks, would be hard and heavy, etc. She was being a bit... ... ...crabby.

Once the patties were formed I refrigerated them for like 20 or 30 minutes. Meanwhile Sarah made and toasted some bread crumbs, in which I dredged the crab patties before frying them to a golden brown. In the end they came out crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, really good stuff - even Sarah agreed!

To go with this, I made a remoulade sauce, which is basically what you call tartar sauce if you're too cool for tartar sauce. It's very Euro. Two parts mayo, one part mustard, some chopped anchovies and capers, and about ⅔ of a red pepper that I had roasted while I was doing all of this. The pepper gave it a nice sweetness that balanced well with the sourness and saltiness of the rest of the sauce.


garlic mashed potatoes and crab cakes with red pepper remolade

A pound of chunk crab meat costs $15, but the other ingredients are all negligible in terms of cost and this made enough for two people to have as a main course, provided that there is a good-sized side; (garlic mashed potatoes worked for us). You could also make numerous smaller patties and do some sort of hors d'oeuvre thing.

2 comments:

  1. Dude, when I think of how much you loved to watch "the Frug" as a little guy, I feel like we (you) dodged a bullet.
    Seriously, those crab cakes look great. I wish I'd been there to share (although maybe there wouldn't have been enough -- in which case, Jewish mother would have had to sacrifice her portion).

    ReplyDelete
  2. I admit I was wrong when I accused Nathan of over-mixing...

    I LOVED the Frugal Gourmet as well. Megan had a toy kitchen and she would be Julia Child and I would be the Frugal Gourmet. So disillusioning.

    ReplyDelete