.crab cakes.

I have to admit that I was never a big fan of crab cakes. I know! What's wrong with me? It's probably been in the last 3-4 years that I have actually grown to love them. I have even gotten over my fear of mustard... but only enough to use it in this recipe.

There is no wrong or right way to make a crab cake. There are a bazillion different variations out there. If you have a tried and true recipe, then stick with that one. This is one I have used quite a lot and we like it well enough. Serve with a lemon-dill cream sauce (not pictured).


Begin by making the bread crumbs. What I do is set 5 slices of bread on the counter. Let them sit out for at least 5 hours. It's better if you can let them sit overnight to dry out.

You can make these a couple of days in advance. Grate and put in a ziploc baggie.

If you have a food processor, break the bread apart and pulse away until they're "crumby". Otherwise, you have to do it the old fashioned way like I do and use a box grater.


In a blender, put 2 Tbsp parsley, 1 Tbsp red bell pepper, 1 Tbsp onion, 1/2 tsp Old Bay seasoning, salt and pepper, 3 egg yolks, 1 tsp Tabasco, and 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard.

Blend blend blend. With the blender still on, slowly drizzle in 1/4 cup olive oil.













Transfer the mixture from the blender to a bowl. Stir in 1/4 cup sour cream.











I like different layers of flavor and texture. I put 1 lb lump crab meat (blue crab is the best, but any will work well, except for king crab), a little chopped parsley, a little minced red bell pepper, and a little minced onion. Basically the same stuff I put in the blender, but this gives the crab cake some texture.







Dump in the aioli mixture and stir everything together.











Dump in 2 cups bread crumbs and mix everything together well.











I don't have a picture of me making the cakes because my hands were all gunked up. Not too difficult to figure out though. Just patty up some crab, then coat with the remaining bread crumbs. Put on a baking sheet.

Put these in the fridge and let firm up for at *least* 1 1/2 hours. It's better if you let them set up more than that though. They will be a little firmer before frying.



Melt 4 Tbsp butter in a skillet over medium high heat. Carefully place your crab cakes in the pan and fry for 4 minutes on each side.

Super blurry picture. Flip and cook on the other side.

What I did was fry them up and then put in a low temp oven on a plate while I fixed the rest of the meal.

If you're making these for your Valentine dinner, I highly suggest you do it like I did above. You'll want all of your meal ready and held in a warm oven. That way all you have to do is pull things up to plate as you need to.

I didn't get any pictures of the lemon-dill sauce. Here are the directions:

Lemon Dill Sauce

1 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup sour cream

2 tbsp capers, drained

1-2 tsp fresh dill, chopped

2 lemons, zested and juiced

Mix all of the ingredients together and put in the fridge to set. Can be made 1-2 days ahead of time.

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_137gsvd49gz