desideratumthe microblog of keith chu

I have never made crab cakes before. This culinary experiment was borne out of me raiding my cupboards, finding canned lump crab meat, and being too stubborn to go to Safeway to buy groceries.

I started with a crab cake recipe from Simply Recipes, but I needed to make some adjustments as I was short a few ingredients:

• No fresh crab meat. I used my canned Miller’s Select lump crab meat instead.
• No unsalted butter. It had to be salted.
• No tartar sauce. I had to make my own tartar sauce. I used this recipe from How to Do Things, but omitted the lemon juice (I had none) and used regular sweet relish for hot dogs.
• No breadcrumbs. I crumbled up some crispbread crackers in my hand instead.

The recipe is below. The crab cakes turned out surprisingly well for being largely improvised. I served them with some rice and a dollop of ketchup. Will make again.

Crab Cakes Recipe (makes 6)

• 6.5oz (1 can) Miller’s Select Lump Crab Meat
• 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) salted butter
• 1/2 small onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon of paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 Tbsp prepared tartar sauce
  • or: mix 2/3 cup mayo, 1 tbsp thinly chopped onion, 4 tbsp sweet relish in a bowl
• 2 slices wheat bread, crust removed, torn into small pieces
• 6 Tbsp breadcrumbs
  • or: if you have crackers, crumble them up into dust until you have about 6 tbsp of it

METHOD

1. Drain the canned crab meat. Prepare a bowl of ice water and dump the crab meat in there, letting it soak for about 10-15 minutes. Afterward, drain the crab meat. This gets rid of the canned flavor.
   
   
2. Cook the onion and a 1/2 tsp of salt in 1 Tbsp of butter in a small skillet, over medium high heat, until the onion is softened. Let it cool. Don’t let the butter burn.
   
   
3. Whisk together: 2 eggs, 1 1/2 tsp of Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp pepper, 2 Tbsp of tartar sauce, and the butter-sauteed onions from the pan. Don’t whisk it too much; just until the mixture’s roughly uniform. Gently fold in the crabmeat and torn bread. Note that the mixture will (a) be very wet, and (b) be almost completely soaked up by the crabmeat and bread. That’s fine. Gently form the mixture into six cakes, each about 3 1/2 inches across and 3/4 inches thick.
   • If you have wax paper - Line a tray with a piece of wax paper just large enough to hold the cakes and sprinkle it with half of the bread crumbs. Set the crab cakes in one layer on the top of the paper and sprinkle with the remaining bread crumbs. Cover the crab cakes loosely with another sheet of wax paper and chill for one hour in the fridge.
   • If you don’t have wax paper - take two plates and sprinkle half of the bread crumbs on the bottom. Arrange 3 of the crab cakes on each plate, and sprinkle the remaining bread crumbs over the tops of the crab cakes. Cover the crab cakes loosely with a paper towel and chill for one hour in the fridge.
   
   
4. Melt the remaning 3 Tbsp of butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat until the foam mostly subsides. Cook the crab cakes until golden brown, about 3-4 minutes on each side.