Hopefully you can splurge now and then on some special food, whatever that is for your family. And then if there are leftovers you certainly don’t want to waste them! For us, or at least for me, it’s fresh crab, which is in season right now. It’s our traditional New Year’s Eve dinner and such a treat!
The whole Dungeness crabs were buy one get one free, which is a great deal! But my eldest got sick and my youngest was off to a party and there was no way I was going to eat two crabs by myself! I enjoyed the one with some cocktail sauce (homemade) mixed with some mayonnaise on New Year’s Eve, then picked the meat out of the extra one yesterday. Today I made crab cakes for dinner, making 4 good size crab cakes from 1 crab, less than 1/2 pound. Mix this together about 45 minutes before you want to eat, then refrigerate half an hour before shaping and frying. Mix up the cocktail sauce or tartar sauce while you’re waiting.
Crab Cakes
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound lump crab meat about one small crab’s worth
- 1 egg
- 1/8 cup minced red bell pepper optional, my kids would like it better without
- 1/4 cup minced green onions
- 2 Tbs mayonnaise
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
- 2 Tbs vegetable oil
- 2 Tbs butter
- 1/2 cup flour for dredging
- lemon wedges at serving
Instructions
- Mix the crabmeat, egg, bell pepper if using, green onions, mayonnaise, mustard, salt, pepper and bread crumbs. You need enough bread crumbs to hold the mixture together but you want the crab cake to be mostly crab so start with a tablespoon at a time and mix it together, adding a spoonful now and then and stop as soon as it holds itself together. Refrigerate 30 minutes or so.
- Put the flour in a small shallow plate or dish and season with salt and pepper as you’d like. Some folks add curry powder. I did not.
- Heat a large skillet and add the butter and oil, swirling the pan around until well coated after the butter melts.
- Shape the mixture into 4 crab cakes, one at a time, dredging in flour and then adding to the pan. Cook about 4-5 minutes, turn, and then cook the other side another 4-5 minutes or so.
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