Maryland Crab Cakes

Thanks to our Sitka Salmon Shares, in our freezer, we had four Dungeness Crab halves and half of a snow crab and I had been wanting to make crab cakes.  When we invited our friends Laurie and David over for happy hour, we thought they would make a nice light meal along with some salad, steamed asparagus, and desserts that they brought.  I started thawing the crab the previous day and that morning I assembled my picking station and went to work.

It took me about an hour and a half to get 25 ounces of delicious sweet crab meat and while the two varieties were a little different, they were both very good.  I now understand why crabmeat is so costly.

My crab cake recipe came from the Once Upon A Chef blog and it called for 10oz of crab so the one below is scaled up to match my 25oz.  You can click on the above link for Jenn’s original recipe and several good how-to pics.

Maryland Crab Cakes – Adapted from Once Upon A Chef

Ingredients:

3 large eggs

1½ tablespoons mayonnaise, best quality such as Hellman's or Duke's

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1½ teaspoon Old Bay seasoning

¼ teaspoon salt

1/3 cup finely diced celery, from one stalk (I didn’t have any)

2½ tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley

25 oz dungeness & snow crab meat, picked over for shells

1¼ cup panko

Vegetable or canola oil, for cooking

Directions:

1. Line a baking sheet with waxed paper.

2. Combine the eggs, mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire, Old Bay, salt, celery, and parsley in a large bowl and mix well.

3. Add the crab meat and panko; gently fold mixture together until just combined, being careful not to shred the crab meat.

4. Shape into crab cakes and place on prepared baking sheet. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. (The engineer in me says they have to be the same size and shape so I held a biscuit cutter in my hand and filled it with the mixture).

5. Preheat a large nonstick pan to medium heat and coat with canola oil. When oil is hot, place crab cakes in pan and cook until golden brown, about 3-5 minutes per side. Serve immediately. 

I made some remoulade using our go-to recipe from Cathy on her Wives With Knives blog.

Seafood Remoulade

Ingredients:

1¼ cup mayonnaise

¼ cup Heinz cocktail sauce

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

1 tbsp prepared horseradish

¼ cup celery, finely chopped

2 tbsp dill pickle, finely chopped

1 tbsp capers, finely chopped

2 green onions, minced

1 tsp fresh tarragon (1/3 tsp dried)

1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

1 tsp salt

½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 dash cayenne pepper

Instructions:

Mix all ingredients together and refrigerate at least one hour.

This is Dave's plate.

The Verdict:

The food was all very good and I loved the fresh picked crab in the cakes – it would have been nice to have some processed crab for a taste test.  The fresh-from-the-garden asparagus and salad greens were also delicious.  While we had delivered things to Laurie and David’s home a couple of times we hadn’t all visited since before the pandemic and it was nice to catch up and our buddy Joe and SIL, Pat were here as well.

After our most recent Sitka Salmon Shares delivery that only contained 3 small fish fillets and 1/2 snow crab for $129, we have cancelled our participation - I one thing I will miss is the Sablefish (Butterfish).

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

5/14/21 event dates