Crab Cakes

No – I haven’t started eating shellfish, but “Alaska Pollock from the North Pacific, often mixed with egg white or other binding ingredient, such as the enzyme transglutaminase Cake” just doesn’t have the same appeal.

I got it in my head that I wanted to make crab cakes, and crab cakes I made. I know there’s a recipe in the Chef’s Confidential cookbook, but I was limited in time, and I was told it’s not the simplest recipe. So I turned to google, and found this recipe from OU.org. It’s pretty simple – throw a bunch of stuff together, whisk ’em all up, form some patties, chill them in the fridge, and fry them up, can’t be too hard

I combined, mayo, old bay, worcestershire, lemon juice, mustard, red onion, and parsley in a bowl, and whisked them all together.

Then I added, the mock crab

and breadcrumbs

formed them into patties, and let it all set in the fridge.

Now for all of those who don’t know, the way I usually am with these here blogs, is that I’ll make something, take some pictures, save it to my computer, and whenever I have free time, I go back to the pictures, and try and remember what I made, where it was from, and whether or not I actually stuck to that recipe.This time was no different, I was able to find the website, that I had taken the recipe from, and I was going over exactly what I did, and I realized I made a mistake. Now I know this might come as a shock to a lot of you out there…I’m sorry to disappoint you.

The crab cakes came out pretty good, but when I made them, they had no structure to them, then kept on falling apart, and I attributed that to the fact that this recipe didn’t call for any eggs, like the one in the Chef’s Confidential does. Like I said, they tasted pretty good, and I was able to somewhat form a patty, but it just wasn’t holding right.

When I went back to look at the recipe – I realized, I screwed up, because the recipe did in fact call for an egg, and I just missed it. In my defense, when I was reading the directions, the website forgot to say “eggs” when it was saying mix everything up. But I should have figured it needed some binding agent.

Either way – after letting them firm up for an hour, I took them out and fried them in a little bit of oil, and that’s it.

I could’ve fried a shoe, and it would have been good, am I right? I mean am I right?

I served these with the mango relish that is in the chef’s confidential cookbook – sans pictures however.

I combined – ½ cup of diced mango, ½ red pepper diced, ½ cup of peeled cucumber diced, ½ small jalpeno seeded and diced, 1 lime juiced, and 1 tsp toasted sesame oil, and let the whole thing sit in the fridge for all the flavors to blend together.

So the whole thing wasn’t a ravaging success like everyone expected it to be, however, it was pretty good, and gastronomical.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb imitation crab meat
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 1 egg (you might not want to forget this)
• 3 tablespoon mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon Old Bay
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons mustard
• 1/2 red onion chopped
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil

For the Relish –

• ½ C diced mango
• ½ red pepper diced
• ½ C peeled cucumber diced
• ½ small jalpeno, seeded, and diced
• 1 lime juiced
• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil

Directions:

1. In a bowl combine the mayonnaise, eggs, Old Bay, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, mustard, red onion, and parsley. Mix well and then add imitation crab to mixture and gently mix. Blend in bread crumbs.
2. Shape into patties and cover and refrigerate for an hour.
3. Saute the patties in oil.
4. Combine ingredients for the relish, and let it come together in the fridge.