A Tale of Christmas Dinner Past – Crab Cake Recipe
I generally love to serve some manner of seafood for Christmas dinner. It’s been a long standing tradition. This crab cake recipe is a perfect example. It’s easy to make yet very delicious. If you want, you can even make them into tiny cakes and use them as appetizers for any special occasion.
I wanted to have a relaxing Christmas day with the hubby. We didn’t have any social obligations so it was just going to be a day for the two of us to enjoy each other’s company. Despite being “retired” we don’t have many days where we just sit and relax; there is just too much to be done around the farm. But on Christmas day we got up, dealt with the animals – there is no vacation from that! – and then we did nothing else but opened our presents and relaxed. It was heavenly.
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I knew I wanted something special for dinner but not complicated to cook. When I want a dinner to shine in the land of the cow I always turn to seafood and thanks to my friends at Anderson Seafoods I know I always have the best on hand. For this holiday meal I chose their jumbo lump crab meat. I haven’t had crab in a dog’s age so I was really looking forward to the treat. We both love crab cakes and when I look to a crab cake recipe I want the crab to shine.
And it was beautiful when I opened the can. Big pieces of sweet crab meat. There wasn’t a single piece of cartilage or shell to be found – it was all crab. I wasn’t going to do anything to hide the taste of that beautiful crustacean. Just a little something to help bind it together and to enhance the sweet flavor.
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Crab Cake Recipe
Serves 2 – 3
1 pound of jumbo lump crab meat
2 TBS mayonnaise
1 TBS Dijon mustard
zest of one lemon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
pinch of cayenne
1 cup panko breadcrumbs, divided
1 TBS canola oil
Gently mix the crab meat, mayonnaise, mustard, lemon zest, salt pepper, cayenne and 1/4 cup of panko in a bowl. You don’t want to break up the lumps too much.
Take the rest of the panko and put it on a plate.
Form the crab mixture into 6 patties.
Heat a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat. Add the canola oil.
Press the crab patties into the panko bread crumbs on each side.
Carefully add the crab cakes to the hot oil and cook on each side for about 4 minutes until crispy and heated through.
Serve with your choice of sauces. I made a simple tartar sauce (mayonnaise and relish with a dash of Worcestershire sauce) and used a wasabi sake mustard I had given the hubby for Christmas. He loves all different kinds of mustards so I knew he would like this with his crab cakes.
I did get a little dressed up in how I served dinner. Instead of just putting the food on the dinner plates as I usually do I used my fish serving dish so I thought it was most appropriate. Since it was Christmas I thought I’d set a happy table.
How Was the Crab Cake Recipe?
The crab cakes were really delicious – the crab meat was sweet and the lemon zest brought out their delicate flavor. The cayenne added just the slightest hint of heat. They didn’t need to be really large because they were all meat. I was satisfied with one and the hubby had two. They reheated well for the next night.
For dessert I made Ice Cream Napoleons.
