Crab Cakes

Crab Cakes

2 eggs
1.5 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne
1 tsp dried tarragon
2 tsp worcestershire sauce
2 tsp lemon juice
1 small onion
1 clove garlic
1/2 tbs butter
2 tbs fresh parsley, chopped finely
1 tbs fresh basil, chopped finely
1 green onion
1 small orange (or red) pepper
5 pieces white bread, ripped into little pieces
1 tbs mustard
1 tbs mayo
1 pound crab meat (or imitation
1C breadcrumbs
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Pepper

In about a half tablespoon of butter, sweat the onions with the garlic and some salt. Once they are translucent, take them off the heat. In a large bowl, mix two beaten eggs, the paprika, cayenne, dried tarragon, worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, basil, and parsley. Mix that together, then add everything else except the breadcrumbs.

Line a cookie sheet with wax paper, and roll out little balls of the crab mixture. roll it in breadcrumbs to coat it, and then put it on the sheet. I got 17 crab cakes out of it, but depending on size, you'll get a different number. Cover the crab cakes with another sheet of wax paper and chill for at least 1 hr.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes, just to make sure that the egg is cooked. I pressed on the cakes with a spatula near the end of that, just to compress them a little more. No idea if this was necessary. After about 10 minutes cooking, turn your oven to broil, and broil the crabcakes until they are brown on top. Flip them over, and broil the other side. We were planning on frying them after we had baked them for a bit, but got lazy. Plus, we didn’t think we had enough butter. Lame, I know. I bet they would be really good fried, but they were damn tasty broiled.

Improvements for next time: I would definitely break up the crab meat into smaller pieces, to keep things uniform. In my case, I used imitation crab, which did have some real crab in it, but was just lots cheaper. Tasted fine… I would probably also put some breadcrumbs into the crabcake mixture, just to hold it together better. These cakes were pretty crumbly once you started eating them, but were still nice and moist. Definitely would like to try making these again, but it did take a fair bit of prep time.