Variation on a Crabcake

Do you have a signature recipe? One that you make over and over again and have fine tuned the ingredients and the methods until the result is nothing less than spectacular? Or are you in the middle of creating such a signature recipe?

I've been working for several months on creating the perfect crabcake and I've come pretty close to my ideal. The penultimate set of crabcakes I made were the most delicious thing I have ever tasted. I wasn't satisfied with just leaving it there, so I thought I'd keep trying new variatons on the crabcake recipe to see if perhaps something is better and my friend Jonas' mustard post gave me some inspiration!

With my developed crabcake recipe, I took out the lemon and added dijon mustard to the mix. The results were quite tasty. The dijon mustard gave it a bit of a tang and alongside the the mayo that I normally use, the crabcakes turned out deliciously moist inside. I also went slightly light on the breadcrumbs, which made the patties fall apart a little. I think I will continue to add dijon mustard to my crabcakes and be a bit braver with my breadcrumbs.

Ingredients:

1/4 diced small onion
1/4 diced cubanelle pepper
1/4 diced red pepper

2 14 oz. cans of lump crab meat
1 egg
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
chopped dill
salt
pepper
dry breadcrumbs to taste


Makes 6 crabcakes

One of the secrets of my method of making crabcakes (and omelets too actually) is sauteeing the vegetables in advance. To me there is nothing worse than eating something cooked and biting into raw veggies. Vegetables need some time to soften on their own and when you sautee in advance, they match the texture of the rest of the food much more evenly.




Sautee the onion, cubanelle pepper and red pepper in a bit of very light olive oil until the vegetables begin to soften. Set aside and cool. (Note that I ran out of cubanelle, so there are none in the pictures!)




In a bowl, add lump crab meat. For those of you who are crab snobs and are shocked that I use canned crab, I just get the really good stuff that is specifcally lump crab (not the gross shredded kind). If I were rich like you crab snobs, I'd get the fresh crab meat from the seafood market.

To the bowl, I then add egg, mayo, mustard, dill, salt and pepper. If you must, add Old Bay Seasoning. I don't think it's necessary and for my palate it weighs down the delicate balance of flavors in the crabcakes.



I mix all ingredients then slowly start to incorporate the breadcrumbs. I don't have a measurement for the breadcrumbs as I just add until the mixture is still moist but I can easily make crabcake patties with my hands.



If you are a newbie at crabcakes, fry up a small test patty before you make the whole batch of them. Watch if it holds together while frying and then taste it to see if you need more seasoning. You can adjust the mixture to your taste later.

I heat up some extra light olive oil, but you can use any light vegetable oil you want. I fry the crabcake patties, which I form with my hands, in batches of 3. Once they are brown and crispy on both sides, I move them to a papertowl where I salt them. You are going to want to salt them hot. This makes the crust of the crabcake even more delicious.



I serve the crabcakes with a light mixed salad. It's a nice balance of decadent and rich with fresh and light.

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Do you have a recipe that you have fine tuned to perfection or that you are current working on? I'd love to hear your thoughts!