Crab Cakes!

I LOVE crab cakes! I've had several "crab cakes" before but I definitely never had a real one until we moved to MD. I've had some that are better than others but I haven't had a bad one yet :-) I was talking to my manager about them a few days ago & she said what makes MD crab cakes better than all the others is Old Bay & blue crab. I'll have to agree with that! There's also an enormous amount of crab in them. The crab cakes I've had before I moved up here had way too much bread in them. I said when we first moved up here that I would learn how to make crab cakes before we left. Josh and I had an at home date night last night & we decided to make crab cakes. They were AMAZING! I got the recipe that I used last night from a local cook book I found in the library. It had tons of regional recipes that I want to try. I made a few little tweaks...we used lump crab meat instead of backfin. We got the crab meat at Costco & they only had lump or jumbo lump. We didn't feel like going to another store just to get backfin. We used bread crumbs instead of saltines (a lot of crab cakes use bread crumbs). We didn't have any dry mustard so we used a combo of honey mustard & spicy mustard. YUM!

Gertie's Crab Cakes

Ingredients:

1 egg

2 T Mayonnaise

1 t Old Bay

1 t dry mustard

1/2 t pepper

Dash of Tobasco

2 t Worcestershire

1/3 saltine crumbs

1 lb backfin crab meat

Directions:

Step 1: mix egg, mayo, Old Bay, mustard, pepper, tobasco & worcestershire until frothy

Step 2: Place crab in a bowl & sprinkle with crumbs. Pour on egg mixture & fold together

Step 3: Form crab cakes with ice cream scoop. Don't pack too much. They should be as loose as possible while still holding shape

Step 4: Place on wax paper & refrigerate 1 hour before cooking

Step 5: broil for 4-5 mins one each side.

They can also be fried or sauted in clarified butter. I like them broiled but I think we may try them fried next time. I didn't pack them quite tight enough. I had to re-form some of them after turning them over.

I served them with a baked potato, squash & a yeast roll. We had 5 crab cakes (we froze 4 extra before we cooked them for another night). We each had 2 & I used the extra one as part of the filling for the baked potatoes. They had crab, bacon, sour cream & cheese. Best baked potato ever!

We had this with some yummy wine then we watched a movie. The movie was only mediocre but it was a great at home date night. It was just one of those nights we just felt like hanging around at home. I feel like I'm getting old sometimes now because we used to be on the go all the time. Now I really cherish those lazy nights at home together :-)