Crab cakes

as i am sitting here typing i'm not only eating a cup of a fresh raspberry yogurt :-) but watching the snow come down. i've been hearing blizzard for days, they weren't kidding. we are not far from the city, about 20 minutes on a good day, but boy do we get snow here. i love it:-) now all i need is a fire place or a wood burning stove.

so today e and i made crab cakes while the kids napped and he watched football. i started making these crab cakes about 4 years ago. i found the recipe, if you can believe it, on the fresh direct website. it's from the cookbook, the fearless frying cookbook, by john martin taylor. i will be honest with you, this is not usually a cookbook/recipe i would normally pick up or make something out of, mostly because it's about frying and i try not to fry things. during the years i have not only split the recipe in half but changed a couple things here and there.  now a days i am mostly just cooking for e and i, we don't need 20 crab cakes sitting around, because believe me, they will be eaten.

this recipe takes about a half an hour to make, about 10-15 minutes to prepare and about 10 minutes to cook all the crab cakes.

?  2 shallots minced

?  1/2 red bell pepper minced

?  2 garlic cloves minced

?  1 tbl sherry

?  half of a lemon, zest and juice

?  8 oz fresh crab meat

?  1 & a 1/2 tsp of a grainy mustard

?  1 large egg, separated

?  4 tbl butter

?  2 tbl finely chopped fresh herbs, i used dill and parsley

?  a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper

?  about 1 cup of panko crumbs, i ran out, today i used your basic bread crumbs.

melt butter in a skillet  and add the shallot and pepper. cook until the onion begins to become transparent, about 10 minutes then add the sherry. raise the heat and reduce until the sherry has evaporated.

in the meantime, sprinkle the lemon juice and zest over the crab meat in a bowl, add and fold in the mustard and the egg yolk. when shallot and pepper are cooked, fold into mixture as well, along with the fresh herbs. season with a pinch of salt and pepper.

in a small bowl, beat the egg white until stiff and fold into crab mixture. this makes the crab cake light.

now your ready to make your crab cakes. using your hands, gently press a big spoonful of the crab meat mixture into a patty about 1 inch thick. while in your hand, over a bowl with bread crumbs, gently pour bread crumbs over cake, one side at a time each, i switch from one hand to another to get both sides. do not mash or press the crumbs into the cake, you just want to dust the crumbs over, not mix it in.

in another skillet or same one, heat oil, you want about an inch. i used a mixture of olive oil and grapeseed oil. (grapeseed oil is a great oil to fry in because it does not burn.)  gently place crab cake in oil and cook for about 3 minutes on first side, gently flip over and cook for another 3 on the other side.

you can serve crab cakes so many different ways, tonight we had with creme fraiche mixed with lemon, dill, a little salt and pepper and a touch of horseradish sauce. if i wasn't stuck in a blizzard, i would of taken a drive to the local sushi place and served it over seaweed salad and made a wasabi dip.