Crab Cakes

Most crab cakes have fillers: potatoes, bread crumbs, peppers and or onions, mayonaise - take your pick.** The dungeness crab cakes Ed and I had recently (February 2009) at the Center Cafe* in Moab, UT seemed to be pure crab...well crab plus something to hold the crab together. They were spectacular!

Soon after we returned home, I found dungeness crab on special at Costco and that was enough to inspire me to experiment. After perusing several crab cake recipes, I decided to use egg and a bit of flour as the "binder". Here is the resulting recipe which Ed and I decided comes pretty close to Center Cafe's. The mustard addition is mine; Center Cafe served their crab cakes with tomato coulis and creme fraiche. While the Costo crab (canned and refrigerated) is okay,  I have since decided I much prefer to use fresh crab, either Dungeness or King Crab.

Makes 4 medium size crab cakes - Serves 2 as an entree; 4 as an appetizer.

Pick the meat from:

One dungeness crab (about 2.5 pounds; this should yield a little over half a pound of meat) or ~ 1 1/4 King Crab legs/claws. Alternatively you can buy 8 oz of lump crab.

Mix with:

1 egg, well beaten
1 T flour
1 t Ducktrap River Mustard Dill Sauce (optional)

Shape into 4 cakes, putting cakes on a plate/pan that has been covered with wax paper.

Refrigerate up to several hours. Just before cooking, place crab cakes in the freezer for 5-10 minutes so they become firmer and easier to handle without falling apart. Dip each crab cake in:

Flour

to lightly coat each side. Meanwhile heat

2 T olive oil

in a skillet large enough to hold all four cakes. Place the crab cakes in the hot oil and cook 2-3 minutes on each side until the crab is heated through and the surface is browned (if raw crab is used, the cooking time will need to be increased so that the crab is cooked through, 4-5 minutes per side depending on thickness of the cakes).


Serve with:

Lemon wedges
Mustard Dill Sauce

*2010 CENTER CAFE no longer has menu we have enjoyed - serving "gourmet" pizza and salads; 2011 Closed :-(

December 2013:  I was making crab cakes the other night and about to fry then in oil on the stove, when Ed suggested "we keep the galley clean and cook them on the grill like the scallops".  He heated the griddle, added a thin coating of olive oil and when the oil was hot placed the crab cakes on the griddle.  He cooked the crab cakes about 3 minutes on a side until just heated through.  (Photo at left: cooked on grill, very hot griddle placed on stove for serving) Great suggestion!


** July 2017: In fact some are not even made with real crab but with imitation crab, some brands of this product better than others.  Buyer beware!

Reviewed 7/9/2017