One of the best things about living in Delaware is our extraordinary access to fresh seafood, and that includes blue crabs that come to us primarily from the nearby Chesapeake Bay and from the waterways on the lower Delmarva Peninsula. If it’s one of your favorite foods you’ve probably had all kinds of crab cakes over the years – some that use saltine cracker crumbs for filling; some from local restaurants that proudly proclaim “NO FILLING” and others that are either fried or broiled. Here’s a time-tested recipe from a friend that’s especially unique for its blend of flavorful ingredients and use of a muffin tin.
One great thing about this recipe is that you can prepare it hours or even a day before a dinner party and then just heat the crab cakes up for 30 minutes or so. This enables the flavors to blend and lets you greet your guests with a clean kitchen.
One important tip – this dish will be easier to prepare if you’ve got one other person helping you. Another tip – blending backfin and lump gives you more interesting flavors and helps the crabmeat cling to the other ingredients. Lump is especially delish but it doesn’t cling as easily. Also, lump is a lot more expensive but if you can splurge it’s worth it for this dish.
And if you’re feeling a little weird about that splurge, consider this: right now a pound of jumbo lump crabmeat goes for about $45 while a pound of backfin can be had for $30 so you’ll spend $75. Compare that to how many crabs you’d have to buy and pick to get this much crabmeat – at least two dozen, which will cost well over $100. That’s a lot of money and a lot of work.
This is so much easier . . .
INGREDIENTS – for 12 crab cakes
1 pound of jumbo lump crabmeat
1 pound of backfin crabmeat
2 eggs
½ cup Dijon mustard
½ cup heavy cream
1 cup Old Bay seasoning
2 cups Italian bread crumbs
Two cups of grated parmesan cheese, or perhaps a parmesan and asiago blend
1 cup fresh dill
1 red pepper cut into very small pieces
1 green pepper also cut into small pieces
1 onion cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon minced garlic
Olive oil
Half a stick of salted or unsalted butter
PREPARATION
Spray a 12-count muffin pan with Pam or some other oil
Sautee the garlic, onion and red and green peppers in a blend of olive oil and butter until softened . . . then let it cool for about 5 minutes
Add the Dijon mustard, heavy cream, about half a cup of Old Bay and 2 eggs and mix it all well
Blend the lump and backfin crabmeat with the fresh dill in a big bowl, being careful not to break up the lumps
In another big bowl, blend the Italian bread crumbs with ½ cup of Old Bay and the grated parmesan-asiago cheese
Put the bowls side by side next to the muffin tin. Pour the the garlic/onion/pepper/Dijon mix into the bowl with the crabmeat . . . then use your hands to make the crab and sauteed ingredients into single crab cakes.
Roll each crab cake in the bread crumbs/Old Bay/cheese mixture, then put them in the muffin tin. A pound of lump and a pound of backfin should make 12 cakes.
Half an hour or so before you’re ready to serve them, put the muffin tin in an oven preheated to 375 degrees. Cook for 25 minutes. Then finish under the broiler for a toasty browned coating.
The crab cakes should pop right out of the muffin tin. Serve with lemon wedges, tartar sauce, extra melted butter for your bad self and a nice big salad or something like leafy green kale to make you feel better about your bad self.
Then enjoy the crab cakes and the compliments.