Crab Cakes

One of the wonderful things about living on the west coast of Canada is the abundance of seafood that we have here, and the abundance of wonderful people that are more than happy to share their freshly caught seafood with us :o)

Dean came home from work yesterday with a bag full of freshly caught and cooked crabs that a customer had very kindly given to him.  Now, I've seen crab alive in the ocean, I've seen them alive in tanks, I've eaten it in restaurants already shelled and prepared in scrumptious dishes, but in all my 42 years I've never 'cracked' a whole crab to get the meat out.  Google and my very helpful and knowledgeable friend and neighbour Alana to the rescue - Alana more so than Google because she also gave me this delicious crab cake recipe to try!!! (I was debating whether to do a photo montage of the shelling of the crab to begin with but quite honestly it was such a messy procedure that there was no way I was getting my hands anywhere near my camera at the time - just go to YouTube and you'll find plenty of videos to help you.)

Crab Cakes
8-10 depending on size

7 oz  fresh (or frozen) crabmeat
1/4 cup sweet red bell pepper, finely diced
1/4 cup sweet green bell pepper, finely diced
1/4 cup green onions, chopped
1/4 cup seafood dressing (either homemade or any brand you prefer) + more for dipping
1 egg, beaten
1 1/4 cup dry bread crumbs, divided
2 Tbsp vegetable oil

• line a rimmed baking sheet with wax paper and set aside.
• in a large bowl combine the crabmeat, peppers, onion, seafood dressing, egg and 1/4 cup of the breadcrumbs; mix gently so as not to break up the crabmeat too much.
• put the remaining 1 cup of breadcrumbs into a shallow dish.
• press small handfuls of the mixture into balls (about the size of a golf ball) and gently roll around in the breadcrumbs to coat all over.
• place the balls onto the prepared baking sheet and gently press down to make patties.
• refrigerate the crab cakes on the baking sheet for about an hour to allow them to firm up slightly before frying.
• once you're ready to cook them, heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium to high heat and fry the crab cakes for a couple of minutes each side until golden brown.

 before....

 ....after :o)

the remaining Crab Cake ingredients.

mix everything except a cup of breadcrumbs and the vegetable oil in a large bowl.

try not to break up the wonderful chunks of crab too much though.

form the mixture into balls...

...and roll around in the breadcrumbs to coat.

flatten them on the prepared baking sheet to make patties.

I forgot to take a photo of them frying, but they'll come out golden brown after a couple of minutes each side.

we just had ours with a simple salad and some more of the dressing.