Brigit Binns' Crab Cakes
Serve with a simple squeeze of lemon. Save the chipotle aioli for something more exotic and just let the crab do its thing.
First, begin by finely chopping your celery.
Onion.
And, pimiento.
Add the celery and onion, cover, and cook very gently until tender. Then, add the cream.
Raise the heat to medium and simmer, stirring frequently to prevent the mixture from boiling over.
Let the cream reduce until it's sweet and thick.
Then, mix in some Dijon mustard, the chopped pimentos, and a pound of lump crabmeat.
And don't forget the egg.
Mix it up nicely.
Once it's all mixed up, dust the outside of your golf ball-sized crab cakes.
Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, preferably 2 hours, or up to 3 hours.
Now that the crab cakes have chilled, it's time to heat up some butter and oil in a large frying pan.
Gently slide half of the crab cakes onto the pan and watch as the thin crumb coating browns into a crisp jacket.
Flip them and brown them 4-5 minutes longer.
Edit Recipe Add Photos
Genius Recipes says: This recipe is a perfect showcase for your finest, in-season crab (Merrill likes peekytoe). And sure, you can roast your own red peppers if you like. But we made these with some good quality canned crab and jarred pimientos, and they still turned out to be fresh little bites of summer -- great news for people far from crabs, or crab season. Recipe adapted slightly from Williams-Sonoma Hors d'Oeuvre (Free Press, 2001).
Makes 12-14 warm bites
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 celery stalks, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped yellow onion
- 1 tablespoon water, if needed
- 1 cup (8 fl oz/250 ml) heavy (double) cream
- 1 1/2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 1/2 tablespoon finely chopped jarred pimiento (sweet pepper)
- Salt and freshly ground white pepper
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 1 pound (500 g) lump crabmeat
- 1 1/4 cup (5 oz/155 g) fine dried bread crumbs
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1/2 lemon, cut in wedges, for serving
- In a small saute pan over low heat, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter. Add the celery and onion, cover, and cook very gently until tender, about 10 minutes. Add the water if the vegetables begin to brown. Add the cream, raise the heat to medium, and simmer, stirring frequently to prevent the mixture from boiling over, until reduced and quite thick, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, pour into a heatproof bowl, and let cool.
- Add the mustard, pimiento, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon white pepper to the cooled cream mixture and mix well. Whisk in the egg, then add the crabmeat, breaking it up a little but leaving some small lumps intact. Toss gently until evenly mixed.
- Pour the bread crumbs onto a plate, spreading them in an even layer. Scoop up a golf ball-sized portion of the crab mixture and gently squeeze out any excess liquid. Shape into a small patty. The mixture will be quite wet and loose. Place the crab cake on the crumbs, then scoop more crumbs over the top. Using a spatula, carefully turn the cake over onto your palm, letting the excess crumbs fall back onto the plate. Turn the cake back over onto the spatula and slide it gently onto a platter. Repeat to make the remaining crab cakes, 12-14 in all. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, preferably 2 hours, or up to 3 hours.
- In a large frying pan over medium-low heat, melt 1 tablespoon of the remaining butter with 1 tablespoon of the oil. When the foam subsides, gently slide half of the crab cakes into the pan. Cook the first sides until golden brown, 5-6 minutes. Turn and brown on the second sides, 4-5 minutes longer. Keep the first batch of cakes warm in a low oven. Wipe out the pan with a paper towel and repeat to make the second batch of crab cakes. Serve with lemon wedges.
- This recipe is a Community Pick!
6 months ago Cathy Bertanzetti
These were delicious. I am gluten free, I substituted crushed chips instead.
7 months ago TheGourmetExperiment
Great recipe, thanks for sharing!
Lizziebeth,
The shrimp mousse binder recipe was on Cooks Illustrated. I found it the other day.
7 months ago biscuit
The recipe you are thinking of was from a James Beard cookbook. I may still have it somewhere...
8 months ago mojo
LuckyM
My friend Marge, who is from Baltimore has given us the simplest and very best Crab cake recipe ever.
To each pound of lump crabmeat, add 1/2 of an individual pack of Sunshine original Premium Cracker crumbled as fine as you can do it by hand. Add Hellman's mayonnaise, French's mustard and Old Bay Seasoning to taste(and an egg lightly beaten if you wish). The mixture should be THICK enough to make crab cakes without anything else added. You can saute these or broil them till medium brown. If too loose add more cracker crumbs before cooking. They also make terrific sliders!
8 months ago slewis2306
I'll use panko crumbs for the coating. They're lighter than standard breadcrumbs, don't require as much to coat the little crab cakes, don't absorb as much oil, and still provide a crisper coating.
8 months ago Choirbell
This sounds awesome! I'm going to try this recipe and also try using some canned smoked salmon that I had made from some salmon that I caught. Thank you for this recipe that doesn't use a lot of bread crumbs since I'm a diabetic! Thanks!!!!
8 months ago lizziebeth
... had crabcakes that used shrimp mousse as binder so it was gluten free - that would be a great recipe to find