Tasty Crab Cakes and Mayo with a Zing

As a Williams-Sonoma shopper, I receive their lovely catalogs. For a while, I waited to try a recipe printed in one of their most recent mailings -- Crab Cake Salad. I wasn't so interested in the salad as I was the crab cakes. I had a couple of cans of crab in my cabinet for a while, so it was time to put them to good use.

Typically, I make some sort of change to a recipe, and this one was no exception. Instead of breadcrumbs, I used the crumbs left from a bag of corn chips (Santitas, if you must know) mixed with some salt and pepper matzo I'd crushed with a rolling pin.



Additionally, the recipe calls for 1 lb of fresh crab meat, but I just had 2 6-oz. cans, so I ended up with 14 small patties, rather than 8 large patties. The frying is supposed to take place with butter and olive oil, but I used butter and grapeseed oil instead. The recipe also says to use only the white part of 4 green onions, but I found this to be incredibly wasteful, so I used 2 entire green onions instead.

They tasted delicious. I froze a few for a visit from Mom and Dave this coming Sunday. They'll make a good appetizer for a large luncheon I have planned.

The dressing isn't so much a dressing as it is a nice dipping sauce, or rather, a pretty spicy mayo. It works really well with the crab cakes. They are best served as part of a larger salad. I placed mine on some fresh baby organic spinach, and that was just lovely.

Here's the recipe along with some photos to show you how I made it.

Crab Cakes and Zingy Mayo (adapted from Williams-Sonoma's summer catalog)

Ingredients:

Crab Cakes

2 cans (6 oz. each) of crab meat drained well
1 egg lightly beaten
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1/4 cup crushed corn chips
1/4 cup crushed salt and pepper matzo (regular will do, but you'll need to season more later)
2 green onions thinly sliced
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more if you like things very zippy, but the mayo's zippy, so keep that in mind)

Zippy Mayo
1 cup mayonnaise
the juice of half a large lemon
1 teaspoon mustard powder (I used this in place of the 2 teaspoons of dijon mustard)
salt, pepper and cayenne to taste (I used about 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne)

Directions:

1. Mix together the crab meat, egg and mayonnaise until well combined.



2. Add the crumbs, green onions and seasoning until well combined.

3. Form 2-in patties and place on a dish or in a container that can be closely covered. Refrigerate the patties for at least 2 hours.



4. Make the mayo by whisking the mayo, lemon juice, mustard and seasoning together until smooth and well blended. Refrigerate until ready to use.



5. Heat butter and oil in a skillet until the butter browns slightly. Add the patties and cook approximately 4 minutes per side, until they are golden brown and crispy.





6. Drain on paper towels before serving on a bed of your favorite fresh greens. Serve with a small dish of the zippy mayo on the side.



Enjoy!