Shannon's Birthday Dinner

[mr.coffee 364]

This one's gonna be good for all you coastal dwellers - you should have ready access to good fresh lump crab. If you can find Tony Chachere's seasoning, use it in place of the salt, pepper and cayenne.

Crab Cakes

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into bits

3/4 cup flour

2 cups milk

1 pound lump crabmeat

1/2 cup each minced red, green and yellow bell pepper

1/4 cup minced scallion

cayenne, salt & pepper to taste

3 cups breadcrumbs

In a saucepan, heat butter over moderately low heat until foam subsides, add flour and cook the roux, stirring, for 3 minutes. Add the milk in a stream, whisking vigorously, and bring the mixture to a boil. Add salt and pepper to taste and simmer the white sauce, stirring for 10 minutes. In a large bowl, combine well crabmeat, bell peppers, scallion, cayenne, salt and pepper to taste and the white sauce. Let mixture cool. Stir in 1 cup breadcrumbs, shape the mixture into cakes using 1/4 cup measure and dredge the cakes in the remaining 2 cups breadcrumbs, coating them thoroughly.

In a skillet heat oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and in it saute the crab cakes in batches, adding oil or clarified butter as necessary, for 5-6 minutes on each side, or until they are just golden. Transfer the them to paper towels to drain. Serve the crab cakes with tartar sauce. Garnish with lemon wedges.

Makes 20 crab cakes.

(I'm not sure if 20 is accurate, but I make my cakes a little bigger. We make our own tartar sauce with mayo, chopped pickle, finely minced onion, lemon juice and Tony's.)

-m

edit - A couple more pointers: I used half-&-half instead of milk. I added it slowly rather than pouring it in, and never did have a 'sauce' in the usual sense. It will stay pretty thick, and won't really boil. I used plain breadcrumbs in the mix, but seasoned crumbs to dredge. I find that saute is right, you don't want too much oil in your pan or they'll try to fall apart. Temperature is critical, do a few small ones at first until they come out right. Don't be afraid to be generous with the cayenne or Tony's, you want these cakes to have a little bit of kick. They shouldn't be spicy like Buffalo Wings, but they should have a definite zest like most Cajun, Creole and New Orleanian cooking.

further edit - We had leftovers. Uncooked leftovers, specifically. It kept pretty well overnight, and I noticed a big difference in consistency the second time around. I might suggest making them in the morning, or even the evening before, and letting the mixture set up in the fridge. Also, we'd used the last lemon for the first batch of tartar, so I substituted a small amount of horseradish looking to replace the missing 'Oomph' from the lemon. That worked fairly well, and I may add that to future batches.

Edited September 14, 2009 by mr.coffee

[kcsheperd 13]

WOW! Those sound like some good Cakes! DELISH!

[ShihtzuBeauty 47]

Sounds Yummy!!! I think you need to come ove and give my hubby some pointers. Happy Birthday Shannon!!!

[CrazyTzuLady 16]

YUMMO!!! Lucky lady you have there! Happy Birthday to Shannon! :tapfingers5rg:

[NickyPhyl 1]

Oh My, how good does that sound!! I can have you here in about a week and there will be 4 of us for dinner, OKay? LOL

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Shannon