Crab Cakes With a Spicy Remoulade Sauce

This dish is very simple to make with many ingredients (besides the crab) that you will have on hand. An elegant, but tasty entree and with the addition of a sauce makes it quite special. I have 2 sauces I like; one has only 3 ingredients and gets its heat from the Thai chili sauce. The other one has a lot of great flavor with 8 ingredients and is my favorite.

Crab Cakes

Difficulty: easy
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1 tbsp. olive oil, or less
1 onion, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
1 green or red pepper, seeded and finely chopped (half if the pepper is large)
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced (I wear gloves because of the heat)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup Hellmann’s mayonnaise
2 tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 tbsp. Old Bay Seasoning (this adds such good flavor)
1 egg, beaten
1 lb. lump crabmeat, picked over (rather expensive but worth it for a special dinner)
1 cup plain dried breadcrumbs

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly spray a baking sheet with a cooking spray.

Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet and saute the onion, celery, pepper and jalapeno for about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another minute or two. Remove from the heat and cool.

Combine the mayonnaise, parsley, mustard, Old Bay seasoning and egg. Add the crabmeat, the cooked veggies, half of the breadcrumbs and mix just until combined; form into 8 cakes. Place the rest of the breadcrumbs in a shallow dish and dredge the cakes in them. Arrange the cakes on the prepared baking sheet and spray with cooking oil.

Bake about 10 minutes; turn the cakes and spray again with oil. Bake until the crab cakes become crisp and are nicely browned another 10 minutes.

Comment: You can pan fry these cakes but I prefer to bake them when there is this many – it’s a lot easier. I do not recommend using cans of crab meat – the patties did not hold together and the lump crab I can buy at Whole Foods is worth the price!

Remoulade Sauce: