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Crab Cakes: Crab Cakes with Jalapeño Remoulade

Source of Recipe

From "Real Cajun" by Donald Link


Recipe Introduction

"I have a list of things that I almost never order in a restaurant, and crab cakes head the list. Too often they are made with low-quality crab meat and taste more like wet bread than crab. For those craving the real deal, look no further: This recipe creates entirely different crab cakes. They are both rich and zippy, thanks to the chile, scallions, mustard, and dashes of hot sauce and lemon juice. The Jalapeño Remoulade truly sends them over the edge. The most important thing to remember when making crab cakes is to not overwork the mixture. The cakes should be loose, just barely holding together. Chilling them before they are cooked helps firm up and hold them together without too much binder (bread crumbs). Dungeness and Peeky Toe crab can be used in this recipe, but my favorite is blue crab from the Gulf. I have actually gone to the trouble of cooking lie crabs and picking them myself, but trust me - if you can buy good lump crab, that's the easier way to go. Even for a pretty accomplished crab picker like me, it takes a while to get enough for these cakes - maybe because I always eat half of it before it ever gets into the bowl."

List of Ingredients

◦  1 pound best-quality lump crab meat (not pasteurized)
◦  1 tablespoon butter
◦  ½ small onion, finely chopped
◦  ½ poblano chile, stemmed, seeded, and finely chopped
◦  1 clove garlic, minced
◦  1 teaspoon salt
◦  ¼ teaspoon pure chile powder (like ancho, New Mexico, or chipotle)
◦  ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
◦  ¼ teaspoon cayenne
◦  1 egg, lightly beaten
◦  ¼ cup mayonnaise
◦  1 teaspoon Creole (or whole-grain) mustard
◦  Several dashes of Louisiana hot sauce
◦  1 scallion (white and green parts), finely chopped
◦  2 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley
◦  Juice of ½ lemon
◦  ¾ cup fresh bread crumbs
◦  2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more as needed
◦  Jalapeño Remoulade



Recipe

Place the crab meat in a large mixing bowl and carefully pick through for shells (see Note), then set aside.

Melt the butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, poblano, garlic, salt, chile powder, black pepper, and cayenne and cook, stirring, until the vegetables are softened but not brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer the vegetable mixture to a mixing bowl and set aside to cool for about 15 minutes.

Add the crab, the egg, mayonnaise, mustard, hot sauce, scallion, parsley, lemon juice, and ¼ cup of the bread crumbs to the vegetable mixture. Using your hands, gently combine the ingredients.

Using a 1-cup measuring cup, form the mixture into cakes, packing gently; they should look like hockey pucks, about 2 inches thick with straight sides. Cover the cakes and chill for 20 to 30 minutes, or overnight.

When you are ready to cook the crab cakes, place the remaining ½ cup bread crumbs in a pie tin. Dredge both sides of each cake in the crumbs, shaking off the excess. Heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot but not smoking, fry the crab cakes for 4 to 5 minutes on each side, until golden brown. Do not overcrowd the pan — fry in batches if necessary, adding more oil if needed. Serve immediately, with Jalapeño Remoulade.


Serves 4


Jalapeño Remoulade:

For the best results, make this spicy condiment a few hours in advance and then cover and refrigerate, so the flavors have time to develop.

◦  1 small jalapeño pepper, stemmed, seeded, and finely chopped
◦  1 bunch scallions (white parts only), thinly sliced
◦  1 cup mayonnaise
◦  ½ teaspoon salt
◦  ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
◦  ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
◦  2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
◦  Juice of 1 lime

Whisk together all the ingredients in a mixing bowl; cover and refrigerate until needed.


Makes about 1¼ cups



Note:
When picking over lump crab meat for bits of shell or cartilage, take your time and try to keep the crab in big chunks. It will break down a bit when you combine the meat with the other ingredients, so the less handling early on, the better. One time at Herbsaint we had 10 pounds of some of the most beautiful white crab meat I'd ever seen. Without consulting anyone, one of the prep cooks decided to pick through it, and he tore it to shreds. It looked as if someone had put the crab through a food processor and then ran it over with a car. Of course, then I had to kill him.