The Cheesecake Factory Mini Crabcakes
Source of Recipe
Todd Wilbur
Recipe Introduction
The secret to great crab cakes starts with great crab. Freshly cooked blue crab is the best choice for this clone, but you can occasionally find high quality canned backfin blue crab in some stores. One such brand comes in 16-ounce cans from Phillips Seafood and is sold at Costco, Sam's Club, Wal Mart and Von's stores. Once you've got good crab you need to pick up some panko. Panko is Japanese style breads crumbs that can be found near the other Asian foods in your market, and The Factory uses a little bit to bread each of these small crab cakes. It makes for a great, lightly crunchy texture. One order of this appetizer at the restaurant gets you 3 crab cakes; this recipe makes 6 cakes from 1/2-pound of crab. If you have a 1-pound can of crabmeat, you can save the leftover 1/2-pound for another recipe or double-up on this one. Any surplus crab cakes will keep for 24 hours in the fridge before you need to get them in a pan. Oh, and one other thing to remember when making crab cakes is to be gentle. Don't stir the crab too much into the other ingredients. Rather, fold the mixture gently with a spatula to combine everything. You want the big chunks of tasty crab to stay together as big chunks of tasty crab.
List of Ingredients
1/2 pound lump crab meat
3 tablespoons plain bread crumbs (such as Progresso)
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons minced green onion (green part only)
2 tablespoons minced red bell pepper
1/2 beaten egg
1 teaspoon minced fresh parsley
1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
1/2 teaspoon yellow prepared mustard
1/4 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
vegetable oil
Remoulade Sauce
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons capers
2 teaspoons chopped dill pickle slices (hamburger pickles)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon saltRecipe
1. Measure all the ingredients for the crab cakes -- except the panko and vegetable oil -- into a large bowl. Use a spatula to carefully fold the ingredients together. Be sure not to over stir the mixture or those tasty lumps of crab will fall apart. The best crab cakes have nice big chunks of crab in 'em.
2. Use your hands or a spoon to fill six cups of a clean muffin tin with equal amounts of the crab mixture. Press down a bit on each crab cake so that the top is flat. Don't press too hard or the crab cakes will be hard to get out. Cover the muffin tin with plastic wrap and pop it in the fridge for a couple hours. This step will help the cakes stay together when they're browned in the oil.
3. Make the remoulade sauce by combining all the ingredients in a small bowl. Cover and chill the sauce until you're ready to serve up the crab cakes.
4. After the crab cakes have chilled through, heat up about 1/4-inch of vegetable oil in large skillet over medium/low heat. Fill a shallow bowl with the panko breadcrumbs.
5. Carefully turn the crab cakes out onto a plate. Gently roll each crab cake around in the panko breadcrumbs. Each crab cake should be wearing a light coating of panko.
6. Test the oil by dropping a pinch of panko into the pan. It should sizzle. Sauté the crab cakes in the hot oil for 1 1/2 to 3 minutes on each side or until the cakes are golden brown.
7. Drain crab cakes on paper towels or a rack very briefly, then serve them up hot with the remoulade sauce alongside in a little dish.
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