Spicy Maryland Style Crab Cakes
Crab cakes are a North American classic! It is even rumored that the Native Americans themselves prepared this dish long before the arrival of our colonial ancestors due to the abundance of blue crabs the northeast has to offer.
So this month I decided to tackle this famous dish but with a small tweak….I wanted to make it spicy! Which turns out is much easier than it sounds for those of you who are hesitant to steer away from the safety net of the recipe.
Heads up though! These ingredients are not cheap. Shop around at your local grocery stores to see who has the best price for lump and claw crabmeat. These are by far the priciest parts of the recipe but due to the amount in each container, you can make a lot of these crab cakes at once! The rest of the ingredients are very easy to find at any grocery store. To make it spicy, trade out regular mayo for spicy mayo! The one I chose had habanero peppers in it. I was being brave this day.
At home it was a quick fix to pile all the ingredients together for the crab cakes. The trick was to portion them out evenly and take time to pack the cakes together into nice 2 oz. portions. Once this is done, evenly space them around a greased up pan and throw them in the oven. Depending on how many crab cakes you make will determine if you need the entire 15 minutes for them to cook through. The amazing smells wafting through your home should give you an idea too.
So how did it all turn out? Stupendous! The spicy mayo really gave the crab cakes a nice hit of heat halfway through the first bite. The cakes were moist thanks to the mayonnaise and the Old Bay crab cake mix made a great consistency throughout the dish. I will admit though that the habanero peppers did make the cakes slightly spicier than I anticipated. So for next time I would just stick to a regular mayo to accommodate anyone dining with me who can’t take as much heat as I can. Other than that, this recipe gets double thumbs up! You can check out the recipe below.
Recipe: Maryland Style Crab Cake with Your Favorite Salad Dressing
½ C. Lump crabmeat
½ C. Claw crabmeat
1/3 C. Mayonnaise (or spicy mayonnaise!)
3 Tbls. Old Bay classic crab cake mix
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp. Parsley, dried
1. Preheat oven to 400°F
2. Combine the ingredients of the crab cake and form 2 oz patties.
3. Place crab patties on a well-greased pan and bake 10-15 minutes.
4. To serve, arrange salad mix and warm crab cake on a plate and drizzle with your favorite dressing.
Recipe and photograph furnished by TIC Gums.
Laurel Sprague
Association for Dressings & Sauces
