I saw some fresh (pasteurized) crab at the grocery today.  I thought crab-stuffed chicken breasts with a simple sauce veloute.  Rice pilaf of some sort, a lovely vegetable… I had the plate pictured in my mind.  It looked great.  I picked it up and continued wandering the store.

And when I got home, I decided to make crab cakes.  Being versatile is good.

Into the bowl went 1 pound of lump crab meat, 4 green onions, 4 chopped pequillo peppers, 2 hard-cooked eggs, a bit of garlic, zest and juice of 1 lemon, some parsley, a bit of mayo and an egg to bind.  Into the fridge it went.

An hour later I came back to actually make then and I had made it too soft.  It really didn’t look like a lot of mayo.  But it was too much, evidently.  Or too much lemon.  Or the egg…  Whatever…  Regardless of why, it was a bit too loose to form into neat patties.

I just happened to have a bit of couple of days old bread, so I made fresh breadcrumbs and added them.  Then I made the cakes and put them in panko breadcrumbs.  It worked.

Into the skillet they went with grapeseed oil and a pat of butter.

They were crisp and delicate – just as a crab cake should be.

Victor made the tartar sauce; mayonnaise, chopped pickle (with a drizzle of pickle juice), capers, worcestershire sauce, and a pinch of pepper.

Perfect.

We each had two, two for Victor’s lunch tomorrow, and I had enough to freeze 5 more.

Yum.