Crab Cakes

 

Given that I live in the upper Midwest, I don't have a lot of experience with seafood that is not breaded and deep fried, and especially not when it comes to cooking seafood. However, when life hands you a can of crabmeat from dear friends who are moving across the country and don't want to move the contents of their pantry, and tricks your husband into buying a whole bunch of imitation crab sticks when you meant to get another kind of Asian fish cake, you get to experiment and try something new. I opted to try making crab cakes since the crab meat I had was the right texture and I heard they were good. I'm not sure about other parts of the US but crab cakes are considered fancy here, and I'm all about being fancy, or at least pretending to be fancy.

Notes:

• I used a mix of canned crab meat (4.5 oz) and imitation crab sticks (about 8.5 oz). The crab sticks were made of a finely shredded textured fish cake so when I cut the sticks into ~3/4 inch long pieces, they fell apart into skinny threads.
• I opted to pan fry them and was pleased with the result. They are admittedly a little hard to shape and they feel like they'll fall apart in the pan but they seem to solidify a bit as they cook and if you push any small bits that escape back onto the edge of one, they tend to stay there. You do have to handle them somewhat carefully when you flip them.
• I used a little less sriracha than the recipe calls for (maybe ~1/2 tsp) because I thought it might be too spicy. They had a slight kick to them that I could taste but there was no lingering burn.
• You might want to reduce the salt, particularly if you use imitation crab. I think I could have left out the added salt completely.
• This recipe made 10 patties around 2.5-3 inches in diameter and about 1/2 inch thick.
• I served these with roasted potatoes but I think a simple green salad would also taste good with them.

RECIPE: Easy Crab Cakes