Make Crab Cakes At Home

Bobby Flay Shows That It's Easy, And Adds His Flair To Recipes

(CBS)  Crab cakes are a classic summer dish and, even though Labor Day has come and gone, Bobby Flay says they'll still delight your palate.

And if you think preparing them at home is difficult, think again: The Early Show's resident chef showed Thursday that, with a few simple-to-find ingredients, it's a breeze.

Of course, Flay adds some twists, incorporating some of those Southwestern flavors and ingredients he loves, such as blue corn and spicy peppers.

Crab cakes vary form region to region. Traditionally, they're associated with the Chesapeake Bay, which for a long time was known for the crabs caught offshore.

Crab cakes are generally made of crab meat, breadcrumbs, milk, eggs, onions, and seasonings, a very simple patty that is sautéed, baked, or grilled to make a great appetizer or nice, light lunch.

The two most common styles of Maryland crab cakes are known as "boardwalk" and "restaurant." Boardwalk crab cakes are typically deep fried and breaded, and are often filled with stuffing of various sorts and served on hamburger buns. Restaurant crab cakes, which are sometimes called gourmet crab cakes, are served with no filler, and are composed of all-lump crab meat on a platter or open-faced sandwich.

Many restaurants that offer Maryland crab cakes will offer them fried or broiled. Broiled crab cakes are lower in fat and healthier.

Meat from any species of crab may be used, although the meat of the blue crab, whose native habitat includes the Chesapeake Bay, is traditional.

Crab cakes vary in size from no bigger than a small cookie to as large as a hamburger. They are usually served with some sort of sauce, frequently a remoulade or tartar sauce, and sometimes ketchup.

Crab cakes are also popular in the Pacific Northwest, but a different crab meat is used; the meat from Dungeness crabs is a popular ingredient for crab cakes, and the cakes are prepared at many well-established restaurants throughout the region. Dungeness crab flesh has a delicate flavor that's considered sweeter than the flesh of other crabs.

RECIPES

Blue Corn Crab Cakes with Lemon Habanero Sauce & Green Onion Vinaigrette

Serves 4

6 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 jalapenos, diced
1/4 cup crème fraiche or sour cream
1/4 cup prepared horseradish, drained
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1-1/2 pounds crabmeat, picked over
2-4 tablespoons Wondra flour
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 cups blue cornmeal

1. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a medium sauté pan over high heat. Add the onion, garlic and jalapenos and cook until soft. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool slightly.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the horseradish, mustard, crème fraiche until combined. Add the crab meat and 2 tablespoons of the flour and gently fold to combine; season with salt and pepper. If the mixture appears too loose, add more flour a tablespoon at a time. Refrigerate, covered for at least 1 hour or up to 1 day.
3. Divide the chilled crab mixture into 8 patties about 1/2-inch thick. Dredge each cake in the cornmeal and tap off excess.
4. Heat the remaining 4 tablespoons olive oil in a large nonstick sauté pan over high heat and fry the cakes for about 3 minutes on each side, or until crusty and lightly browned. Place 2 crab cakes on a dinner plate and top each cake

Lemon-Habanero Tartar Sauce

2 cups fresh lemon juice
1 cup prepared mayonnaise
1/2 habanero chile, chopped
2 anchovy fillets
2 teaspoons honey
5 cornichon, finely diced
1 tablespoon capers drained
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Place lemon juice in a small nonreactive saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Cook until the juice is thickened and reduced to about 3 tablespoons, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl and let cool.
2. Place the mayonnaise, reduced lemon juice, habanero, anchovy and honey in a food processor and process until smooth. Scrape mixture into a bowl and stir in the cornichon, capers and cilantro and season with salt and pepper.

Green Onion Vinaigrette

3 tablespoons rice vinegar
1-1/2cups chopped green onion
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 cup canola oil

Combine vinegar, 1/4 cup water, green onion, salt, pepper and honey in a blender and blend until smooth. With the motor running, slowly add the oil and blend until emulsified.

[robfrommd]

Marylanders take great pride in our regional delicacy from the Chesapeake. Article: "Traditionally, they''re associated with the Chesapeake Bay, which for a long time was known for the crabs caught offshore." - "WAS"? It STILL IS. Thanks Phillips, for plundering Asia looking for cheap crab and fobbing it off on an unsuspecting public. If you go to Phillips and order a crab cake, it''s Asian Crab. Their cheap, tasteless crab undercuts the local MD Crabbers. - "Crab cakes are generally made of crab meat, breadcrumbs, milk, eggs, onions" - Milk and onions? In MD, the ingredients are usually: eggs, bread crumbs or crushed crackers, mayo, Old Bay, wet or dry mustard. Crab has its own sweet delicate flavor, onions or hot peppers would ruin it. At $20 a lb --you WANT to taste the crab. "The two most common styles of Maryland crab cakes are known as "boardwalk" and "restaurant." - Whoever wrote this article has never been to MD or "da boards". "Restaurant crab cakes, which are sometimes called gourmet crab cakes" - the writer just made that up. "They are usually served with some sort of sauce, a remoulade or tartar sauce, and sometimes ketchup." - Ketchup? Why make your crab cake taste like French fries? %u201CDungeness crab flesh has a delicate flavor that''s considered sweeter than the flesh of other crabs." - Incorrect! The Chesapeake Bay Blue Claw Crab is the sweetest and most delicate of all varieties of crab. Dungeness is courser and saltier than Blue Crab.

[tonic1661]

This crabcake recipe sounds delicious. Too bad if some people would not like to try something different.

And I really want to try the habanero sauce.

But there is a problem with the vinaigrette because the list of ingredients does not call for water but the instructions for the recipe do call for water. Which is it?

[rosesnpearls]

He''s only rolling them in cornmeal. It''s not a filler in the crabcakes. Man, that would be nasty, too!

[sevenveils]

Gracious, the blue corn crab cakes is low brow resturant style for sure. I mean come on, 2 cups of corn meal to 1 & 1/2 pounds of crab meat? One cup of packed crab meat weighs about a pound. Go with a 3 crab to 1 filler mix. Anything more and they should be called dumplings: bread with crab stuffing.

Bobby Flay is not a chef in my opinion. He is more a short order cook. : Hey, I''m Booby Flay, let me take a wonderful eastern dish and butcher it for those of you who have wealth and no taste.

[lckmstr4u]

Being from Maryland, and a former resident of Baltimore, we are proud of our crabcakes we always tell people who come to maryland that you haven''t been to maryland if you didn''t eat a crabcake, we also make our crabcakes with a bit a yellow mustard in them, we eat them all year long as well as steamed crabs, I personally have encountered the same surpris when dining out of state, that other places fill or mix fish or potatoes in with the crabmeat NO!NO!NO! THATS JUST NOT A CRABCAKE people who want a maryland style crabcake can log on to www.phillipsfood.com

[scoliosuxs]

kttntoast the word in the first paragraph is correct. The palate is the roof of the mouth. I am sure that you just glanced over the sentence but maybe you should see a doctor if you continue to have difficulty reading on the computer monitor.

[pennhr]

Question: Why are restaurants that feature crab cakes on the menu, but in fact combine the crabmeat with fish, not required to disclose that fact on the menu? I ask waiters or waitresses every time and often find that they, themselves, do not know until they have inquired of the chef on my behalf.

[kguiffre]

The worst crabcakes can be found in Myrtle Beach, SC. The best crab cakes used to come from a restaurant called the Narrows in in Kent Island, MD. However, I have heard they changed chefs. No reason for onion or peppers or a bunch of filler in a good Maryland Style crabcake. Jumbo lump crab meat, mayonnaise, maybe a little mustard and in place of breadcrumbs, you can use a dallop of sour cream (which you can not taste). Anything stronger than these ingredients takes away from the crab flavor, which is very mild to begin with. The problem with crab cakes here in Myrtle Beach, is that they don''t use jumbo lump, sometimes I can''t tell what kind of meat it even is, sometimes it is just claw meat filled with shell (ick) and they put ridiculous fillers in such as onion, pepper, making it even worse.

[kttntoast]

In that first paragraph, you want the word "palette." A pallet is a hard temporary or straw bed.