Crab Cakes are everywhere!

Hello it's Darryl Mickler and I have always loved crab and especially crab cakes.

I grew up on the Gulf Coast of Florida and the Eastern Blue Crab was a common site on the dinner table. It was the rare bridge or pier where you would not see someone dropping crab traps.

A picnic tale spread with newspapers and boiled crabs make for a great feast, but for the best crab experience nothing rivals a great crab cake. As a chef I have always had a habit of ordering crab cakes wherever I saw them offered. It's a practice that has led me to taste cakes from the sublime to the ridiculous and all points in between.

Crab cakes are enjoyed around the country today, Dungeness versions on the Pacific coast can be excellent and many chefs have reinterpreted the crab cake with international influences, but they do have distinctly Southern roots.

They have been most often associated with the Chesapeake Bay area in Maryland in particular. John Mariani, in his Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, identifies the first use of the term crab cake in 1930 in Gaige's New York World's Fair Cook Book. They are called "Baltimore Crab Cakes." However, recipes for items that are crab cakes in all but name can be found in English cookbooks as far back as the late 1600s.

Crab cake lovers will all agree that the key to a great crab cake lies in the balance between the crab cake holding together and it's having too much binder. At its best the cake is a temporary alliance of ingredients which barely manages to stay together long enough to deliver the crispy/creamy cake to the mouth.

Come by Red Lobster to try our crab cakes. If you would like to make one at home, give the following recipe a try. It's great with a spicy remoulade or even just a squeeze of lemon.

Crab Cakes:

3 pounds lump Crabmeat
1 cup mayonnaise (use regular mayonnaise, low-fat types may not work in the same way)
4 eggs, lightly beaten
4 tablespoons Dijon or stone-ground mustard
1 tsp Tabasco or Pete's Hot Sauce
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
2.5 - 3 cups crushed crackers (Ritz or Saltines) or bread crumbs
4 tablespoons finely diced red bell pepper
4 tablespoons finely diced green pepper
3 tablespoons parsley
2 teaspoons Old Bay Seasoning
Salt/Pepper to taste.

1. Combine the crabmeat with mayonnaise, egg, hot sauce, diced peppers, parsley, and seasonings.
2. Add crumbs to crabmeat mix until it just holds together.
3. Scoop to crabmeat mix into 3 ounce portions (roughly 1/3 cup). Place on wax paper, cover and refrigerate until firm.
4. Heat oil or clarified butter until hot but not smoking. Add crab cakes and press lightly. Crab cake should roughly 3/4 of 1 inch in thickness.
5. Saute both sides until crispy and hot throughout (roughly 3 minutes per side).
6. Hold warm and drain excess grease on paper towels. Serve with remoulade and lemon.

This is simple recipe to experiment with and add your own ideas. Some tasty alternatives can be adding capers, roasting the peppers or trying alternative seasonings.

Email us anything you want to see or know about at chefsblog@redlobster.com. Thanks for stopping by the chef's blog and don't forget to stop by your local Red Lobster and see what's fresh today.

Enjoy and good eating!