Greedy Girl : Krabby Patties

Something Smells Fishy...

To venture into seafood month and not do a crab cake, a dish that is so high on the seafood hall of fame list would be a sacrilege. This is my second encounter with homemade crab cakes, back in the day, meaning over 5 years ago when I first made, it I followed a food network recipe. I used American lump crab and the recipe included capers. Needless to say I hated it. So this time around I used my own simple ingredients, with the star ingredient being Jamaican crab.

My family has so many fond memories of crab. As children we would look forward to crab season as my father and his friends always went on nightly crab grabs and would come home with crocus bags filled with hundreds of squirming crabs. We would wake up the next morning and hurry downstairs to go look inside the drums filled with what seemed like thousands of live crabs clawing to get out.

It was my father job to wash the crabs, set up the coal fire outside and cook them. He had a special clothes hanger that he fashioned into a crab hook, he seasoned a very large pot of hot water and in they went. I will never forget the day one got loose and ran into the kitchen; we were on the counter tops screaming. After all the crabs were cooked, he and my mother would separate them into bodies, claws, and legs and remove all the meat, eating and chatting. For whatever reason the loved when they would come across an occasional female crab for the coveted eggs (which we hated) It was then my mother’s job to curry the meat and the claws. She would portion and bag them, sent some off to Family abroad and store the rest in the freezer so we would have curry crab meat and legs all year round.

The good old days, now I just walk into a store, pick up 2 lbs of frozen crab and walk out, where’s the fun in that? In any case, these patties are yummy, especially with the fresh out the oven pretzel bun, one to rival SpongeBob’s.

Ingredients (Printable recipe)

For Crab cakes

2 lbs crab meat

½ Scotch bonnet
2-3 large scallion stalks

1 Onion
1 garlic clove

1 cup Mayo

1 tablespoon Mustard

1 Egg

2 cups Panko

1½ teaspoon Lawry

½ teaspoon Black pepper

Flour and oil for frying

For sandwich
Thyme lemon butter (click here)

Romaine salad (carrots, red cabbage, romaine)

Thousand Island dressing

Pretzel bun (click here)

Greedy Tips

Jamaican crab meat is not white and chunky as North American varieties, the crabs are much smaller, the meat is tender, but very feathery and light not heavy at all. (I can’t really find a better way to describe the look)
To test if it will hold together after seasoning squeeze the meat in your hand if it holds its shape then its good
A light dusting of flour is all the crab cakes need before they go in the hot oil, the crust the flour creates also helps to hold them together
Each batch you fry will absorb the oil in the pot, so don't use more than a tablespoon for every 3 crab cakes and be sure to add oil after each batch
The crab cakes are done when each side is golden brown and crispy. Remember the meat has already been boiled.
Thousand island dressing is absolutely delicious on these crab cakes.
If you do make these pretzel buns they are best served warm. So if you have left overs pop them in the micro for 15 to 30 seconds for them to come back to their soft pretzel state.