Green Onion Crab Cakes

Ask 50 cooks and you’ll get 50 recipes for crab cakes…

Sometimes, they end up tasting like all of the ingredients, except the crab meat.  This crab cake recipe actually brings out the great crab flavor, which is just what it should do, even if it is canned crabmeat.  It’s not exactly a penny pinching meal, so I want it to have the flavor that is intended!

Living here in a small town, just Northwest of Chicago, we don’t have access to the great fresh crab that you all enjoy on the coast lines.  So I am curious ~~~ what type of crab do you think is best, and why?  Is it Maryland Blue Crab or Dungenous Crab in San Francisco?  I just know I’m jealous of all of you that enjoy it fresh!

Maryland blue crab

San Francisco dungeness crab

Our "fresh" crabmeat

These green onion crab cakes are nice and crispy on the outside and tender, moist and chock full of crab meat on the inside.  A good simple meal!

Green Onion Crab Cakes

Ingredients:

1 egg, beaten

3 tablespoons green onion tops

3 teaspoons chili garlic sauce

1 teaspoon brown mustard

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 pound lump crabmeat, drained and picked over for shells

4 teaspoons milk

6 saltine crackers, finely crushed

¾ cup Panko bread crumbs for coating

3 tablespoons olive oil or butter, for frying

Tartar sauce or lemon wedges

Method:

In a small bowl, combine egg, onions, chili garlic sauce, brown mustard and mayonnaise well.  Set aside.

Lightly break up crabmeat in a medium bowl.

Add milk and toss to coat crabmeat.

Add egg mixture to crabmeat and toss gently.

Add cracker crumbs and combine.

Gather mixture and form into 6 patties.

Coat crab cakes with Panko bread crumbs.

Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before frying to prevent the crab cakes from falling apart as they cook.

Fry until golden.

Serve with tartar sauce or lemon wedges.

ENJOY!!!

Cracklin' Georgia Cracker Salad

Here's a definitely distinctively delicious salad just for you!

This surely sounds like a Southern recipe and I’m curious about the origin.  Were saltines and a jar of mayo hanging out on the counter beside a bowl of juicy chopped tomatoes when the Georgia cook wanted a salad and VOILA?  

Any which way, I tore this recipe out of some newspaper years ago because we’re wild about tomatoes and the crackers with it intrigued me.  

Sometimes, I add another egg or an extra onion or two and use Hellman’s Reduced Fat Mayonnaise with Olive Oil instead of regular mayo.  I go light on the salt or not at all and heavy on the pepper. 

The saltine’s crunchiness combined with the egg, mayo and luscious, ripe, juicy tomato cries out summer time like nothing else!   YUM!!!

Georgia Cracker Salad

Ingredients:

1 sleeve saltine crackers, about 40 saltines

1 large ripe tomato, finely chopped

3 green onions, finely chopped

1½ cups mayonnaise

1 hardboiled egg, finely chopped

Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Method:

In a medium-size bowl, coarsely crush the crackers with your hands into big cracker pieces.

Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.

Season with salt and pepper.

Serve immediately.

4 servings

If you’re a tomato lover, you have to give this a try! 

Be sure to visit my friend, Linda’s blog @My Kind of Cooking for great tips, recipes.