After a week of soup, I thought that this blog needed a little bit of love - in the form of solid food!
For our Valentine's Day dinner, our group of friends decided to forgo the usual dinner reservations in lieu of a home-cooked gourmet meal. I'm ruined - V-day and New Years are "holidays" I only want to spend in the cozy company of friends from here on out. We all picked a direction and a course...and mine turned up to be "West" and the appetizer course. I looked for something with West Indian spices and came across this recipe on the Food Network's site. I ended up tweaking it as I went along and, while I'm not sure that what I ended up with was West Indian, it was absolutely delicious.
In addition to the crab cakes themselves, I made a quick garam masala and grapefruit aioli which I smeared on the plate. To cut some of the richness and give some zing, I garnished the plates with a quick salad of frisee and blood orange segments. The brightness and the texture of the frisee was great to contrast the sweet richness of the rest of the dish.
Curried Crab Cakes - makes 10 2" diameter cakes - recipe originally found here
* 1 egg
* 1/2 cup mayonnaise
* 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
* 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
* 1 tbsp. mild Madras curry
* 1 tbsp. hot Madras curry
* 2 scallions, chopped
* 1/4 cup red bell pepper, diced
* 1/4 cup yellow bell pepper, diced
* 1/4 cup orange bell pepper, diced
* 1/4 cup red onion, chopped
* 2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
* 1 cup panko bread crumbs
* 1 1/2 pound crab meat, jumbo lump
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Combine everything in a mixing bowl except the crab meat and panko. Taste the mixture for seasoning. Gently fold in crabmeat, careful not to break up crab meat too much. Fold in panko, adding enough so that the mixture is not too tight.
- Cook 1 crab cake and taste. Adjust the seasoning if necessary. Form into 2 1/2-ounce cakes. Saute on both sides until golden brown. I garnished my plates with a smattering of chives and the before-mentioned aioli and blood orange salad.
