Summer eating: Crab Cakes on Islesford
We were introduced to these Thai Crab Cakes in England. My sister made them, hors d’oeuvre size, for my mom’s garden party, with their Chili Lime Mayo dip. Delicious!
On Islesford there’s always freshly frozen crabmeat available in David Thomas’s freezer. He ships seafood all over the country, but if you’re local you just call ahead, and then leave your $16.00 in the freezer when you take your pint container.
We made them lunch size, and ate them with a green salad made interesting with fresh herbs - cilantro, basil and dill - and sliced (local) strawberries, and an olive oil dressing that also used a dash of chili sauce and lime. Such a good summer lunch, or dinner, come to that ….
THAI CRAB CAKES - Manda’s version
- 1 cup cooked white crabmeat
- 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 2 scallions, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon chopped flat leaf parsley
- 1 egg beaten
- 2 handfuls fresh breadcrumbs
- butter
- cilantro leaves to decorate (optional)
Mix crab, mayo, onion and parsley. Divide into 16, shape into balls, then dip in egg and coat in breadcrumbs. Firm up in fridge for 30 minutes.
Heat a knob of butter in a non-stick frying pan. Fry the cakes in batches until golden.
CHILI LIME MAYO - Manda’s version
- 4 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 1 lime, juiced and zested
- 2 tablespoons sweet chili sauce
Mix the mayo and lime juice and swirl in the sweet chili sauce.
Top the cakes with a cilantro leaf, and use the chili lime mayo for dipping.
OUR VARIATIONS
- First of all, our crabmeat was raw, not cooked. The frying until golden cooked it up just fine.
- Second, we went for 8 larger, and flattened them a little so they would cook all the way through.
- Third, the mixture with the raw crabmeat was a little wet, so we added a handful of bread crumbs - fresh - to help the cakes hold together, and then used panko for the coating before frying them.
- Fourth, we were too hungry to wait 30 minutes for them to firm up in the fridge, so 15 minutes in the freezer gave them enough solidity to get them coated and into the pan in one piece, and they held together well.
- Finally, we didn’t have sweet chili sauce, so we used a few drops of hot sauce, and some strawberry balsamic relish that someone had given us. It tasted great, which leads me to think that any sweet something - red currant jelly, strawberry jam - would add the necessary counterpart to the zap of the chili. Probably somewhere between a teaspoon and a tablespoon - but taste will tell.
