I Have Crab Cakes, too. . . in Maine

We may be famous for our lobstah up here, but I made some damn good crab cakes with some local Maine crab meat last summer that I’ve been meaning to share with you guys. I was reminded after the post a few weeks back. This is an alteration/combination of a recipe from my mom and some Old Bay inspirations. I didn’t have any Old Bay on hand, but I knew I wanted the flavor in there, so I looked up the ingredients and tossed in most of them proportionate to how much I like each spice.

These are wicked good, better than restaurant! Enough talk, recipe after the jump.

Wicked Maine meets Maryland crab cakes

½ med onion finely diced
1 stalk celery finely diced
:sweat on low heat in a little butter and EVOO until onion is translucent, cool and mix in a bowl with, in approximately this order,
6 oz crab meat
1-2 T finely chopped fresh parsley
~1 T chopped fresh chives
dash of soy sauce
dash of (rice) vinegar
1 lg spoonful of mayo (I used vegannaise, because that’s what I had on hand)
a light sprinkle of all or some of the following:

-celery salt
-mustard
-cayenne
-allspice
-ginger
-cardamom
-paprika
-garlic (easy)
-other
-salt
-pepper

about 2/3 cup of fresh breadcrumbs, adjust for consistency
1 egg

:drop ¼ of mixture at a time onto a plate, form 4 patties and stick in the fridge for about 10 or 20 min.
:melt a little more butter and EVOO in your sauté pan, and fry on medium each side for about 5 minutes, until golden brown and crispy
:serve with a lemon wedges, or sauce of your choice

**Additionally on the plate is homemade gnocchi with browned butter, fresh basil and chives, s&p. I’ll try to post on that in the future 😉

You probably know that the ‘crabs’ we are joking about in the title are pubic lice.  People also can get head lice, and body lice (scabies).  Ever wonder why the only stay in one area?  Each type of louse has it’s own specifically sized claws to grasp onto the hair shaft, and they can only hold on to the type of hair they were made for.  So that’s why you can’t get ‘crabs’ on your head.  Good to know, right?