Cooking Lesson #136 Fanny’s Fish Market Pacific Coast Crab Cakes

Pacific Coast Crab Cakes

How you doing? This recipe came out of my restaurant, Fanny’s Fish Market, in Foster City, California. I had tasted crab cakes all over the place before putting these on the menu and I always go back to this recipe, not so much because it so easy, but that they just taste great—they’re the best. If you don’t have time to pick your own crab meat during the Dungeness season, your local fish monger usually carries the canned product. The cans are full of jumbo lump crab meat.

Fanny’s original recipe has just the right amount of spices and seasonings. No need to bread the cakes before frying. They hold together well without seeming too bready. Fry the crab cakes in a mixture of butter and olive oil which gives them an amazing golden-brown crust.

I made these a couple of weeks ago as a Crab Cake Benedict topped with a quick and Easy Blender Hollandaise sauce (recipe below). They’re also perfect for a crab cake sandwich. Of course, you can serve them on their own as an appetizer or a dinner entrée, with a tartar or red cocktail sauce and lemon wedge.

Prep time:  10 minutes.
Cook time:  10 minutes
Yield:  10 to 12 crab cakes
 
Ingredients
16 ounces lump crab meat, drained
12 saltine crackers, finely crushed
2 large eggs, separated
1 tablespoon onion, chopped
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon seafood seasoning
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
 
Directions

1. Place the crab meat in a bowl and add the crushed saltines.
2. Beat the egg yolks, then pour them on top.
3. Add the remaining ingredients (except the egg whites) and gently fold everything together, being careful to not break up the crab pieces too much.
4. Use an electric mixer to beat the egg whites to soft peaks, then gently fold this into the crab mixture.
5. Shape the mixture into 3-1/2-inch rounded cakes.
6. Fry in a heavy bottomed saucepan in a mixture of butter and olive oil over medium-high heat until lightly browned on both sides. Be careful not to overcook.

 
                         Easy Blender Hollandaise Sauce
Prep time: 5 minutes
Blender time:  5 minutes
 
If you’ve ever made Hollandaise sauce yourself you probably know that it not only builds character, but muscles as well. In many culinary schools it’s known as the sauce of 1,000-strokes. It is time-consuming to make and doesn’t keep well on a steam table without breaking. When you are preparing brunch for hundreds of guests, you don’t want them to wait for their Eggs Benedict. We invented this method to keep both our guests and co-workers happy.
 
Ingredients
5 large egg yolks
1-1/2 tablespoons lemon juice (fresh or reconstituted)
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
5 fluid ounces of unsalted clarified butter, boiling hot
 
Directions

1. Place egg yolks, lemon juice, Tabasco and salt in a blender jar—cover and blend for 5 seconds only.
2. Heat the butter in a microwave for 120 seconds or until it is very, very hot.
3. Turn the blender on, remove the port from the lid and slowly pour the hot butter into the egg yolk mixture.  Continue pouring slowly until the sauce has thickened.
4. Pour the sauce into a bowl and hold over warm water until ready to serve.

ChefSecret: This is a reduced quantity recipe.  It works well when doubling or tripling the recipes, too.
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Covid-19 Quip of the Day:  I have developed the new Covid-19 testing protocol. At 5pm open a bottle of wine, smell it, then pour it in a glass. If you can smell it and taste it, you’re good. Celebrate by finishing the bottle. You are welcome!
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