mulberryshoots

I’ve been pretty disciplined about using up leftovers and cooking out of the freezer, fridge and pantry for quite awhile now. Today, I let loose and decided to treat ourselves to a dinner with homemade crabcakes, cole slaw and corn muffins.

There are lots of recipes online for making crabcakes. Trust me, some say you can’t make crabcakes without using Old Bay seasoning. Others argue about the type of crab (fresh is best and ours comes from Maine.) All kinds of fillers are proposed: celery, parsley, onion, shallots, green onion, bread crumbs, egg, mayonnaise, mustard, etc. etc. etc.

Here’s what I put together: fresh crabmeat, not shredded but kept in lump form while mixing; fresh breadcrumbs made this morning from leftover homemade oatmeal bread (I know this isn’t fair, but the bread was getting stale and whirred up great in the mini-processor.) I let the fresh crumbs sit out all morning on a cookie sheet to air/dry out and then stored it all in a plastic quart container. Chopped fresh parsley: sometimes dried parsley adds enough color, but real parsley has such a tangy fresh taste along with one chopped green onion, mostly white parts but some green. One egg, a dollop of Hellmann’s mayonnaise and a 1/4 of a teaspoon of Old Bay seasoning plus salt and pepper. Mixed it gently together to combine.

Because I’m going to fry these in the skillet in unsalted butter, I went ahead and made meatball size rounds and rolled them gently in more of the fresh oatmeal bread crumbs. I set them on parchment paper and put them into the fridge to chill for a half an hour. This will help them hold together better in the skillet and not fall apart (hope so, anyway!)

The cole slaw at the fish market is freshly made and we like it because it’s crispy without too much mayonnaise. I also mixed together some fresh cocktail sauce and horseradish (the old jars in the fridge just wouldn’t cut it with this fresh crabmeat splurge.) Mixed it up together and squeezed a little fresh lemon in it to lighten up the pungency of the sauce.

Grilled a corn muffin in the pan, buttered sides down and then prepared to cook the crabcakes right before we were going to sit down to eat. I heated up unsalted butter in a skillet and cooked the crabcakes slowly, turning them over and on their sides until golden brown.

We found the crabcakes to be tender, cooked through and crispy on the outside. The cocktail sauce was piquant but not overpowering; the coleslaw was bland and crunchy and the corn muffin rounded out this light Spring supper. Really delicious! Yum!