A Crabtastic Dinner

If I haven't mentioned it before, I love, love, love the Dishing Up series cookbooks! One of my favorite recipes ever is from Dishing Up Maine: Shaker Chicken Stew with Scallion Dumplings. So far in the lineup we have Dishing Up Maine, Dishing Up Vermont, and our newest in the series, Dishing Up Maryland. Also, we have another coming in 2011 — Dishing Up Oregon. Since the release of Dishing Up Maryland, I have begun making my way through the recipes, and I have not been disappointed.

Dishing Up Maryland's Eleanor Van Dyke's Crab Cakes,
prepared by Kristy L. Rustay

A few weeks ago I wrote a post on the first recipe that I made from Dishing Up Maryland, Asparagus Frittata. After that, although I did not do a post, I made the Chicken Pot Pie with Spring Peas and Carrots (pages 52–53) — it was wonderful! And last night I made my third recipe from the book: Eleanor Van Dyke's Crab Cakes (pages 120–121).

I served Mrs. Van Dyke's infamous crab cakes over a salad of mixed greens, cilantro, cucumbers, tomatoes, chives, blanched green beans, chèvre, and a citrus-chive vinaigrette. The dinner was crabtastic! It was light, healthy (I even used low-fat mayo), and delicious. Every crab cake recipe I have made in the past requires that the crab cakes be fried in oil; these were broiled in the oven — no oil-saturated crabby patties anymore!

A healthy meal: broiled crab cakes over salad with citrus vinaigrette

Give these seaside babies a try. Here's the recipe:

Eleanor Van Dyke’s Crab Cakes
8 Servings

Ingredients
1 pound Maryland jumbo lump crabmeat
18 saltine crackers, crushed by hand into tiny pieces
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon Old Bay or seafood seasoning
1 teaspoon dry mustard
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Tartar sauce with dill and capers (optional)

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to broil. Pick through the crabmeat, and discard any shell bits and cartilage. Combine the crabmeat in a large bowl with the crackers, mayonnaise, parsley, Old Bay, mustard, salt, and pepper, and gently toss until the mixture is well combined. Without handling excessively, form the mixture into 8 crab cakes, and place them on an ungreased broiler pan or nonstick baking sheet.

2. Broil the crab cakes for 6 to 8 minutes, turning once, until golden brown on both sides. Serve immediately with tartar sauce, if desired.

Enjoy!

-Kristy L. Rustay, Marketing Manager