MENU DESCRIPTION: “Served with remoulade sauce.” The secret to great crab cakes starts with great crab.
Freshly cooked blue crab is the crab of choice for these crustacean cakes, but you can often find high quality canned backfin blue crab in some stores. One such brand comes in 16-ounce cans from Phillips Seafood and is sold at Costco, Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart and Von’s stores. Once you’ve got the crab grabbed you need to pick up some panko. Panko is Japanese-style breadcrumbs usually found near the other Asian foods in your market. The Factory uses a little bit of panko to coat each of these small crab cakes for a great, lightly crunchy texture. One order of this appetizer at the restaurant gets you 3 crab cakes; this recipe makes 6 cakes from ½-pound of crab. If you have a 1-pound can of crabmeat, you can save the leftover ½- pound for another recipe or double-up on this one. Any surplus crab cakes will keep for 24 hours in the fridge before you need to get them in a pan. Oh, and one other thing to remember when making crab cakes: Be gentle. Don’t stir the crab too much into the other ingredients. Rather, fold the mixture gingerly with a spatula to combine. You want any big chunks of tasty crab to stay as big chunks of tasty crab in the finished product.

MAKES 6 SMALL CRAB CAKES.

INGREDIENTS

FOR CRAB CAKES:

• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons minced green onion (green part only)
• 2 tablespoons minced red bell pepper
• ½ beaten egg
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
• ½ teaspoon yellow prepared mustard
• ½ pound lump crab meat
• 3 tablespoons plain breadcrumbs (such as Progresso)
• ¼ cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
• vegetable oil

FOR REMOULADE SAUCE:

• ½ cup mayonnaise
• 2 teaspoons capers
• 2 teaspoons chopped dill pickle slices (hamburger pickles)
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• ½ teaspoon minced fresh parsley
• ½ teaspoon paprika
• ½ teaspoon chili powder
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
• ⅛ teaspoon salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a large bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, green onion, red bell pepper, beaten egg, parsley, Old Bay seasoning, and yellow prepared mustard. Carefully fold in the lump crab meat and breadcrumbs, being careful not to over mix.
2. Rub a light coating of oil in six cups of a nonstick standard size muffin tin. Use your hands or a spoon to fill the cups with equal amounts of the crab mixture. Press down lightly on each crab cake to flatten the top. Cover the muffin tin with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
3. In a small bowl, mix together all the ingredients for the remoulade sauce. Cover and chill until ready to serve.
4. Heat up about ¼-inch of vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Fill a shallow bowl with the panko breadcrumbs.
5. Carefully turn the crab cakes out onto a plate. Roll each crab cake around in the panko breadcrumbs to coat.
6. Test the oil by dropping a pinch of panko into the pan. When it sizzles, sauté the crab cakes in the hot oil for 1 ½ to 3 minutes on each side or until golden brown.
7. Drain the crab cakes on paper towels or a rack briefly before serving hot with the remoulade sauce in a separate dish.