Steelers Game Day Grub: Crab Cakes
By Kim Myers
There’s no rivalry in Pittsburgh quite like the Steelers and Ravens. These two teams hate each other. Not only that, but the fans of each team don’t care much for each other either. With each game the Steelers play I try to think of some tasty food to make from either Pittsburgh or the city of the team they are playing. But what do you do for Ravens week?
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I have some family that lives in Maryland and they say Baltimore is a horrible place. Don’t ever go there unless you absolutely have to. From what I can think of, the only redeeming quality of Baltimore is crabs. Sweet, succulent, delicious crabs. But, luckily for us, we can get tasty, good quality crab just about anywhere, especially land-locked Pittsburgh so Baltimore can suck it. We don’t need to go there to enjoy some tasty crab cakes and watch the Steelers take down the Ravens on Thursday night.
Crab cakes are tasty and delicious. But, and I’m not even attempting to try and sound all food-snobbish or anything, you can’t skimp on the crab. You have to get the jumbo lump crab and you have to get the good stuff. It’s just generally not a good idea to go ahead with iffy seafood as a general rule. Your digestive system will thank you for it. More importantly, crab cakes are supposed to taste like crab and not all the other junk you put in there so the jumbo lump is the only way to go. You could get that imitation crab that starts with a “k” but I don’t think that works at all here either.
Here’s what you’ll need:
- 1 8oz can of jumbo lump crab meat
- 3 TBS fresh lemon juice
- ¼ cup Mayo (use Miracle Whip if you want, we don’t judge here, this is a safe place)
- 1 TBS Dijon mustard
- ½ tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 TBS Old Bay seasoning (more if you want, no judgments)
- 2 eggs
- 1 shallot minced
- Some olive oil/butter for the pan
- ¼ cup Panko bread crumbs
- Chopped fresh parsley
- Salt and pepper
Get a small saucepan heated and drizzle some oil in it. Throw that chopped shallot in there and some salt and pepper. They say on all the cooking shows about layering flavors and junk. This is what you’re doing here. You can use onions and peppers if you like but I don’t care for those so I choose shallots and it makes me feel fancy so there. Sauté the shallots until they are soft and translucent and then remove from heat to let them cool. Get a bowl out and open the can of crab meat and dump it in there. Pick through it and make sure there aren’t any shell pieces or anything that isn’t crab meat and sneak a piece or two because it’s delicious. Throw in the mayo, lemon juice, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, old bay, eggs, cooled shallot, bread crumbs and salt and pepper. Throw in the bunch of chopped fresh parsley. I don’t ever bother measuring chopped parsley because it seems weird. You just rip it off the stems, chop it up and throw it into whatever you’re cooking. Mix it all around but don’t break up that precious crab meat too much.
Get an oven-proof sauté pan heating with some olive oil and butter in it. Yes both. Why? Because it’s tastier that way, that’s why. Form the crab cakes into whatever shape or size you want, although cube doesn’t seem like it would work out to well in this. Gently place the crab cakes in the hot butter and oil and let them cook for at least 5 minutes. Be careful turning them over so they don’t fall apart and turn into some kind of half-fried warm crab salad instead of crab cakes. After you turn them over throw them into a preheated 400 degree oven for like five more minutes so they cook through the middle. Your cooking times might vary depending upon the size you made your crab cakes. If they are giant-sized crab cakes then you’ll need to cook them longer, if you were even successful at getting those suckers flipped over without falling apart. Otherwise, take your normal-sized crab cakes out of the oven and naturally wait a few minutes before digging in but once they’re cool enough not to burn the inside of your mouth squirt some more lemon juice on top and enjoy! You can even throw them on a bun with bacon (of course), lettuce and tomato and have yourself the tastiest BLT you’ve had in a long time! You’re probably going to want to take a picture of those suckers and post it everywhere so you can do that while they’re cooling.
Enjoy and Go Steelers!