I am a huge fan of seafood, ESPECIALLY Dungeness crab. And I am fortunate enough to live in a part of the country where I can literally go to the end of a pier, drop a crab pot, and, when I pull it up? CRAB FRIENDS. The kind of crabs you’re HAPPY to catch!
I’m not in your pants.
I am mostly a crab-purist, just cooking, cracking, and dipping the delicious crab into butter and tossing into my face hole. That’s the best (and keto as fuck!).
But sometimes, I will use it to create a decadent sauce, such as my favorite tequila crab Béarnaise (or sometimes bourbon crab Béarnaise depending on my mood), recipe to follow at a later date.
But my favorite thing to make (and eat) are crab cakes.
AND I MEAN CRAB CAKES, not “a shit ton of filler with a smidgen of shredded crab” cakes.
I basically lifted a recipe from Faidley’s World Famous Crab Cakes that I found online after seeing them mentioned on Food Network and drooling onto my own boobs, and I tweaked their recipe by using Ritz Crackers instead of saltines (mostly because I never had saltines on hand).
Oh, and I always have served them with a random aioli that I decided sounded better than tartar sauce. I love tartar sauce, but with this? No, this needs a motherfucking aioli.
So yeah, historically, that little bit of filler that I DID use (you really have to have something to bind it together besides the egg…unless you want eggy crab disks or some shit) was tasty, but carby as fuck. No bueno.
Also, for another tweak, I liked to coat them in a little panko right before cooking to add a little crispiness and texture.
So I was thinking, crap…how am I going to do this…and still make them delicious AND Keto-friendly?
BY GOD, I FIGURED IT OUT AND IT WAS STUPID SIMPLE.
Yay!
SLUTTY CRAB CAKES WITH SPICY AIOLI SAUCE
Ingredients:
For the crab cakes:
1 lb Dungeness crabmeat, big leg and claw chunks welcome.
1⁄2 cup Almond Flour
1⁄2 cup Best Foods mayonnaise
1 egg
1 T Dijon mustard
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp Frank’s Hot Sauce or Sriracha Sauce
A flat dish/bowl with approx 1 Cup (give or take) Pork Rind Panko (either homemade or prepackaged if you’re lazy like I was)
Cooking oil of your choice
For the aioli:
Don’t use that weird avocado mayo for this.
1 cup mayo
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T lemon juice
1 T either Sriracha or Chipotle sauce (either or, whatever your preference)
Mix all this together and toss in the fridge for later.
DIRECTIONS:
Spread the crab meat out in a flat pan and sprinkle the almond flour over the top.
In a small bowl, mix mayonnaise, egg, mustard, Worcestershire and hot sauce.
Pour the mayonnaise over the crab meat and gently toss or fold the ingredients together, taking care not to break up the lumps of crab meat.
Pre-toss spoodge mess
Spread out over the pan to about 1 to 1 1/2 inches thick in a rough rectangle shape.
Can you please stop judging my pan? I’ve had it since like before I was born. Fuck.
Refrigerate the mixture for at least an hour so it gains a little cohesiveness before forming the cakes.
Remove from fridge and divide the mixture by hand or with a butter knife into 8 sections of mostly equal size.
Being careful not to break up the large hunks of crab, form into 8 cakes, not packing the mixture too firmly. The cakes should be as loose as possible (like your…never mind), yet still hold their shape.
Place the cakes on a wax paper lined platter, cover and refrigerate for about another hour before cooking.
NOTE: You can skip this second round of refrigeration if you’re feeling saucy. I find it helps in holding everything together, but you do you, smarty.
Pour oil into a heavy skillet to a depth of about 1 ½” and heat oil to a good medium high for a bit until it’s ready to fry your cakes.
Gently place each cake, one at a time, into the bowl of Pork Rind Panko, carefully turning over to coat both sides.
I mean I could have just taken a hammer to pork rinds, but this was fine, too. It’s also tasty.
Then place crab cakes, a few at a time, into your nice hot, skin-melting oil.
Fry your cakes until golden brown, about 3-4 minutes on each side, using either a stiff metal spatula to gently flip over, or, if you don’t have a pan that’s as beat up as mine and need to use a plastic spatula, get a nice firm one that isn’t going to jack up your beautiful crab cake.
SERIOUSLY, BE VERY CAREFUL NOT TO DESTROY THESE CAKES FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, YOU’VE COME THIS FAR.
YAY, I DIDN’T FUCK ‘EM UP!
Remove from oil and move to a paper towel to blot up any excess cooking oil.
This pic was totally unnecessary, but here.
NOTE: Since these jobbers are a BIT more fragile without the full cup of Ritz Crackers that usually hold this magic together, I like to put on a cookie sheet and keep warm in a 250 degree oven for about 5-10 more minutes.
Hey, we’re just chilling out in the oven. OK THAT MAKES NO SENSE, WHY DO I WRITE THESE CAPTIONS?
You can skip this step, but I think it helps a bit.
Here’s a picture of my cat.
Carefully plate your crab cakes either bareback or onto a plate of arugula (my favorite) or, if you’re a fancy bitch like me, some micro-arugula. Found this magic in my produce section and I was like, “OMFG THIS IS FUCKING ADORABLE”.
Also, as it turns out, it’s just as or more tasty than regular arugula. And did I mention that it’s fucking adorable?
Serve with your aioli and go nuts.
LOOK HOW FUCKING ADORABLE! LOOK AT IT!