Crabbycakes

Oh my goodness! It’s been so long… I missed you, blog <3

I finally started feeling better a couple days ago but was pretty busy over the weekend (and my camera battery died!) so haven’t had time to cook or post until now. But I have plenty to post about now! Yesterday was an important first for me… I went to Dave’s for the first time! I’m not sure how many stores in the chain there are, but it’s pretty big in Rhode Island. It’s kind of like Whole Foods except less expensive and smaller. But they have the prepackaged foods and the salad/pizza bar like WF does. I had never been in before because just the expectation of the high price tags was enough to scare me away, and Stop&Shop is more conveniently located for me anyway. Unfortunately, their produce section (at least in the one I went to in Quonset) did not have as big of a selection as I was hoping for. But it was meticulously and beautifully organized, which was much appreciated since I had just come from the dirty floors and mis-marked produce section of Stop&Shop earlier that night.

The reason I went is because I got a $50 gift card for Christmas, but didn’t have a reason to use it yet. Since I decided to make Crab Cakes from this month’s cover of Clean Eating magazine, I wanted to go and get some high-quality seafood. I thought they might have some fresh crab meat, but instead I found a canned version which (according to Clean Eating) is just as good, especially for only crab cakes. I also picked up some Dijon mustard and a lemon for the recipe, as well as some bakery Hermit Bars (they were only okay), organic blackberry jam, and avocados.

I know that one of the problems of my blog is that since I neither have the money to make or like most of the ingredients of fancy recipes, I end up showing you lots of recipes with chicken. I like chicken… and it’s pretty much the only thing that’s keeping me from going vegetarian at this point. But I also know that while I can try to spice up chicken as much as possible, there comes a point when it’s just not that exciting anymore. So here it is! My first seafood recipe (besides tuna sandwiches).

It was a lot easier than I expected it to be… I might try fish more in the future. I pretty much hate all types of fish with a passion, but I like shellfish, so this crabcake recipe was perfect for me. It also didn’t take TOO long to cook – probably about an hour total.

I also made some fresh green beans to go on the side for a serving of vegetables. And let me tell you – they were SO delicious! Fresh is ALWAYS better than frozen. But I can’t usually afford it I got these green beans for only 99 cents at PriceRite last week!

Crabcakes (April/May 2011 Clean Eating magazine)

Ingredients

• 1 lb crabmeat, drained and picked over for shells
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard (I used more like 1 1/2 for better consistency)
• 4 tbsp whole wheat bread crumbs
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley
• 4 scallions thinly sliced
• Zest 1/2 lemon (I don’t like zest, so I used the juice from 1/4 of a lemon instead)
• 1 1/2 tbsp chile seasoning (I used a teaspoon of my chile garlic sauce)
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg white
• 1/4 cup whole-wheat flour
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Directions

• In a large bowl combine crabmeat, Dijon, breadcrumbs, parsley, scallions, lemon juice, chile sauce, paprika, salt, egg, and egg white. Gently mix together.
• To form patties, firmly pack crab mixture into a 1/4-cup measuring cup. Invert crab into your palm and press into the shape of a disk, about 1-inch thick. Repeat until all mixture is used.
• Place patties on a plate and cover with plastic wrap. Let chill for at least 3o minutes in the fridge to firm up crab cakes.
• After patties are chilled, add flour to a large bowl. Gently dredge each crab cake in flour and place back on plate. Add oil to a heavy skillet on medium heat. Add half of crab cakes and cook until golden brown (about 3-4 minutes per side) and repeat with other half.

While the crabcakes were chilling in the fridge, I decided to make a recipe I got from the How Sweet It Is blog for Blueberry Oat Crumble Bars. They came out awesome! I’d probably add more blueberries than I did next time, though. They were a LITTLE bit dry. I also added a little more vanilla than the recipe called for, which I really liked.