Crab Cakes

Since crab meat is my favorite food I thought it deserved the first post. I must also clarify...not just any crab meat will do, only fresh blue crab and then only jumbo lump- absolutely heavenly in the crab cake recipe which follows. This recipe serves as a great starter for dinner although for me, a crab cake on its own over some spring greens tossed in a vinaigrette is dinner.

A few notes, when picking the crab meat for shells, just barely squeeze it, if there's a shell gently take it out. Try not to separate the lumps too much, otherwise you will end up with what looks like claw meat...and we wouldn't want that! These are great served warm or at room temperature, topping them with simple Hollandaise sauce finishes them off delightfully. In the event you have leftovers save them for the next morning, warm in the oven, top with a poached egg and Hollandaise for a spin on Eggs Benedict which is almost too sinful to eat!

Crab Cake Recipe

1 lb. fresh jumbo lump crab meat, picked for shells

3/4 cup Hellmans or Duke's mayonnaise

1/4 cup diced red and yellow bell pepper

1/4 cup roughly chopped parsley

1 cup Panko bread Crumbs (Japanese style bread crumbs)

1 teaspoon worcesterchire sauce

1 teaspoon Tony's Creole seasoning

1. In a medium bowl, combine crabmeat, bell pepper, parsley, mayonnaise, worcestershire sauce and Creole seasoning tossing gently.

2. Add bread crumbs and gently toss until just combined. Mold Crab cakes in large ramekin and set aside.

3. Spray cooking spray (Pam) on griddle or nonstick skillet. unmold crab cake directly into skillet and cook over medium heat for about 3 minutes on each side. Serve warm or at room temperature.

In the meantime...

I know it's hard to tell, but I have been working on the blog. I have a couple of posts ready to go, but my sweet friend-- the photographer has been feeling sort of ick...so we wait. On the bright side though, she solved my header problem and now I have a nice new photo. I can't wait 'til later this week and we take some photos of some new recipes...I have a lot of cooking to do! Until then, this is her blog:
jaymeaustinphotography.blogspot.com

October 14, 2007
All right, I am finally on my way. Yesterday Jayme (the photographer) and Ruby (her angelic baby girl) came over to the restaurant and shot some great photos. The first is the crab cake recipe, which I posted last night. Once it was up though...I really didn't like how everything looked, something was off. So, the header photo came down and the crab cake remained, all of it together was a little busy for my taste. Back to work on the header, which to be honest I sort of suspected, but because I liked it so much I had to give it a try. So...one step forward--two steps back! But, at least I'm having lots of fun, which after all is the reason for all this!

about

A little about myself...
My name is Katia and the first thing that comes to mind is, I love food! Almost as far back as I can remember I was cooking. My first creations were certainly not my tastiest, at six years old my cookies were referred to as 'rocks' but, that did not slow me down-- it just made me perfect them. After making lots and lots of little cakes in my Easy Bake oven I decided I liked the big oven better and moved on. I then proceeded to make every dish in the children's cookbook...until I got every single thing RIGHT!

While I was always interested in cooking, I studied art in school. I then started a gift basket company in college which evolved into a gourmet food shop and tea room, then a full restaurant and catering operation called The Silver Spoon. After 15 years I sold the restaurant, and in 2010 I opened a boutique catering shop, Gourmet Girls. My hope is to share my passion for all things food-related through this blog-- recipes, new cookbooks, entertaining, kitchen tools, ideas and inspirations. For more information about my new venture go to www.gourmetgirlsbr.com or email me at gourmetgirlsbr at yahoo.com.