In sourcing the crab for this recipe, Kirk and I found several brands of canned and jarred lump crab meat at Ranch 99. We picked a few jarred ones that consisted of mostly leg meat. The price wasn’t too bad this way. I had heard that buying crab meat from Whole Foods was expensive.
To start, Kirk cooked the onions, bell peppers, and celery in butter. Meanwhile, Ei-lun was whisking the egg, sour cream, mustard, and other ingredients together. We didn’t have Saltine crumbs, so we used breadcrumbs. Kirk then added in the crab meat from the jar.
I was excited at this point because I had just purchased some round cutters, and I used them to form the crab cakes. They look evenly round. I tried a few mini ones with the smaller round cutters. Ei-Lun then breaded the cakes, and then Kirk fried them in the remaining butter.
Lee had prepped up the tartar sauce, and we topped the cakes off.
I thought these tasted really good, and I thought I would make them again. Lee and I did, in fact, make them for Lee’s family as an appetizer at a later date. The tartar sauce really went well with the cakes and I suggest having it with the crab cakes so they aren’t too dry. One thing I learned on this round of cooking was that it was really fun to cook in a “team” atmosphere. It kind of felt like a pro-kitchen where we each had different tasks, and that allowed us to really move fast while we were cooking. Also, I think canned or jarred crab meat is just as good as fresh crab meat when making crab cakes. It really saves a lot of time and money; and I thought it tasted great. I like the spice in this dish as well.
