The puree has a lot more raw-rutabaganess in it than I would like. Don't know how the chef from the farmers market did it so nice. It might just be undercooked. Shoulda looked up a proper recipe before trying.
Monday, January 18, 2010
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JJ, can I get your crab cakes recipe? Those look awesome!
ReplyDeleteHey, Anthony.
ReplyDeleteOf all the things I've made recently, the crab cakes and the chicken salad with the shredded carrots have been the 2 best tasting things by far. The chicken salad is a 100 times easier to make too so I'll post a recipe for that below as well.
I'm guesstimating on the amounts of a lot of the stuff cause I just throw them in as I feel like.
Crab cakes:
16 oz can of jumbo lump crab (from costco)
2 eggs
1 shallot (or quarter of an onion) very finely chopped
3 cloves garlic very finely chopped
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (more if you like kick)
Small squirt of brown mustard
1 tbsp lemon juice (buy a small bottle of it. I use it for all my salads and for anything I fry cause)
1 tbsp EVOO
1 tbsp mayo OR 1 tbsp plain yogurt (optional)
1/2 cup almond meal/flour
Beat the 2 eggs very well in a large bowl. Add everything else to the bowl and mix it thoroughly with your hands. Take slightly bigger than golf ball sized amounts and form into patties. I got 10 good sized cakes out of this. Pour some extra almond meal on to a plate and pat the patties down onto the meal on both sides to "bread" them a little bit. Heat up a large skillet to medium heat with a generous amount of oil covering the entire bottom. Fry on both sides until dark brown.
Add some more lemon juice on top before eating.
This is a more technically challenging dish than I do normally because of the almond meal and because it's so fragile. Cooking tips which you may or may not need:
1) Chop those shallots and garlic very fine or the cake will not hold together as well.
2) Have a big wide space reserved to put all your patties as you are forming them. I just laid out a 1.5 foot piece of aluminum foil on my counter. You'll need that room to use your spatula to carefully pick them up without breaking them.
3) Almond meal seems to burn quicker than bread crumbs, so don't make the patties too thick. 1cm is good. That way, the middle will be done before the outside has to burn.
4) Don't move the crab cakes once on the pan. You can lift the edge a little bit to peek underneath to see if it's brown, but do not move it around until a nice thick brown crust is formed and you are ready to flip.
5) When you are ready to flip the patties, use the thinnest spatula you got and get under it in one quick motion. You gotta commit to it, like a good squat clean or you'll lose your crust or break the cake.
6) Don't crowd the pan. On a 12 inch skillet, I did 4 at a time. You need the room to maneuver your spatula without destroying the other cakes.
7) Also, because of the quick burning nature, make sure the heat is not too high. when you drop the cake in the pan, it should be a light sizzle with some bubbles coming out the edges. If it's a splattering loud sizzle, turn it down.
Chicken salad recipe:
ReplyDeleteBuy rotisserie chicken from supermarket.
Eat dark meat as a meal.
Use fingers to shred/pull all the white meat in a bowl and save for later.
When you're ready to make the salad, mix the following together in a big bowl:
5 oz of the pulled white meat
1 carrot grated
1/2 asian pear (or 1 med apple) cut julienned or shoestring french fry style
1-2 tbsp lemon juice to your preference
1 tbsp EVOO
Few grinds of black pepper.
Squirt of brown mustard.
1 oz walnut (optional)
1 tsp of dried parsley or basil or oregano or whatever you got on hand (optional)
Think I got 5 meals out of one chicken this way (2 meals of leg quarters, 3 meals of the salad)
Thanks JJ!--my cooking skills are limited, if not non-existent. I definitely want to make those crab cakes at some point but I think I'll try my hand at the chicken salad first--can't wait to eat it.
ReplyDelete