whine & dine

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I love crab. However, as a fan of crustaceans in general, I usually find myself opting for the easier-to-reach variety like prawns, lobster, and crayfish. Hence, it’s really no surprise that I’m a huge fan of crab cakes – they simply spell out delicious crab without all the hard work of digging through the shells for the gorgeous little nuggets of flesh.

One problem, however, is that the crab cakes one finds in most restaurants, cafes and bars these days are really more fish cakes than crab cakes. Worse, many of them have mountains of fillers in them – ranging from breadcrumbs to mashed potatoes. More often than not, I end up feeling like I’m eating a korroke (a little lump of minced meat which is encased in mashed potato, battered, breaded and deep fried as a popular Japanese snack item) rather than crab cakes. These, to me, should have chunks of crab meat, plenty of fresh flavour, fried to golden brown perfection on the outside and steaming hot on the inside. Also, I personally prefer them served with a fairly simple sauce which will heighten the flavour more than drown out the fishiness which diners hopefully won’t detect.

Having found a tub of claw crab meat, I decided to try out making these things on my own. I would, of course, recommend that you use live crabs which you kill and cook on your own as nothing beats them, but if you don’t have the time (or can’t be bothered like me), you can easily find good quality pasteurised crab meat in tins nowadays. I also added a bit of potato as I felt that it lightened the texture significantly in an amount that would not detract from the taste of the main ingredients.

Crab Cakes with Basil Aioli

For the crab cakes:
400g white fish fillets (I use dory)
1 egg
50g boiled potato
400g crab meat (either a mixture of dark and white meat from a live crab, or claw meat from a tin)
salt & freshly ground pepper to taste
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
5 cloves of garlic, finely minced
1 small red onion, finely diced
about 1/2 cup Japanese panko for breading
canola oil (or any other mild tasting oil) for deep frying

Cut the fish into small chunks, then blitz with the egg, potato, and garlic in a food processor until sticky and completely pulverised. This helps them to bind together without the use of breadcrumbs and other fillers.

In a medium mixing bowl, fold the fish paste, crab meat, lemon juice, and onion together. Season with salt and pepper, then break off a little piece and fry it to check your seasoning. Divide the mixture into 15 balls, roll them tightly, then press to flatten into a disc that’s 0.5cm thick. Roll in panko to coat, then refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or until ready to cook.

For the aioli:

1 egg yolk
1 large clove of garlic, finely minced
100ml olive oil (not extra virgin)
2 tbsp lemon juice
salt
5 large leaves of basil, cut into chiffonade

Whisk the egg yolk and garlic together until the colour turns pale. Slowly drizzle in the oil, whisking continuously to emulsify, and continue until all the oil is used up. Whisk in the lemon juice and salt to taste, then stir in the basil. Keep refrigerated in a covered container until ready to serve.

To serve:

Heat about 1cm of canola oil in a heavy based saucepan to 170C. Fry for 1-2 minutes on one side until golden brown, then flip over to finish cooking. You know that the cakes are cooked through when a metal skewer pierced into the middle of the cake feels hot on your lower lip.

Serve with basil aioli.

Yield: Makes 15.