My Sixty-first - Crab Cakes -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My Sixty-first  recipe for the new cookbook - Crab Cakes

So a couple of weeks ago, I was watching Diner, Drive-ins, and Dives on Food Network and they were cooking up crab cakes.  I realized that I hadn't had a crab cake in quite a long time.  SO, I checked with my Maryland transplant friend, Bill Carruth,  who also races sailboats in Baltimore Harbor,  what I should recommend to turn crab cakes into a meal.  His response - "It's usually corn on the cob, potatoes, and beer. Mostly beer."

I couldn't have agreed more.

So you can argue about the proper mix of lump crab meat, so, I'm going to punt and just say that I cheat, and pick up pre-made uncooked pre-scooped crab cake balls at my local grocery store. OH THE HUMANITY.  My wife is not a crab-eater, and my daughter is a vegetarian, so it's just me.

I crave crab cakes, but I don't crave eating crab cakes for every meal for the next week and half.

Since I'm making these selfishly for myself, I'll include my other indulgences . . .

JHO CRAB CAKES PUREE
1 cup ale (non-alcoholic if needed)
2 scoops of raw crab cake

1/8 inch of bacon grease

1/4 cup frozen corn
2 pats butter

1 roasted red potato you can also brown these in the bacon grease

fill the blender with above ingredients, then fill the rest of the blender to the "4 cup mark" with hot water

ADDITIONAL OPTIONS EXTRAS

roasted zucchini - if you feel the need to add veggies
pinch of extra Old Bay seasoning
1/2 a squeezed lime
Ritz crackers

BACON GREASE
Everything taste better cooked in bacon grease.  Most of us are trying to put on weight, I find bacon grease very friendly.  Listen, cancer didn't kill me twice, I'm not worried about the long-term effects of bacon grease.

My wife hates the smell of bacon in the house, so I cook my bacon out on the deck on my Weber grill with the side burner.  OK, I cook a lot of my summer meals on the grill.  This morning, I cooked my pancakes in bacon grease on the grill.

I like about an 1/8 of an inch of grease to have the proper thickness to create the crust on my crab cake.   The important part is to let the crab cake sit, and not flip it over too many times and have all the great juices inside run out.  With the heat on medium, cook each side for 5 minutes each.  Only flip once.  Do not drain the crab cakes, not place them on a paper towel to soak up the extra grease.  Add it right into the cup of beer already in the blender.

RED BLISS POTATO
In the summer time.  I roast red bliss potatoes all the time.  I keep them on hand to add to any puree.  I prefer them because they roast on the outdoor grill better than most potatoes, and skins puree well, without a funky texture when you drink it.  Whenever I am grilling, there is always room for a couple of red potatoes on the top shelf.  I typically quarter them before I had them to the blender.  In this case, I typically slice them and brown them in the grease with the crab cakes.

BEER
Use what you have on hand,  I'm more of a fan of English Style Ales and IPAs.  Of course in Boston, we like Sam Adams.  For non-alcoholic I typically use O-Douls Amber.  Leinenkugel’s® Summer Shandy® adds a nice lemony flavor.

CORN ON THE COB
When I can, I buy corn on the cob and cook them on the grill keeping the husk on.  Although, I posted a recipe from FoodNetwork, I typically slow cook them on the top shelf of my Weber grill.  I'd like to say that I use my grilled corn in my puree, but my daughter usually eats them before I get them in the puree.

PUREE
So I typically make 4 cups worth of crab cake puree.  For me, that is two 2-cup meals.

RITZ CRACKERS
Hopely the purist don't read down this far, because crab cakes and Ritz Crackers are awesome.  I just throw a couple in the blender.

VEGGIES
If you really have to, you can add a little coleslaw.

COMMENTS
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