Chipotle Crab Cake
The major component of a good crab cake is the type of crab that is used. People will fight over what they believe to be the right one but I am personal fan of use what you like and what is available to you. Since I live in the Midwest the closest I can get to crab comes in plastic containers (I am not flying fresh crab in). I like to use lump crab meat from the blue crab.
Making homemade mayonnaise is really simple to do it just takes a lot of patience and time. I like to use my trusty hand mixer for this process since I always have amazing luck over the KitchenAid (you can use a whisk but your arm will be dead by the end). I mix together 1 egg yolk with a dash of dijon mustard and a splash of white vinegar for about a minute. Then using a hand mixer drop in a couple drops of either olive oil or canola oil and let it combine together. Once that is together put a couple more drops in and let that come together. After a couple times of this you will have a pretty good emulsion so you can slowly drizzle in 1 cup of the oil (think pencil tip stream). If you feel that it is starting to break stop drizzling in the oil and keep mixing. Usually that will save the emulsion but if it breaks then in another bowl beat an egg yolk and then restart the process using your broken mayonnaise and the remaining oil. When you are done you will have a perfect mayonnaise that you can add in whatever flavors you like.
For this recipe you will need:
- 1 lb of crab meat
- 1/2 cup of panko or bread crumbs
- 1/2 cup of mayonnaise
- 1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce finely diced
- 1 teaspoon of the chipotle adobo sauce
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- pinch of cayenne
- 1 TB of lemon juice
- couple pinches of kosher salt
- couple pinches of black pepper
- 1 egg yolk
Put everything in a large bowl and combine thoroughly.
Once it is combined take about 1/4 of the mixture and form into a patty.
Over medium-high heat add in 2 TB of butter along with 2 TB of a high temperature oil (I used canola). After the butter stops foaming add in the crab patty and cook till brown and heated through (about 3 minutes a side).
Serve and enjoy with more of the chipotle mayo on the side (yes I know this is a sad looking plate but I was hungry and to lazy to cut up something to make it look more presentable)!
I really like the sound of chipotle spicy crab cakes! Making your own mayo sounds like fun.
Ok, so this is a delayed reaction! Loving the crab cakes, and kudos for making your own mayo!!!
Hi Jeff - Living in Maryland, we are lucky to have fresh crab meat, so we make a lot of crab cakes - but I’ve never tried adding chipotle. And I love me the chipotles in adobo!
As a rule of thumb, we always mix all the ingredients except the crab meat, tasting for seasoning. By gently folding in the crab meat last, you don’t break it up as much.
Definitely going to try this recipe as well as the chipotle-mayo!