Crab Cakes

It was a steak or fish night and I didn't see any deals on steak. None on fish I liked either.  Lot's of imitation crab out though.  I like crab cakes so I picked up a pack and trotted off home.  

Ryan, a long time friend of Fern's, was going to stay for dinner and he doesn't like mayonnaise so no tartar sauce on the cakes. What can I do instead of tartar sauce?   I have avocado so I could make guacamole and set the cakes on that.  I have tomatoes, I could make a salsa for the top. I put some rice on and got the vegetables out.  I had a few spears of asparagus each.  I harvested the first of the snow peas but it still wasn't enough so I added frozen peas to the steamer too.

I cut the avocado into four sections, peeled the skin off them and mashed them in a bowl. I quickly added one tablespoon lemon juice so it wouldn't turn black. Mix in half a teaspoon of salt and put plastic wrap over the bowl to keep the colour.

In the blender I put two tomatoes, a tablespoon of chives, plenty of parsley, a teaspoon of salt, half a teaspoon of cumin, several dashes of tabasco and pulsed it to coarsely chop the tomato.  I tasted it.  Too much cumin. A added another tomato, puréed it and tasted again.  Perfect.

Instead of caramelizing the onion I decided to use chives from the garden. I diced up half a stick of celery and added it to the chives.  I added half a teaspoon garlic powder and one teaspoon onion powder. I put about half a teaspoon of salt in but it wasn't enough, they were a little bland.  I added one teaspoon of paprika and ground some mixed pepper into the bowl. One quarter cup of flour, to hold the egg to the crab. I shredded three quarter pound of crab and broke an egg on top.  Tossed till it was evenly mixed. 

I took the middle section of a three day old loaf of alpine bread and put it in the blender.  A few pulses and I had a soft panko like texture. I formed small cakes and set them in the breading, tossed, then set them on the counter. I put the cakes in a large frying pan with hot oil and put the vegetables on the steamer.  When I had a nice brown on the cakes I turned them over.  The vegetables were almost done so I drained them and put them in the pot on medium low heat with extra virgin olive oil.

I plated the rice on the warm plates and made a base of guacamole for the cakes.  I set the cakes on the guacamole and put a dollop of salsa between them. Finally, I put the vegetables beside the cakes. 

I thought it was all pretty good but Fern didn't particularly like the bland crab cakes. Maybe I'll try real crab if it ever goes on sale.