In my house, we eat fish pretty regularly. However, other seafood such as crab isn’t eaten quite as much. In fact, growing up, we only ate crab once per year – on Christmas Eve. And it was in the form of crab cakes. I always enjoyed eating the crab cakes with that Christmas Eve meal, however I was perfectly fine just eating them one time per year. That is, until I had crab cakes again this past Christmas and realized just how much I loved them.
Since my mom is Italian, we like to incorporate some of her family traditions into our family, and one of those traditions involves eating several different kinds of fish or seafood with Christmas Eve dinner. This past year, I was living in Augusta, Georgia, so for the first time ever, I didn’t have Christmas at home with my parents in Michigan. Luckily, I have absolutely phenomenal parents who decided to come to Georgia to spend Christmas with me in my cozy apartment!
Now let me just say that Christmas Eve dinner is usually a pretty big ordeal for us at home – we spend all day prepping the food and cooking it, and then we set our dining room table with our nice China dishes and dig in. But this past year was a little different because we weren’t at home and couldn’t spend all day making a gourmet meal. However, we decided we were going to do our best to re-create our Christmas Eve dinner as best as we could and make all of the same food we normally have.
Since I didn’t have most of the ingredients on hand to make these foods, on December 23rd, we headed over to The Fresh Market (a local grocery store) to pick up what we would need. While we were searching for cocktail sauce (because we always have this with our fish on Christmas Eve!), we peered behind the seafood counter and all commented on how good the crab cakes looked. We decided we couldn’t leave without them, so we purchased 3 crab cakes, along with some other things we would need to complete the meal.
When Christmas Eve arrived, we did the best we could with the space we had in my apartment and made a meal full of most of our usual Christmas Eve foods: shrimp, baked white fish, polenta, veggies, and breadcrumb pasta. And crab cakes, of course!
It certainly wasn’t as grand as the Christmas Eve dinner we normally have at home, but this meal was still very special for me. Who cares that I didn’t have a table overflowing with gourmet foods or fancy wines? All that mattered was that I was with my parents, we were safe and warm, and we could celebrate the true meaning of Christmas together.
Despite most of these foods being store-bought as opposed to homemade, they were all incredibly delicious. In fact, we couldn’t get over how great the crab cakes were. They were fan-freaking-tastic! And then the cocktail sauce we bought to go with them? Wow – that stuff was addicting. It was unlike any other cocktail sauce I have ever had (it was 10 times better), and my parents quickly agreed that it was their absolute favorite sauce. So even though this meal wasn’t perfect by any means, three incredible things came out of it: 1) I re-discovered how much I loved crab cakes, 2) I found my absolute favorite cocktail sauce ever, and 3) I got to enjoy quality time with my parents.
A few months later, things started to get bad with my health, so I moved back home to Michigan to be with my parents. One night, we were sitting on the couch and reminiscing about how we cooked that delicious meal in my apartment in Georgia, and then an idea popped into our heads: let’s make crab cakes! Sure enough, I started looking up recipes for crab cakes, and once I combined a few recipes to make one of my own, we went out and bought everything we needed to make them.
The very first time we made them, I used a cookie scoop to roll them into balls, almost like the size of meatballs.
They were the perfect side dish with the meal we were eating, and they paired perfectly with the cocktail sauce we bought at The Fresh Market. (Before leaving Augusta, I stocked up on the cocktail sauce because we loved it so much!) After we were done eating dinner that night, my dad said to me, “you definitely need to keep this recipe and make it again. It was incredible”. Coming from my dad, this is pretty much the jackpot! You see, he’s not very picky with foods and he eats almost anything put in front of you. But when he says something is good and asks you to make it again, you know it’s a good recipe!
Since then, we’ve made these crab cakes over and over again, and I think we’ve perfected the recipe. The only thing that changed is that now, instead of making crab cake “bites”, we make them slightly bigger and smash them down into patties. This way, you get a chance to better appreciate the flavor and texture because the patties are much bigger.
Depending on the size we make, we usually get around 16 patties or 28 bite-sized crab cakes. Most of the time we eat them within one-two days after making them, but we’ve also discovered that they freeze really well. Just wrap them up tightly and place them in a sealed bag or container, and then pull them out whenever you’re ready to eat them again.
Since making this recipe, crab cakes have become a more common food in my household and aren’t reserved strictly for Christmas Eve anymore. However, you better believe that they’ll still be making an appearance at our Christmas Eve dinners every year from now on!
- 1 pound (16 ounces) jumbo lump crab meat
- 2 tablespoons butter
- ¼ cup green onion (or white onion), diced
- 3 tablespoons red bell pepper, diced
- 3 tablespoons celery, diced
- 1 tablespoon parsley, minced
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- ¼ teaspoon Dijon mustard
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1¼ cup Panko bread crumbs
- 1½ cup canola oil
- Rinse lump crab meat and pick through for any shells. Drain well and add to a bowl.
- Heat a medium skillet over medium heat and add the butter. Once melted, add the onions, red bell pepper, and celery and sauté for a few minutes.
- Season with salt and pepper and cook for 3-5 minutes, or until vegetables have softened.
- Add the veggies to the lump crab meat with the parsley.
- In small bowl, combine the egg, Worcestershire sauce, mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, and cayenne pepper and add to the crab meat mixture.
- Stir gently to combine. Fold in 1 cup Panko bread crumbs.
- Roll crab meat mixture into 1 inch balls, and coat in remaining Panko bread crumbs (or mix all of the bread crumbs into the crab mixture, which is what I normally do)
- Refrigerate the crab cakes for a few minutes so they don't fall apart.
- Lightly drizzle a skillet with olive oil. Brown the crab cakes, gently turning each one so all sides are golden brown, about 3-4 minutes each side. Drain them on a paper towel. *
- Place crab cakes on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake for a few minutes (or in the toaster oven) at 350 until crispy and completely browned.
