Excerpt from A SOUTHERN THANKSGIVING

A S outhern T han k s g i v in g

NEW ORLEANS CRAB CAKES Appetizer for Twelve or Alternate Thanksgiving Dinner for Six (Requir­ing no trimmings) There’s an awful lot of passion and time wasted on debat­ing the nature of a real crab cake, but I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t like them—either their own abso­lutely essen­tial and correct version or someone else’s coun­ter­feit variety. I’m includ­ing the recipe I prefer, which may enrage anyone from Maryland. When our chil­dren lived too far away to come home for the holi­days, these crab cakes were an easy and deli­cious replace­ment for our tradi­tional Thanksgiving dinner, and depend­ing on how many people are coming to our house for Thanksgiving I some­times serve these as a first course, although on those occa­sions I pare the meal down a bit other­wise, because these are surpris­ingly filling.

I order jumbo lump crab meat from The Crab Place, in Crisfield, Maryland (crab­place.com), and it is so beau­ti­fully hand-­picked that there is no need to look for bits of shell; you can use it imme­di­ately out of its container. I love the flavor of crab, and the only season­ing I use is minced bell pepper and minced parsley; but if you prefer the Maryland version you may as well use the recipe on the back of the Old Bay season­ing can. It’s good, although in my opinion it’s a waste of

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very expens­ive and delic­ately flavored crab, but I’ll admit to cher­ish­ing my own Louisiana recipes and season­ings for Gumbo and Jambalaya, and I’ve never found or been served a satis­fact­ory version else­where. Certainly in the case of regional cuisine the famil­iar maxim holds true: De gusti­bus non est disputan­dum—About taste there can be no argu­ment.

3 pounds jumbo lump crab meat ordered from The Crab Place to arrive the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, or two days before you intend to serve the crab cakes 3 eggs, beaten with: 1 cup mayon­naise 11/2 to 2 cups panko crumbs (or crushed salt­ines—about 30) 1 seeded green bell pepper

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1 seeded red bell pepper 1 bunch washed and dried curly parsley EQUIPMENT

• Food processor • Skillet • Colander • Mixing bowl • Broiler pan

1. Dice and then chop together the peppers and parsley by hand or in a food processor, pulsing so that you get an evenly minced texture.

2. In a covered skillet sweat the minced veget­ables in 2 tablespoons butter or oil until they are limp and wilted. Allow to cool and then mix into the beaten eggs approx­im­ately 6 tablespoons of the sautéed, minced veget­ables. If you have veget­ables remain­ ing, spoon them onto a piece of aluminum foil, fold the foil into a sealed packet, and freeze for future use.

3. Handling the beau­ti­ful lump crab meat as little as possible, drain it in a colan­der and trans­fer to a large, wide mixing bowl, spread­ing and loosen­ing the packed crab evenly, and as gently as possible in order not to break the lumps into smaller pieces.

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4. Pour the egg and veget­able mixture over the crab and, using your hands, distrib­ute as evenly as possible through­out the crab meat, lifting and turning as gently as possible.

5. Slowly begin adding the panko crumbs, start­ing with one cup sprinkled and folded by hand into the crab. Add as much as you need but not so much that the texture becomes sticky. Allow the mixture to sit for 1/2 hour so the panko crumbs absorb the liquid and thicken. You will be placing these directly on a broiler pan and cooking them only on one side, so they will not have to be flipped, which makes forming the crab cakes much less worri­some.

You should have twelve loosely held together crab cakes, slightly mounded—they will not hold the hockey-­puck shape we’re used to being served in restaur­ants unless they have too much bread.

What these lack in beauty, however, they more than make up for in flavor.

6. Place them on a greased or buttered shallow-­sided pan—I use a broiler pan—and refri­ger­ate uncovered for several hours.

Remove them from the refri­ger­ator about 30 minutes before cooking and brush the tops or drizzle with melted butter.

To Broil: Place the oven rack about four to six inches from the broiler and pre­heat the oven to 500ºF on Bake so that the entire oven is hot, before you change the setting to Broil. Allow the broiler to heat for another five minutes. If the crab cakes

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have exuded liquid or wept, just use a paper towel to absorb what you can—it’s an easier solu­tion than moving them unbroken to another pan. Broil the crab cakes for about 12 to 15 minutes, moving the pan to a lower rack if the tops begin to brown too quickly.

To Serve: I put a half lemon on each plate, because the crab cakes are deli­cious with nothing more than lemon juice. But I decor­ate the plates with a lattice of Balsamic reduc­tion (or syrup), which you can make your­self or buy online from any number of sites if your store doesn’t carry it. Add two crab cakes per person for an entrée, and serve with Wasabi mayon­naise. These are also wonder­ful with nothing more than tartar sauce.

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