21 Club Crab Cakes
It’s been close to 30 years since I’ve eaten crab cakes at the 21 Club, but I do recall loving them. So as I was searching for a recipe to use the lump crabmeat I had in the fridge and came across the legendary restaurant’s crab-cake recipe on Epicurious, complete with cilantro, jalapeño and bell peppers, I knew this was the one. I didn’t have Old Bay Seasoning, so I just added a little celery seed, paprika, dry mustard, ginger, and cardamom instead. They were perfectly delicious. I served them with Grilled Corn on the Cob, Shoe String Sweet Potato Fries and a green salad.
Makes 8 first-course servings or 4 main-course servingsIngredients
Ingredients
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1/4-inch dice
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into 1/4-inch dice
6 slices firm white sandwich bread, crusts discarded
1 pound jumbo lump crab meat, picked over
1/4 cup fresh coriander leaves, washed well, spun dry, and chopped
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons Old Bay seasoning
1 jalapeño chili, or to taste, seeded and chopped fine (wear rubber gloves)
1 tablespoon minced garlic
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Accompaniments:
Chili mayonnaise or mayonnaise flavored with mustard or horseradish
Preparation
In a skillet heat 1 tablespoon oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and sauté bell peppers until softened. Cool peppers. In a food processor grind bread into fine crumbs.
In a bowl stir together bell peppers, crab, coriander, mayonnaise, Old Bay seasoning, jalapeño, garlic, 2 tablespoons bread crumbs, black pepper, and salt to taste until combined well and chill 20 minutes.
With a 2-ounce ice-cream scoop or 1/4-cup measure, scoop crab mixture into 8 portions and pat each into 3/4-inch-thick disk. Spread remaining bread crumbs on a sheet of wax paper and gently press each crab cake into them, turning it, to coat evenly. To help prevent crumbling during cooking chill crab cakes, covered loosely, at least 1 hour and up to 1 day.
Preheat oven to 375°F.
In a 12-inch skillet heat 1 tablespoon oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and sauté half of crab cakes until golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Turn crab cakes carefully and brown other sides. Transfer sautéed crab cakes carefully to a baking sheet. Add remaining tablespoon oil to skillet and sauté remaining crab cakes in same manner. On baking sheet bake all crab cakes 6 minutes, or until heated through.
Serve crab cakes with mayonnaise.
