Crab Cakes

Mmm mm! 4 oz. crab cake with Israeli couscous (our current obsession) cooked in crab stock.

I’m back! I spent the last month working at a clinic in the coastal fishing town of Westport, WA. I had some of the best seafood ever while I was down there – crab, salmon, tuna, spot prawns all fresh off the fishing boats. Before heading back to Seattle, K., the gal I was staying with, hooked me up with 6 Dungeness crabs to take home. Whoohoo! I also had the clams we dug up the day before, salmon a neighbor brought over from his fishing, and blueberries I picked from the shrubs outside the house. It was some seriously sweet loot to take home.

My dad is in town and Dungeness crab is his favorite. We feasted on steamed crab with fresh ginger spiked black Zhejiang vinegar for dipping. I cleaned and picked out the meat from the leftover crabs for crab cakes. Dungeness crab is one of the meatiest crabs but even so, it took two very large crabs to yield one pound of crab meat. Jumbo lump Dungeness crab meat goes for around $25 a pound at my local fish market. Pretty darn steep in my book but it takes about three to four pounds of whole crab to yield a pound of crab meat and then factor in the time spent to get the crab out of the shell, the price is understandable.

Too many recipes out there have all sorts of fillers added to the crab – onion, bell pepper, even celery (blech), and calls for way, way too much bread crumbs. You end up with an onion flavored hockey puck. No thank you! The best crab cake in my book is made with as much crab meat as possible, no veggies, and minimal bread crumbs. I use panko because it’s light and airy and won’t weigh the crab down. Don’t even think about using the stale stuff that comes in a cardboard canister. The most important step is to thoroughly chill the cakes for at least an hour so they get a chance to set up in the fridge, otherwise the cakes will fall apart in the pan.

Ginger Lime Crab Cakes
1 lb jumbo lump crab meat
1 egg
2 Tbsp mayonnaise
2 Tbsp chopped green onions, green parts only (approx 3 green onion tops)
2 Tbsp chopped parsley
1 Tbsp juice (approx from half a small lime)
1 Tbsp sweet relish
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1/2 tsp lime zest (approx from half a small lime)
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp black pepper
Optional: dash of fish sauce
1/4 C panko bread crumbs and more to bread

Vegetable oil to fry 4 – 5 minutes on medium heat


Pick over the crab meat and discard any pieces of shell. Drain the crab meat on a few sheets of paper towels to soak up any excess moisture. You may have to gently squeeze the crab meat to remove excess liquid (you don't want to go overboard and have it end up bone dry either).

In a small bowl, whisk all of the ingredients together except for the panko and crab meat and mix into a smooth sauce. Pour over the crab meat and add the panko bread crumbs. Gently fold together the crab, sauce, and bread crumbs. Try to keep the large crab meat pieces intact while mixing.

Divide the mix into 4 and squeeze the mixture tightly together to form a 3 – 4 inch patty that’s roughly 3/4 inch thick. Put the crab cakes on a plate and cover with plastic wrap. Chill for at least an hour, up to overnight.

Pour some panko onto a plate and bread both sides of the crab cake with the bread crumbs.

Heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Fry the crab cakes 4 – 5 minutes on one side then carefully flip and continue to cook for an additional 4 – 5 minutes. If the crust is browning too fast, turn the heat down. Frying the crab cakes slowly ensures that they are heated through by the time the crust get crisp and golden brown. Resist the urge to flip the cakes more than once because they are more likely to fall apart with repeated flipping.

Serve with dipping sauce of your choice.

Sriracha Mayonnaise
2 Tbsp mayonnaise
2 tsp Sriracha
1 tsp lime juice
1/4 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp fish sauce

Whisk all of the ingredients together in a bowl.

LA Trip and Bibimbap

Steven and I went on a short, laid back trip down to LA two weekends ago where we didn't do much but eat, our kind of vacation. It's ridiculous how much good food there is down in SoCal.

First stop: xiao long bao. I’d been dying for a fix since my last Vancouver, BC trip. Steven and I were debating if we should visit Din Tai Fung since they’re world renowned and we’d be within 10 minutes of the only North American branch. After asking both Steven’s sister who’s eaten there and Wandering Chopsticks, we heard that the wait is too long, the dumplings are tiny and overpriced so we decided it wasn’t worth it. We love our soup dumplings but we’re also poor students.

Instead, we visited both Mei Long Village and JJ's based on Wandering Chopsticks’ recommendations. The two restaurants are in the same complex, literally 30 feet away. Maybe we went at an off time, but the pork xiao long bao at Mei Longs barely had any soup. I was pretty bummed. The meat and the soup, albeit very little, was flavorful. The crab dumplings were, however, very mediocre just like WC said. We paid our bill and went to JJ’s, 2 shops away. Their pork dumplings had sooo much more soup. In the end it was a tossup for the pork soup dumplings, Steven preferred the flavor of Mei Long's, I preferred JJ. The crab dumplings at JJ were hands down much better, way more crab flavor and soup. Again just echoing what WC wrote in her original posts about the two dumping houses. The crab dumplings are definitely worthwhile but don’t bother with the sheng jian bao. They’re way too bready and have no soup. For sheng jian bao, WC recommended Kang Kang food court, which we went to later that night for shaved ice but didn’t have enough stomach room left for sheng jian bao.

Later that night, we visited SoCal’s famous Pinkberry. The original flavor is definitely the best. The original with raspberries, almonds, and chocolate made our night. Pass on the green tea froyo, it had barely any matcha flavor and it just didn't taste right. We recently tried some froyo at a place near UW campus and it didn’t come anywhere close to the wonders of Pinkberry. I have a feeling I’m gonna need a fix in the near future.

At around 10pm we met up with WC, who took us to her favorite Hong Kong café, Baccali. Milk tea plus condensed milk with endless refills, Malaysian style roast chicken with curried rice, salted fish and chicken fried rice, deep fried chicken wings, and beef chow fun. It was a diverse array of food but the concept works and tastes even better late at night. Steven and I ate so much, we were in pain for a bit. I think it was the free tea refills that did us in.

We started Day 2 off with lunch at In-n-Out. Animal style cheeseburgers and well done fries. The burgers were delicious and ridiculously cheap! I was expecting the “well-done” fries to be extra crispy but still fluffy on the inside, but these were fried all the way through so they just tasted dry and stale. I’ll skip these next time and just get the regular fries.

For dinner, we drove to Koreatown for Korean BBQ at Chung Kiwa. The seafood pancake was chock-full of delicious seafood but way too pricey at $18. The black angus kalbi and spicy pork (daeji bulgogi) were both very tasty. I liked the rice noodle sheets for wrapping the beef but Steven and I were more used to lettuce leaves. The waitstaff are very attentive and continually checked on us and cooked our food, even though we didn’t understand a word of Korean.

It was a delicious, calorie-filled trip but after 2 days of LA smog, it was good to be back home in Seattle. Thank you to Wandering Chopsticks for being our fearless leader at Baccali and Jen of Use Real Butter for your great restaurant list, I wish we had more time to check out all the fantastic places you recommended.

Now for a short recipe.


I think the most appropriate recipe to follow this trip report would be the bulgogi bibimbap photos I took over a month ago. My favorite is the dolsot bibimbap, bibimbap served in a big hot stone bowl. The crispy rice crust that forms along the side of the bowl is the best part. I have no idea where to buy those cool bowls and it’s probably too much trouble to mess with at home so I’ll leave that to the pros. Bibimbap literally means mixed rice and stirring it up is definitely the best part and looks even more delicious.



I normally throw bibimbap together and have no coherent recipe. I made it again yesterday and I’ve come to the conclusion that I probably won’t ever write down an exact recipe because it’s more work to get the exact measurements than to just wing it and throw stuff together. Cooked zucchini, grated carrot, leftover meat or tofu, steamed rice, fried egg, and bibimbap sauce are the bare minimal. It only takes me 15 minutes to make a bare bones version because I usually don’t go all out and make fresh bulgogi or marinated bean sprouts. Yesterday I covered a small 8 oz. salmon fillet with some the same marinade I use for kalbi, and roasted it in the toaster oven. Prepare as many of the sides as you like, it would take way too much time to make them all.

Bibimbap – Korean Mixed Rice
Steamed rice
Browned ground beef or tofu with a little soy sauce, sugar, and garlic, leftover bulgogi, spicy pork bulgogi, or kalbi
Kimchi
Grated carrot
Grated daikon
Zucchini, julienned and sautéed with salt in a little vegetable oil
Button mushrooms or shiitake mushrooms, sliced and sautéed with salt in vegetable oil, finish with sesame oil drizzle
Seasoned beans sprouts
Spinach
Seasame seeds for garnish
Fried egg for each serving
Bibimbap sauce

Bibimbap Sauce
Gochujang (or substitute Szechuan hot bean sauce – dou ban jiang)
Mix in sesame oil and thin with a little water
Optional: honey + rice vinegar to taste