Green Chile Crab Cakes

Green Chile Crab Cakes with Spiced Mayo
adapted from Pastry Queen

This week's Project Pastry Queen recipe was selected by Tara of Smells Like Home. You can find the full recipe on her blog. It was a great choice and I was pleasantly surprised by how yummy the crab cakes turned out. 

Lump crab meat is mixed together with lime juice, mayo, panko, eggs, cilantro and a sauteed medley of garlic, jalepeno peppers, red bell peppers and onions. The lime added a fresh zing to the crab cakes that you don't normally encounter while the jalepenos contributed a nice heat.



The cakes were then coated with additional panko crumbs.



Then pan-fried in some butter and oil.



The original recipe called for a tomatillo salsa to be served on top. As I didn't have any on hand, I made a simple flavored mayo instead. I mixed a couple of tablespoons of mayo with chopped cilantro, fresh lime juice and 1/4 teaspoon of chipotle in adobo sauce. I also added a few drops of agave syrup to balance out the flavors.

Overall, a solid recipe and I loved the Southwestern tweaks like the lime juice, cilantro and jalepeno. It was a really nice alternative to the traditional version and the recipe is worth trying if you're looking to make some crab cakes. However, be forewarned that lump crab meat is pretty darn expensive. I picked up an 8 ounce tub at Whole Foods and didn't realize it was $14.99 until after I got home and checked my receipt. The 8 ounces served up 6 medium-sized crab cakes with about 2 crab cakes equaling a main dish serving size. You can get away with smaller cakes (10-12 crab cakes using the 8 ounces of meat) to serve as an appetizer rather than a main dish.

Enjoy!