A few months I shared a bit of the story about my MaMa (pronounced maw-maw) and her creation of what seemed to be (and were) almost magical seafood delicacies using critters that were swimming a few hours before….
Back in the day (way back in the day) my grandparents had a beach house a few hundred yards upriver from the mouth of Colorado River where it emptied into the Gulf of Mexico (the river has since been redirected).
It was a large shack in all honesty, painted a shameless red and named the Mason Rouge.
Destroyed several times by the storms of the day (including being cleaned to the slab by Carla) my grandfather built it back a little bigger every time.
Nicknamed ‘The Camp’, for a small child it represented near endless freedom to fish, throw rocks, catch blue crabs, get sunburned and eat.
Details of the days spent there tend to blur somewhat with the passage of time, though I can still smell the food Ma Ma cooked with love and care over the ancient gas stove.
Fresh fish done a dozen ways, but best simply broiled or fried, with boiled and fried shrimp, crab claws, fish and crab cakes – all followed by dense, sweet pound cake and lemon jelly.
Fresh seafood in her world meant that it was swimming minutes before she touched it.
She would shuffle to the pier as we cleaned the morning’s or afternoon’s catch, walk with us to Ed’s – the shrimper at the end of block – to buy live shrimp jumping out of the tank and we’d empty the crab trap every afternoon before dinner.
We had a big Texas styled crab trap hanging from the end of the pier around the clock and every day or so there would be another batch of blue crabs ready for the pot.
When you’re 5 or 6 a big blue crab looks huge, almost monster sized. We were always amazed at how Ma Ma would reach in the bucket barehanded, snatch a big one without getting pinched and dispatch it with quick, efficient coolness, all the while telling us stories and teaching much more than she probably ever realized.
We spent many a sweltering afternoon sitting at the big table on the porch, replete with the requisite blue checkered plastic tablecloth, cracking claws and picking crabmeat to gather up a mess to make crab cakes and crab cocktails.
The fresh crab was like nothing else – sweet and rich with a background note of the sea.
Most of us don’t have a crab trap hanging off the end of the pier 100 feet from the front door, though you can round up some fresh crab now and again for a splurge.
We’ve played with a lot of crab cake recipes over the years, and this is one is probably our favorite of them all.
MaMa would definitely approve.
2 cups mayonnaise
3 tbs (or more) chili-garlic sauce
1 tsp dried red pepper flakes
4 tbs fresh lemon juice1 cup red bell pepper, chopped fine (half yellow looks nifty)
2/3 cup celery, chopped fine
1/2 cup red onion, chopped fine
1/2 cup sweet white onion, chopped fine
2 green onions, green and white parts, chopped fine
4 tbs seeded jalapeño chili, chopped fine
1 tbs Jalapeno Tabasco
1 and 1/2 pound crabmeat, picked and cleaned
1/2 pound fresh shrimp, chopped medium (optional)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
8 cups fresh breadcrumbs made from day old french bread
Make the Chili-Garlic Aioli. Mix the mayonnaise, chili-garlic sauce, red pepper flakes and 2 tbs of the lemon juice until evenly colored. May need a bit more chili-garlic sauce pending how hot you want your sauce to be; this one will heat a bit as it sits from the dried red pepper flakes.
Make the crab cakes. Heat a tbs of olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Saute the red bell pepper, celery and all three onions until just soft. Scrape into a large bowl (draining any collected liquid) and add the eggs, 1 cup of the chili-garlic mayonnaise, green Tabasco and the other 2 tbs of the lemon juice. Stir to combine, fold in the crabmeat (and shrimp if you’re using them) and then add 3 cups of the breadcrumbs.
Form into 16 1/2-inch thick cakes using 1/2 cup of the crab mixture for each cake. Dredge cakes in the remainder of the breadcrumbs, coating each thoroughly on all sides. Place each cake on a baking sheet and refrigerate for at least an hour (no more than 8).
Cook ‘em up. Heat another 2 tbs olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. It will take several batches to cook the cakes until crispy and golden brown, aim for 3 to 4 minutes per side. Hold on a warm plate (or in a very low oven) and serve with a big dollop of the Chili-Garlic Aioli.
These scream for a cold adult beverage, something you’d drink on the beach, and we can guarantee you’ll want more than three (we never have leftovers serving 4 adults). Hot damn.
Enjoy.
Tags: Friday Feast
