Day 15. Un-fried crabcakes.

I liked these. They were light, delicate-tasting, and had the advantage of not being fried.

Idaho Falls does not have a big corner on the fresh fish food market. I was a little intimidated about buying crab, and Rosie doesn't give much direction other than to say "fresh" crab.  There were bags of imitation crab, which I pondered because I liked the price.  There were Styrofoam trays of frozen cooked crab legs in the Winco meat department; I don't think frozen is the same as 'fresh' but it is certainly as fresh as you are going to find around here.  But if I am going to crack crab legs and pick out crab meat, I am just going to eat the crab meat as I labor, not make crab cakes out of it.  So I lowered my standards and bought a 6-oz. pouch of "pasteurized crab meat".  This wasn't the 1-pound of crab meat called for in the recipe, but Swen and I didn't need a full recipe of 8 crab cakes.  And we had Spinach Salad with Orange Dressing and Pine-Nuts and leftover Asparagus Salad to round out our meal.

Un-Fried Crabcakes, p.45, Rosie O'Daley

1 pound fresh crabmeat (lump blue crab)
 Light vegetable oil cooking spray
1 t freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 T snipped fresh chives
1 large whole egg or 2 large egg whites, beaten
1 T Old Bay seasoning
1 t Italian seasoning
2 T chopped jalapeno pepper
1 t baking powder
2 T chopped fresh parsely
1 t Worcestershire sauce
1 C unflavored dried bread crumbs

Preheat over to 400 degrees.
  Rinse the crab meat under cold running water  and drain (I did not rinse, since meat in the packet was already cooked and said 'ready to serve'), making sure to remove and filament or shell.
  Spray the vegetable oil over the baking sheet 3 times to coat.
  In a large bowl, combine all remaining ingredients, except 1/2 C of the bread crumbs, and stir in the crab meat.  Using 1/4 C of crab cake mix, form the mixture into 8 cakes.  Roll each in the reserved bread crumbs and place on the prepared baking sheet.  Coat the crab cakes lightly with the cooking spray (I did 3 sprays of oil).
  Place the baking sheet on the bottom shelf of the oven and bake the crabcakes for about 5 minutes per side, until brown. (Mine took more on order of 10 minutes per side to brown).