Breadless Crab Cakes w/ Yellow & Green Parmasean Noodles

So, dinner last night was totally delish!! The recipe I followed for the Breadless Crab Cakes was pretty simple, but was a little time consuming. I would suggest maybe prepping them the day before and letting them sit in the fridge over night. It took about 20 minutes to mix everything and get all of the cakes formed and on pans. Then it has to sit for at least an hour in the fridge...so we ended up eating at about 8:30 pm. Tim was alright with that, but my 4-year old was a little antsy for her dinner. :)

I have copied and pasted the recipe from Mark's Daily Apple. All rights belong to him. The changes I made are in red beside the original recipe. I made a DOUBLE batch since Tim and I both love seafood and I wanted to make sure there was some left over for lunch for today. The recipe doubled up just fine. The recipe posted is NOT doubled.

Cost wise, this was a pretty expensive meal, but I figure we will have it once a month. The store I shopped at this week was a bit more costly than where I regularly shop, so you could probably get the crab meat cheaper elsewhere or even at a seafood market. I paid $30 for the crab meat and had the rest of the ingredients on hand. Tim and I were talking about the cost of crab meat and we determined that for the price and the fact we got nothing but meat, it was actually a good deal. You go to a restaurant and get a pound of crab legs and it will run you $20 easily...and most of the weight comes from the shell, not the actual meat.

Tim loved the crab cakes (so did I!) and my 4-year old gobbled hers up as well. So, this recipe will be repeated in the future for us!

2 pounds of crab meat yielded 22 crab cakes. There were 6 leftover after the three of us ate, which is what I brought for lunch today. As far as the "noodles", Tim and I both got a pretty decent sized portion...maybe about a cup each, my daughter got about 1/4 cup and there was about a cup left over for lunch.


Breadless Crab Cakes

Ingredients:

1 pound crab meat, combination of lump and claw (I made a double batch. I could not find lump, so I bought 2 pounds of claw meat and took one pound and chopped it up in my Ninja to make it a little more fine)
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot or onion
2 tablespoons finely chopped celery
2 tablespoons finely chopped dill (for a double batch, I used 3 tablespoons because that is all I had)
1 teaspoon lemon zest (grated off the outside of a lemon)
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/3 cup olive oil
Directions:
Bundle the crab in a thin dishtowel and give it a few hard squeezes to release moisture. You’ll probably be able to get a couple tablespoons of liquid to drip out.

Whisk the egg yolks. Add the shallot, celery, dill, lemon zest, hot sauce and paprika. Gently mix this into the crab. The mixture is not going to look like it will hold together, but don’t worry.

To form the crab cakes all you need is a round cookie cutter about 2 inches wide. Using a tablespoon measurement, scoop 2 generous tablespoons of crab into the cookie cutter.

Press the crab down very firmly with your fingers. Gently lift the cookie cutter.

Using this method, you should be able to make at least a dozen crab cakes (I made 22 crab cakes out of 2 pounds of crab meat). Cover the cakes and refrigerate for one hour or more. This helps the ingredients bind together.

Preheat your oven to 375. On the stovetop, heat the olive oil in a pan. When the oil starts to sizzle, use a spatula to slide the crab cakes into the pan. Cook about 2-3 minutes on each side until they are browned and crispy. Don’t put too many in the pan at once.

Use a spatula to scoop the cakes out the pan and onto a cookie sheet. Put in the oven for another six minutes to make sure they are warmed through the middle. Garnish with dill.

The most important steps in this recipe are using the cookie cutter to shape the crab cakes and refrigerating them for at least an hour before cooking. Other than that, let your regional tastes take over. Add red pepper if you like or mustard. Play around with the seasonings. But forget all about the breadcrumbs. You won’t even miss them.

Yellow and Green "Noodles"

Ingredients:

2 yellow squash

1 zucchini

3-4 tbs butter (will vary depending on the quantity of "noodles" you make!)

Salt (to taste)

Pepper (to taste)

Parmesan cheese (to taste)

I make noodles with all sorts of different spices and seasonings. This is just one of my quick and easy go to recipes when I have a craving for noodles. You can use more or less squash or zucchini. You can use just zucchini. You can use just squash. You can pretty much use any type of vegetable to be honest!

I used my handy dandy Julienne Peeler and sliced up the squash and zucchini. I turned on the oven, put in the butter (sometimes I use more butter as well). Once the butter was nice and hot, I threw in the "noodles" and kind of sauteed them. I added salt and pepper while they were cooking. When the "noodles" started to get limp and could be easily twisted around a fork (like regular spaghetti noodles), I pulled them off the stove. You don't want to overcook because then they get mushy!

Before serving, I put on some Parmesan cheese.

You can adjust spices, cheeses, whatever to suit your taste. The noodles go great with just about anything. These are also the noodles I use for spaghetti!

My lunch for today :)