Crab Cake Burgers - Seafood Week # 3

I never ever thought I’d make crab cakes. Never! Simple because crab meat is pricey.

For CNY this year, my FIL went on a seafood spree. Bought this and that and this and that. My MIL looked at the pack of crab meat and asked me, “Do you know how to finish this up??”
Haha, of course I do! The easiest way is crab cakes. It uses a great deal of crab meat.

And then few days before the day I was supposed to cook this (hey, I need to buy and gather ingredients ok, it’s not like I want to cook now, I can cook now), I then had the idea of making burgers out of the crab cakes and then hahaha, make my own mayo!!! Lime mayo with crab sounds good eh??? This crab cake burger is 100% homemade, except that I didn’t make the raw ingredients myself, didn’t plant my own lettuce, didn’t plant my own wheat, but then, all made from scratch.

I’m not that always that particular about my food, but I take it as a learning experience. Of course, buying buns and mayo is like.. walking next door only. Yes, I do mean that literally. My current neighbour, front and side are grocery stores and 2 more few doors away. But then, it’s a good chance for me to add more ‘posts” to my blog. Kekekekeke. But in the process, I do learn something new of course. I’ll talk about my mayo next time. And my burger buns too.

Today it’s only about the crab cake burger.

These are the crab cakes

The recipe initially called for 1 pound of crab meat, so then I reduced everything accordingly and skipped most of the seasonings as I can’t be bothered to go get mustard that I don’t’ really consume.
I too, like the other try-ers of this recipe found it too wet, even when I skipped the lemon juice and the mayo. My crab meat were moist but they weren’t wet as they weren’t frozen in water as some in supermarkets are. I found it so so hard to form into patties and flour them before frying. So, in the end, I threw the flour that I prepared to coat the patties with into the whole mixture itself. Phew, life is easier then on. I could form soft balls of it and gently place them into the pan. Life is full of contingency plans. Just don’t sit there and cry. Crab meat is very expensive to be wasted.

Crab Cake Burgers
Crab cake recipe loosely adapted from Paula Deen

350gm crab meat
1/3 cup chopped red capsicum
1 cup chopped spring onion (green and white, 2 large sprigs)
1/3 cup finely ground Ritz crackers (can use more actually)
1 egg
3 Tbsp all purpose flour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp black pepper powder
8 burger buns
Some butter for spreading
2 cups of coarsely chopped iceberg lettuce
Some homemade lime mayo (recipe to be posted don’t know when) as dressing or any other dressing of choice

1. Mix all together and form 8 balls.
2. Heat a pan on medium low heat and put in some cooking oil.
3. Place balls of crab mixture into pan, and with an oiled spatula, carefully press the mixture down to form a patty.
4. Fry until both sides are golden.
5. Dish up and drain on absorbent papers.
6. Split burger buns into half and lightly butter them before toasting on a clean pan.
7. Place crab cake onto the lower half of the toasted bun, top with a tablespoon of lime mayo and then some coarsely chopped lettuce before covering with upper half of bun.

All packed into a large Tupperware and will be transported to my in law's place to be chowed down together