Fantastic crab cakes recipe from new Mother’s Best: Comfort Food That Takes You Home Again

Mother's Best I discovered this great crab cakes recipe in the new Mother’s Best: Comfort Food That Takes You Home Again cookbook. Author Danielle Centoni (@daniellecentoni) went to the Culinary Institute of America, and came away with only two recipes she continues to cook. Dividing her tuition in half, she calculated that the value of this recipe is $15,000!

For me, this hearkens back to the type of food my mom cooked up in the 1960s, when a sleeve of Ritz crackers, mayo and bacon frequently showed up on our dinner table.

It’s definitely a special occasion recipe both due to the price of crab (though I love Danielle’s substitution of cod fillets) along with the richness of rolling up butter, bacon, crackers, and mayo into the mix.

Here’s my adaptation of her recipe. I’ve simply abbreviated the steps in a way that made it easier for me to follow along.

$15,000 Crab Cakes with Creole Mustard Sauce

Based on Danielle’s Centoni’s recipe from Mother’s Best

Ingredients:

½ lb cod fillets
1 pound crab, Dungeness or blue crab
salt and pepper
2 teaspoons butter
2 tablespoons celery, sautéed in butter
¼ lb bacon, finely diced and browned (put bacon in freezer for 10 minutes to make it easier to cut)
1 sleeve Ritz crackers, in food processor
2 scallions, finely chopped
¾ cup mayo
1/2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco

Directions:

Combine ingredients.
Use medium ice cream scoop to make into balls and then flatten.

Assembly

Ingredients:

½ cup flour
2 eggs, scrambled
1 ½ cups panko crumbs

Directions:

Put flour in a plate, eggs in a shallow bowl, and panko crumbs in another plate.
Dip the crab cakes in following order: Flour, then eggs, then panko.
Fry in oil until golden brown, 3-4 minutes a side, blot dry, and place on rack so bottom side does not get soggy