Crispity Crunchity!

By: Unknown on 4:06 PM

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I love crabcakes and the only drawback is how high in fat they can often be. Last month's Food Network Magazine had a great recipe for crabcakes that had about 1/2 the fat as traditional cakes. I was skeptical, but tried it and they had a fantastic flavor and crunch! We didn't miss the extra fat at all!

Crisp Crab Cakes

Ingredients
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 2 thinly diced scallions
- 1/2 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
- 1 cup Panko (divided)
- 1/2 cup flour
- salt
- pepper
- paprika
- olive oil spray
- 1 large egg
- 2 tbsp. nonfat milk
- 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tsp. dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp. lemon juice
- 1 tsp. Old Bay
- 1 lb. lump crab meat or claw meat picked over

Instructions

1. Heat 3 tbsp. of olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the scallions (we were out, so I used regular onions) and peppers and cook until they begin to soften. Then removed off the heat to cool slightly.











2. Mix 1/2 cup Panko, egg and milk in a small bowl.











3. Add the Worcestershire sauce, mustard, lemon juice, Old bay, crabmeat, scallions and red peppers. Then shape the mixture into patties - should make about 8 of them. Pop the patties in the fridge for 30 minutes to give them a change to firm up.











4. Mix the other 1/2 cup of Panko with 1/2 cup of flour. You can use self-rising flour to make them extra crispy, but all purpose flour worked just fine for me. Coat the cakes thoroughly in the mixture and heat about 3 tbsp. olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Mist each crabcake with the olive oil cooking spray and cook sprayed-side down in the pan at 3-4 minutes each side. Be sure to spray the "tops" before flipping them over to cook the other side.











I served the crabcakes with a Spinach Basil salad - the recipe came from my sister-in-law Christina who is a fabulous cook and way more creative than I am with it! It's very simple and the key is fresh basil. The easiest way to prepare it is also on my friend Aimee's blog. Pick the leaves from fresh basil and stack them on top of each other (usually about 10 leaves at a time)











Then, roll the basil into...well...a blunt shape! Next, chop it from end to end and you'll end up with thin ribbons of the herb.





















Toss the basil in with baby spinach leaves (I used about 30 leaves of basil to 8 cups of spinach), chop up two medium-sized scallions and add to the greens. Top the salad off with a light dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.

It was the perfect fresh salad to pair with the crabcakes!