Crab Cake Sliders with Lemon Remoulade for My Bucket List Menu

Crab Cake Sliders with Lemon Remoulade

I love to create a menu around an ingredient or an idea which means it is time again for another personal challenge here at More Than Burnt Toast. If you have been following More Than Burnt Toast you will know that I have been creating personal challenges based on a theme to infuse new life into my cooking adventures. Even every day food should be an adventure either with new ideas, or experimenting with a new cuisine. Every day we should be excited about what we are eating even if it just means making use of a wonderful find at our local farmers market for our favourite comfort foods.With these personally imposed challenges my own culinary skills have been rejuvenated and back on track and I am once again inspired. With the holidays coming this is the perfect time of year to pump up our kitchens into high gear!

For the next week or so I am taking on the challenge of creating a menu from start to finish... from starter to dessert... from my "bucket list". We all have a bucket list of recipes we want to try from magazines, cookbooks, our blogging friends or wherever you find your inspiration don't we?

For my Bucket List Menu let's start with an hors d'oeuvres I have been wanting to try for a while now. With my own twists it is easy to make it my own. This recipe is a little bit Southern with a tweak or two of a classic remoulade. The crab cake recipe is a "Mini-Mee" copycat version of a lemony crab cake I made for a Crab Cake Eggs Benedict not that long ago. The citrus notes give your taste buds a refreshing zing. With snow on the ground and falling temperatures the intense flavours of the lemon zest in the Remoulade remind me of sun dappled days that seem like distant memories... unless of course you live in the Southern Hemisphere and summer is just blossoming.

All winter long it's Dungeness crab season here on the West Coast. These crabs tend to weigh in between 1- 1/2 and 2-1/2 pounds, and have perfect meat for making crab cakes. According to Elise of Simply Recipes, "The hard thing with crab cakes is that they don't hold together that well when forming them, and they can easily fall apart when frying them. The trick is to handle them delicately to begin with, and then chill them on a breadcrumb-lined pan for at least an hour before cooking them. Just that time in the fridge will go a long way in helping them stay together as they cook. There isn't a lot of binder in this recipe; it's mostly crab meat. So it needs the chilling time."

I topped each with a sun-blushed roasted tomato and I am ready for guests.

What is in your bucket list?

**Citrus Crab Cake Sliders with Lemon Remoulade**

Crab Cakes

2 tablespoons(30ml)butter
1shallot, finely chopped
1clove garlic, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon(1ml) Old Bay seasoning
1cup(250ml)Japanese Panko breadcrumbs
1/3cup(83ml)low fat mayonnaise
3/4 teaspoon(4ml)each lemon zest, finely grated and lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon (3ml)hot chili sauce
1 cup(250ml)crab meat, moisture removed
1  tablespoons(15ml) parsley, finely chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon (5ml)Dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425 F (220 C). In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat and sauté shallot, garlic and Old bay seasoning until fragrant.

Add bread crumbs and stir often until light golden. Transfer to shallow dish. In a bowl, mix together mayonnaise, citrus zest and juice and chili sauce.

Add crab meat, egg and mustard to mayonnaise mixture and stir. Season to taste.

Using about 1 - 2 tablespoons (30 ml) of the mixture, make 1/2 in (1 cm) thick patties. Press lightly into bread crumb mixture, coating all sides.

Place cakes on parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes, turning once, or until crisp and golden.

Lemon Remoulade

1 cup (250 mL) mayonnaise
2 lemons, juice and zest
2 tablespoons (30 mL)cornichons, minced
2 tablespoons (30 mL)capers, minced
2 tablespoons (30 mL)chopped parsley leaves
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Whisk all of the ingredients together in a small mixing bowl. Season the sauce with salt and pepper. Refrigerate until ready to use.

To see my other personal challenges visit:

My World is Blue
Is My Face Red and White Challenge
Eat, Pray, Love Challenge




You are reading this post on More Than Burnt Toast at http://morethanburnttoast.blogspot.com. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to the author/owner of More Than Burnt Toast. All rights reserved by Valerie Harrison.