Sunday nights have a new meaning for me these days. I used to spend my Sunday night with a cup of coffee at my desk preparing for the next day's test or in front of my TV during the good o'l days of owning a TV and subscribing to HBO. These days Sunday has become my fun day, or atleast my fun night. It's the only night I'm not working or in class.My roommate and I now invite a small group of friends over for dinner and drinks. We all pick a theme in week in advance during dinner. It started with an evening of fresh Mexican food and margaritas and has since progressed into vague themes like texture, childhood, and spice. This last Sunday was spice and I made Japanese-inspired crab cakes with avocado wasabi cream. I looked at several recipes for crab cakes and combined elements from a couple, eventually coming up with my own recipe.
Japanese Crab Cakes & Avocado Wasabi Cream
For Crab Cakes
1 lb lump crab meat
1/2 a small red bell pepper, ciseler
2 stalks of green onions, white parts only, chopped
1 small leek, emincer
1/2 a fresh jalapeno pepper, minced (without seeds)
1 tablespoon chives, hacher
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup panko crumbs
Cayanne pepper, to taste
Salt & Pepper, to taste
Canola oil
For Avocado Wasabi Cream
1 cup heavy cream
1 avocado
1 tablespoon wasabi paste
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon fresh jalapeno, minced
Crab Cakes:
Chop vegetables and combine in a small bowl. In a large bowl, whisk eggs until mixed and add crab meat. Coat the crab meat and add the chopped vegetables, mixing ingredients well. Add 3/4 panko crumbs and mix well. Season according to taste preference. The mixture should be moist. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
Avocado Wasabi Cream:
Combine all ingredients in a blender and mix until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Cooking:
Remove crab cake mixture from the refrigerator and make small crab patties, rolling each in the remaining panko crumbs. Reserve patties on plate or dish with parchment paper. If pan-frying, heat canola oil in a saute pan on medium high heat. If baking, heat oven to 350 degrees. Fry each cake until golden brown and drain of excess oil on plate with paper towels. If baking, allow cakes to bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Serve crab cakes with avocado wasabi cream and fresh lemon.
This Sunday's theme is breakfast. I'm still scheming on what I'll be making.
