Surf ‘n’ Turf with Maryland Crab Cakes

I’ve been good recently. And when I write ‘good’, I mean amazing. Like unbelievable. Saint material. Low fat, low carbs, low fun. So I thought sod it let’s be bad.

What’s bad?

Well red meat is obviously bad. And crab cakes have to be bad because they are so yumbo.

However this creation is surprisingly not that bad (P.S. ‘bad’ is defined as anything that tastes good and doesn’t leave you wanting more). The steak is fillet which has little fat. The crab cakes utilise ultra low fat mayonnaise. In fact I would recommend this creation to anyone interested in a long and healthy existence.

I’ve labelled these Maryland Crab Cakes but truth be-told I’m not sure what that means  (although I haven’t got any bay seasoning, whatever that is, and some of the crab comes out of a tin, which probably kills off any remaining authenticity).

Anyway here are the ingredients:

For the crab cakes

• 1 dressed crab (with the brown meat and white meat already mayo-ed up there isn’t any need for additional mayonnaise)
• 1 tbsp mayo (if your brown crab meat is mayo free)
• Big dash Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 tins of lump crab meat (or, if you should be so lucky/rich/blessed/a fisherperson, fresh lump crab
• 1 tbsp capers
• 2 spring onions (scallions), chopped
• 1 tbsp chopped chives
• juice from half a lime
• 1 heaped tbsp dijon mustard

For the steak

• 1 fillet steak
• olive oil and salt and pepper
• 1/2 glass of Madeira
• 1 glass red wine
• 1 chipotle chilli
• 1 tbsp soy sauce

Put the dressed crab meat in a large bowl

Open the lump meat and add to the bowl (do not mush up!)

Now add the capers. Fail. I bought green peppercorns thinking they were capers….

Add the mustard (and mayo if required), chives, spring onions and the juice of half a lime.

Combine carefully, trying not to break up the lump meat. You want to keep those little white morsels intact if possible. Pour in the egg and gently fold in. You need the egg because these crab cakes contain no bread binder (I did these a while ago and they follow, roughly, a recipe from Man v Food on American TV and were deep fried. If you deep fry things they will disintegrate if those things are wet. So it’s a real art my friend).

Add the worcestershire sauce. Now get a baking sheet and line with baking paper. Using your hands pop out 6 crab patties

Clean hands, like my soul

Once done pop in  the fridge for half an hour to chill – this is essential because they are very soggy!

Now turn your attention to the steak. Put the sauce ingredients in a small pan and simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes until it reduces. This is a super simple sauce and actually turned out nicer than many of the sauces I have prepared over the years with loads of ingredients. Simple is better in this situation I think.

Back to the cakes. Heat a tbsp or two of olive oil in a large pan and fry each cake for about 3 mins per side on a medium heat. Flip them carefully using a saptula and the back of a wide spoon, so that they don’t fall apart. Transfer back to the backing tray and pop in the oven at 180 centigrade for about 15 mins.

Fry the steak to your liking.

I served the crab cakes and steak with some of the sauce over the steak, topped with a dollop of horseradish and some low-fat mayo mixed with some dill on the cakes.

Not bad for a diet. My kind of diet.