Crabfest & Dungeness Crab Egg Foo Young

As the gray clouds of the past week peeled away their canopy, we breathed in the crisp air as the sun bounced it's light off the waters of Puget Sound and poured it's warmth upon the fall leaves, displaying their glorious amber and crimson leaves as we drove up Highway 101 to Port Angeles for the 12th annual Dungeness Crab and Seafood Festival.

Under the bigtop, food vendors lined the perimeter to serve up their offerings hot off their grill or ladled from industrial size cook pots. Some folks, even whole families stood in line for an hour for the crab feed, ordering either a whole or half crab with drawn butter, corn on the cob and coleslaw for $29 or $15 a plate. We preferred to sample a variety of seafood dishes - chowders, scallops and crab. 

Me sampling "World Famous" crab cakes.*(see links below)

The Blackball Ferry was churning out droves of Canadian tourists from Victoria and beyond along for the waterfront Crabfest - many there to see their favorite culinary celebrity and his wife, Graham and Treena Kerr. Graham, Treena and family were there to give attendees and opportunity to meet Graham, buy books, and attend events where he gave a talk, judged the first annual chowder competition, and watch his cooking demonstration. Unfortunately, we had to head back home before Graham 's time came to give his cooking demonstration on Sunday afternoon. However, we did have the good fortune of listening and watching Chef Les Chan, cooking instructor in Victoria B.C.

Chef Les Chan's delightful sense of humor entertained us while we watched his cooking demonstration and waited to taste his two dishes - Dungeness Crab with Black Beans and Crab Foo Young. Both tasty, relatively quick, if you don't try to talk and cook at the same time, and easy to prepare at home. The perks for staying through to the end of each demonstration was to taste the dish, and take a copy of the recipe, which I did for both and share with you here.

Dungeness Crab with Black Beans

Ingredients

8 Crab Leg segments, cracked
4 Tbsp Thai Basil, chopped
2 Tbsp Fresh Ginger Root, minced
2 Tbsp Fresh Garlic, minced
1 tsp Chinese Chili Sauce
4 dried Chinese Peppers, crushed
4 dried Chinese Black Beans
2 tsp Cornstarch
2 tsp Peanut or Vegetable Oil
2 Tbsp Sherry
1/4 cup Water
Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions

1. In a small bowl, soak fermented black beans in warm water and set aside.
2. To hot wok, add oil.
3. When oil is hot, coat the sides of the wok and add garlic, ginger, drained black beans and crushed Chili peppers. Cook for one minute.
4. Stir cornstarch into the water until blended smoothly.
5. To wok, add water and cornstarch mixture, and chili sauce. Cook two minutes.
6. Add crab legs, sherry, and Thai basil. Cook two minutes until crab is hot.
7. Serve on a warm platter family style.
8. This is finger food, so don't be afraid to use your fingers. Enjoy.

Crab Foo Young

Ingredients

8 Eggs, large
1 cup Fresh Bean Sprouts, minced
1/2 cup Green Onions, finely sliced
1/4 cup Bamboo Shoots, minced
1 cup Fresh Crab Meat
1 tsp Light Soya Sauce
2-3 tsps Cooking Oil
1/2 cup Water

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine eggs, crab meat, soy sauce, and vegetables.
2. Heat 2 tsp of cooking oil in a non-stick skillet, coating sides.
3. Add 1/3 egg mixture and fry as you would a pancake, cooking until lightly browned on bottom. Carefully turn over to cook and brown the bottom.
4. Keep warm while cooking the other two pancakes.
5. Add more oil to the wok, if needed. Cook, and keep all three pancakes warm while making sauce.

Foo Young Sauce

1/2 cup Chicken Broth (if vegetarian, substitute with vegetable broth)

1 tsp Light Soya Sauce

1/2 tsp Sugar

1 tsp White Vinegar

1/2 cup Water

2 Tbsp Cornstarch

Directions

1. In small pot, combine cornstarch and water with Foo Young Sauce.
2. Cook and stir until slightly thickened.
3. Serve hot over stacked Egg Foo Young, family style.

*If you  are in search of a great crab cake recipe, click for my crab cake blog post here. For Graham Kerr's Crab Cakes on Mixed Greens with Peanut Vinaigrette, click here.

In Search of the World's Best Crab Cakes

My friends Tom and Holly are celebrating Thanksgiving at home this year and serving crab. I suggested they consider make crab cakes. However, the search for the best crab cake recipe in the world will be an ongoing quest.

 

For those cooking gluten-free, we have the additional challenge of choosing the best gluten-free flour, cracker or bread that won't compromise the delicate flavors and texture of the cakes. I like cooking gluten-free with recipes like this using rice or tapioca flour.

Here's a good one I came across, handwritten and crammed in with a bunch of other index card in a old box of recipes, which I bought last year from a neighbor at their yard sale. I made a couple of changes to accommodate my pepper allergy and gluten intolerance and they were the best crab cakes we've ever eaten!

Ingredients:

1 pound fresh crab, picked over to remove shell
1 cup cooked corn
1/2 cup each onion, green pepper and celery finely chopped
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard and a dash of cayenne or green pepper sauce
1 egg, beaten
1-1/4 cups saltine cracker crumbs (for gluten-free use rice crackers, fine crumbs)
2 tablespoons olive oil and to tablespoons butter

Directions:

1. Combine the crab, corn, onion, pepper, celery in one bowl; in another combine the mayonnaise, mustard and cayenne.
2. Mix the two sets of ingredients together.
3. Fold in the egg and 1/4 cup of the cracker crumbs to bind the ingredients together.
4. Form the crab mixture into eight (8) patties.
5. Roll them in the remaining cup of cracker crumbs.
6. Fry the cakes in oil and butter 3-4 minutes per side.
7. Serve with tartar sauce.

Here's a recipe adding Louisiana hot sauce.

Maryland Crab Cakes

Ingredients:
1 pound cooked crab, flaked
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Louisiana hot sauce
2 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/2 cup cracker crumbs
salt and pepper to taste
flour for dredging

Directions:

Mix the parsley, dry mustard, Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce, eggs, and mayonnaise together.

Add the crab and crumbs, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Divide the mixture into 8 cakes and dredge in flour.

These can be deep fried at 375 to 380 degrees for 2-3 minutes (or until golden brown). Or you may pan fry them on both sides in butter.

Note: I've come across other Maryland crab cake recipes that add 1 teaspoon of Old Bay seasoning, celery seed, even Italian bread crumbs.  Other recipes add finely chopped green onion and tomatoes.

 Mendo Bistro’s Award-Winning Crab Cakes with Tarragon Aioli seems to be a popular recipe shared across the Internet.

Watch how Tom Douglas, chef and author of I Love Crab Cakes! (50 recipes) makes his famous crab cakes. Scrumptous ingredients, excellent tips!

Another excellent crab cake resource is the Crab Cake Guy. He posts about 24 crab cake recipes and links to a half dozen crab cake cookbooks.

If you have a favorite crab cake recipe, I hope you will share it. If you try any one of the recipes I've posted here, I would love to hear about your culinary experience in the kitchen with crab.