Crab Season’s Coming

By Andrew Hunter

If you ask someone from Baltimore what’s the best crab, they’d say blue crab, with a local’s pride. But if you ask folks up and down the Pacific Coast from San Luis to Juneau, they’d say Dungeness. Regional food pride is one of the things that makes our country’s cuisine great!

Personally, we like Dungeness because we can get it from local fishermen, and we associate it with the holidays because crab season starts in November and peaks in December. Yes, you can get it through June, but our opinion is it’s sweetest in December. So use any kind of crab you like in this recipe; just buy local when you can.

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Asian Style Crab Cakes

By Lori Powell

For the New Year I am striving to eat less meat and increase my portion of vegetables and other lean proteins, such as fish.

So when I was developing a recipe with crab meat for Prevention magazine (I am the Food Director), and I had 8 ounces left over, I thought crab cakes would be a delicious way to use the remainder.

I used what I had on hand in my pantry to create the following Asian Style Crab Cakes with watercress and pickled beets…such as panko, eggs, scallions, fresh lime, watercress, mayo, pickled ginger and beets, and a touch of seasoned rice wine vinegar.

I never order crab cakes out since they are usually made with a lot of filler, such as breadcrumbs, and never enough crabmeat. I want to see the chunks of crabmeat in my cake and so they are one of those dishes that I love to make at home. Plus they are super easy and cook quickly.

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Surprise! These ‘Crab’ Cakes are Made with Zucchini

By Sandy Hu

Cherie Pollock of Orland, California, is one of those competent, talented home cooks who can whip up a beautiful gazpacho for 20 and still bake three pies from scratch for lunch. So when she told me about a recipe for ‘crab’ cakes made without crab, of course I was intrigued. Cherie didn’t know the origins of the recipe; she had received it from a friend.

I was skeptical of the outcome, at first. And had the recipe come from anyone but Cherie, I don’t know if I would have tried it. But I did yesterday, and when served hot and crisp, the patties were really quite good. And yes, they did taste surprisingly like crab cakes.

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Crab Cakes for a Luxurious Three-Day Weekend

By Lori Powell

Memorial Day...oh, the sheer bliss of having a three-day weekend! Definitely not overrated!

Prior to my new job, I was freelancing for about 2½ years and was not so great about saying NO in this economy to either a job that inspired me or one where I got to work with a great team of people. So holidays, never entered my mind unless I was invited somewhere or family called!

I know it sounds like I led kind of a dismal life or that I am a workaholic…well, possibly a bit of the latter. Funny thing is, when you are fortunate enough to find your passion and love your work, it simply doesn’t feel like work – at least a lot of the time.

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