Crab Cakes, Garlic Bread, & Wine

December in California often means eating crab at some point. Granted, as I’m writing this it’s 2020 — which is shorthand for “everything sucks.” And yes, there’s no doubting that the level of suckage this year has been off the charts. But does that mean you can’t (if you have the time, money, and effort) enjoy some things that can offer a reminder that, even in the thick of the horror that is 2020, it’s not all doom and gloom? Case in point: crab cakes and garlic bread.

As has been the custom in my abode for a few years, I generally cook on the weekends and Julie cooks during the week. I’m always grateful for what she puts together in the kitchen, and when it’s my turn to plan the meals for a couple of days, it can be a bit of a puzzle. For me, I have a kind of restrictive diet due to my age, and other blah blah. Julie is pretty much unrestricted, but our daughter is mostly vegetarian — with seafood accepted as a protein source. So, how to accommodate those preferences? Well, crab cakes is one of those meals where there’s almost no opposition. We usually buy them from the supermarket, but today I saw a very easy recipe on Delish that’s pretty favorable — and has very little breading. I gave it a whirl and got the thumbs up from the fam. The ingredients are pretty straightforward:

1 lb. jumbo lump crabmeat

1/3 cup Mayonnaise 

1 large egg, beaten

2 tbsp. Dijon mustard

2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp. Hot sauce

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

3/4 cup Panko bread crumbs

2 tbsp. Freshly Chopped Parsley

Canola oil, for frying

Lemon wedges, for serving

Tartar sauce, for serving

Once shaped into patties, they fry up in about 6 to 10 minutes. Oh, and I added a few squeezes of lemon to the mix just to give it an extra tang.

Garlic bread is one of those things that is always welcome in our home. I found a good recipe in the New York Times Cooking site that’s pretty heavy on the butter — but that’s okay every now and then. What makes this one so nice, is that you slather the butter, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper mixture in between slices of a baguette and put the bread in the oven for 15 minutes at 400 degrees. I left it in a few minutes longer because I wanted the top of the Sour Batard bread to be extra crispy. You serve the crab cakes with garlic bread, wine, and a simple green salad you have a flavorful meal that feels haut monde — even though it’s all fairly easy to assemble — and does quite a lot to lift the proverbial spirits in a time of sorrow and woe.