Blow Your Socks Off, Poor Man's Crab Cakes, With Mango Sauce...

Fresh crab is expensive, so I made these little beauties with mashed potato as the binder.  I also cooked a live crab, and then picked the meat.  It's a bit of work, but worth it in the end.  If you have a friend in the restaurant business, have them order you a pound of fresh crab meat...

Recipe makes about six large crab cakes:
1 cup celery chopped finely
1 cup onion chopped finely
1 cup red bell pepper chopped finely
1 & 1/2 cups mashed potatoes
1 egg
2 three-finger pinches sea salt
1 three-finger pinch black pepper
1 three-finger pinch cayenne
1 live crab about 1&1/2 - 2 pounds

6 - egg rings or cookie cutter type rings

First fill a large pot with salted water and bring to a boil.  When water boils add the poor little crab, shell side down.  When water comes back up to a boil, then set your timer for 20 minutes.  When done remove crab from the water and place into a sink or bucketful of ice cold water.  Let it rest until cold, about 5 minutes.  This process releases the meat from the shell.

Clean the crab under running water, now crack and pick the meat and place in the refrigerator.  Now cook your potatoes and then mash with butter and olive oil, don't use milk or cream, as you want a thick paste to bind.  Place in the refrigerator to cool.  TIP:  If you don't know how to clean and crack a crab, contact me.

Add finely chopped vegetables to a hot saute pan with a little olive or coconut oil, salt and pepper and cayenne, cook until soft but not brown, a little color is alright.  When done place in refrigerator to cool.

When everything is cold, place all ingredients and the egg into a large bowl and mix with your hands or a spoon.  Lay out your egg rings on a piece or grease-proof paper and fill with the crab mixture, making sure to compact it, so it stays together.

Now heat a saute pan up over medium heat with two tablespoons olive oil (not extra virgin).  When the oil is hot, slide a steel spatula under a crab cake ring and move to the pan, one at a time, leaving the ring in the pan to hold everything together.  Repeat with the remaining cakes.  Turn after a few minutes, you want them to brown a little but not too much.

We served our crab cakes with rice, sauteed onions and chard, and with white wine, mango and honey sauce.  To save time you can use mango chutney that's been heated up in a small saucepan.

To make the sauce from scratch, peel and chop a couple of fresh mangos and puree in a food processor.  Reduce two cups of white wine down to about a half a cup, then add mangos and reduce a little more.  Turn the heat off and add two tablespoons of honey and stir.

Bon Appetit!