Aunt Ann's Crab Cakes with Summer Vegetables

As I've told you before, my Mom's family consists of some big time foodies. All three of her siblings inherited the gift of culinary talent and a serious love of all things delicious from my grandparents. My Aunt Ann lives in Rockville, MD and her crab cake recipe is by far the BEST I've ever had. She says it was originally my grandmother's recipe but she's tweaked it over the years. It is really simple but definitely a treat!

Costo carries jumbo lump crab for about $16 a pound. I'm certain it is the best deal going and it is fantastic. The containers freeze really well too so I always have some stocked up in case Costco decides to stop carrying it! While I always sift through it looking for shell or cartilage pieces, I very rarely find any. The secret to this I've learned is to fuss with the crab as little as possible to be sure the big chunks stay in tact- so sift gently and don't stir anything until you've got everything in the bowl.

I put the crab in large bowl and then in a smaller bowl I combine the seasonings:

2 tablespoons mayo

1 large egg beaten 1t Dijon mustard ( maybe a little more) squeeze of lemon (about one half) 1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning dash of Texas Pete

I stir this together to form almost a dressing. I then add 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs to my bowl with the crab meat and this last time I also added two finely sliced green onion (white and some of the green parts) and one tablespoon or so of fresh dill. Pour the seasonings over and VERY GENTLY fold everything together until combined. From here I form 7-8 cakes and coat with some additional panko bread crumbs. Sometimes I put an extra sprinkle of Old Bay in with the panko coating as well. Pan fry in some butter until brown on both sides and that's it!

This past weekend, I made a succotash like mix of summer vegetables to go with the crab cakes and it was great. I started one diced vidalia onion in my dutch oven over med-high heat with a few tablespoons of butter. While the onion started to soften, I diced and added half of a large orange bell pepper. I then cut the kernels from 4 ears of local fresh corn and added to the pot as well with a generous sprinkle of kosher salt and some freshly ground black pepper. While the vegetables cooked, maybe 5 or 7 minutes, I diced two roma tomatoes (discarded the seeds), and boiled one box of frozen baby lima beans per the instructions.

Once the corn was cooked, I added the limas, the tomatoes and two tablespoons of sliced fresh basil at the very end.

I served the crab cakes over a bed of the summer vegetables and topped it off with some fresh arugula lightly dressed with some lemon juice and olive oil. The whole meal came together in about 40 minutes and it really looked rather impressive on the plate!! (If I do say so myself...) A great meal for entertaining on a summer evening.

The meal paired very nicely with one of my favorite summer white wines, a Berger Gruner Veltliner (2007 I think). John and I first had this Austrian wine at a wine tasting three years ago and it has been a regular in our fridge ever since. If you're not familiar, Gruner Veltliners are very crisp and light, similar to a Pinot Grigio. Our Whole Foods store always carries it (if you don't see it in the back, look in the wine fridge at the front of the store) for about $12. Note, it is actually a full liter bottle vs the standard 750mls which makes it an even better deal! It has a beer top on it instead of a cork which is kind of neat too, if you're not going to drink the whole thing, be sure you have a good wine stopper on hand.