Dungeness Crab Cakes and Spicy Chipotle Mayonnaise

Recently at our Elks Lodge, we had our annual crab feed.  I purchased about 1.5 pounds of crab and made crab cakes the next day.  The basic recipe for these cakes and the mayonnaise is from Tom Douglas's great crab cake book entitled "I Love Crab Cakes!".  Enjoy.

Ingredients
Crab Cakes

• 1 large edd yolk
• 2 teas. fresh lemon juice
• 2 teas. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2 teas. Tabasco
• 2 TB plus 1 teas. Dijon Mustard
• 1/2 teas. paprika
• 1/2 teas. chopped fresh or dried thyme
• 1/2 teas. celery seeds
• 1/4 teas. freshy ground black pepper
• 5 TB extra virgin olive oil
• 5 cups Panko bread crumbs - mushed to make sure they are fine and not course
• 3/4 cup chopped parsely
• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• 1 pound Dungeness crabmeat, drained, picked clean of shells, and lightly squeesed if wet.
• 5 TB unsalted butter
• Optional Ingredients include:
• 1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 1.4 chopped red bell pepper

Chipotle Mayonnaise

• 1 cup Mayonnaise
• 2 TB fresh lemon juice
• 2 TB Extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves
• 1-1/2 TB pureed canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce ( I normally use one whole pepper and one-half of a second from the can).
• 2 teas. minced garlic 
• 1 teas. kosher salt

Procedures

Crab Cakes

• In a food preocessor or a blender, combine the egg yolk, lemon juice, Worcestershire, Tabasco, mustard, paprika, thyme, celery seeds, and black pepper.  Pulse to combine.  With the motor running, slowly add the oil through the feed tube until the mixture emulsifies and forms a mayonnaisre.  Set aside.  If you are worried about making the mayonnaise, try this.
• Add the lemon juice, Worcestershire, Tabasco, mustard, paprika, thyme, celery seeds and black pepper to 1/3 cup of prepared mayonnaise and mix throughly and set aside.
• Put the Panko bread crumbs in a shallow container and mix in 1/2 cup of chopped Parsley (reserve the remaining 1/4 cup chopped Parsley for the crab cake mixure). See aside.
• In a large bowl, combine the onion and remaining 1/4 cup Parsley and bell peppers if used.
• Add the reserved mayonnaise and the crabmeat amd mix lightly to combine.  Using a rubber spatula, fold in 1 cup of the bread crumb-parsley mixture.  Do not overwork the mixture or the crab cakes may get gummy.  Gently form 8 patties and dredge the patties lightly in the remaining bread-crumb parsley mixture.  
• Cover the crab cakes with plastic wrap and chill for an hour or longer.
• Place 1 or 2 nonstick skillets (depends upon the size of the skillets and the size of the crab cakes to cook) over medium heat and add about 2-1/2 TB butter to each plan.  As soon as the butter is melted, add 4 cakes to each pan (or the correct number of cakes so long as the cakes do not touch each other in the pan).  Gently fry the crab cakes until they are hot through and golden brown on both sides, turning once with a spatula about 4 minutes per side.

 Chipotle Mayonnaise

• Put the mayonnaise in a small bowl
• Use a whisk to stir in the lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil
• Add in the cilantro, chipotle, garlic and salt and stir to combine
• Add more lemon juice, garlic or salt to taste
• Store in refrigerator until ready to serve