Baked Maryland Crab Cakes

This scrumptious crab cake recipe comes courtesy of our partner The Crab Place, purveyors of the some of the freshest Maryland and east coast seafood available online. These crab cakes are healthier than others for several reasons: The ingredients keep fat to a minimum, they're baked instead of fried, and they're made mostly of crabmeat rather than bread or other fillers.  And they're so tasty that you won't miss the fat.

Rather than serving with fat-laden mayonnaise-based tartar sauce, garnish these baked Maryland crab cakes with a good cocktail sauce, or perhaps some Blue Crab Salsa or even a few splashes of your favorite hot sauce or a spicy sauce for oysters.  This recipe makes 6 crab cakes.

Ingredients
1 lb. Jumbo Lump Crab Meat
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 tsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. butter
½ cup finely chopped onion
1 tsp. Old Bay seasoning
½ tsp. fresh minced garlic
1/8 tsp. crushed dried tarragon
Pinch of cayenne pepper
2 Tbsp. mayonnaise
6 saltine crackers, crushed fine
1 large egg, beaten
¼ cup grated sharp cheddar cheese** (see note)
¾ tsp. paprika

Toss the crab meat with the lemon juice and refrigerate while you prepare the other ingredients, and preheat oven to 400°F.

Saute onion with butter and olive oil over medium heat until barely limp, about one minute. Transfer to a small bowl to cool. Mix together the Old Bay seasoning, garlic, tarragon, cayenne pepper, mayonnaise, crackers, and beaten egg. Add the onions and mix well. Fold gently into the crab meat. Divide into 6 portions. Roll the crab mixture into 6 large balls and place in a buttered baking dish 2" apart. Bake at 400°F for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and flatten each ball a little (use the back of a wooden spoon so that you don't burn yourself). Sprinkle each one first with the cheese and then with paprika. Broil to toast the cheese a bit. Serve hot.  **Note: For an even lower-fat version, omit the cheese (and there's no need to flatten the crab cakes), and simply finish cooking the crab cakes under the broiler

Zestfully yours,
Gloria

PS: Visit The Crab Place for all your crab meat needs - they have great specials to save you money, and their stellar service can't be beat!