I Love Crab Cakes!

A love letter from Tom Douglas to crab cakes worldwide

Who knew, or even worried about, how many types of crab cakes there are in the world? Tom Douglas, of course. As he says in the forward, "…it never occurred to me that in the Emerald City I wouldn't be able to find a crab cake." That was in 1977 when he moved to Seattle after years of indulging in crab cakes. Along with his own famous recipes, this cookbook shares favorite crab cakes from chefs and others across the country.

If you love the traditional crab cake, you'll find great recipes in this book, like the Chesapeake Bay Classic Crab Cakes and Etta's Classic Dungeness Crab Cakes. You will, however, be amazed at how many other options you have to choose from. Here's my theory. You know how practically every cocktail is called a martini now even though you may think a martini is vodka or gin on the rocks with a tad of vermouth and a twist of lemon or a green olive? This book does for crab cakes what the cosmo and lemon drop did for martinis. It opens up a whole new world (see the recipe they've shared with us below).

Tom and his associate and recipe developer Shelley Lance start out with tips on the type of crab and the part of the crab to use, and how to drain/squeeze/mix/handle/chill/form/dredge/cook/salt and freeze the crab. They also give us some information about the various ingredients they use, which is very helpful. As an example, I'd never heard of Sriracha before and would have been clueless as to why you'd use it or what it would add to the crab cake (or even if it was a word Tom made up just to play with us—you never really know with him).

Chapters are broken up into American crab cakes, global/new wave crab cakes, brunch and breakfast crab cakes, crab cake sandwiches and cool crab cakes. There's also a section on sauces and salsas.

The global cakes are wide-ranging with influences from Japan, Italy, France, Vietnam, China, Hawaii and Mexico. It's good to find more uses for poblano chilies, banana leaves and fish sauce. You've also got to love, if not the dish at least the name, hush crabbies with a nod to our own American southern cooking.

Not being a truly knowledgeable cook myself, I like the detail given on recipes. For instance, on the Tempura Crab Cakes with Shredded Nori, it states "Yuzu juice, often sold in small plastic bottles, is made from a sour Japanese citrus fruit. It has a unique fruity aroma, but you can substitute fresh lime juice. Shiso, an aromatic green leaf in the mint and basil family, is often used as a garnish in sushi bars. There is no substitute for shiso, but you can omit it if you can't find it, or add a tablespoon of thinly sliced chives instead. Nori is roasted and dried seaweed often used for making sushi. Yuzu, shiso, and nori are available in specialty Asian markets or Japanese fish markets. Nori can often be found in supermarkets as well."

Bottom line, this little book packs a lot in and makes it all pretty easy to replicate. You'll know from the pictures if you're even close, but really, who cares? If it tastes good, and it should, you'll be a happy crabber.

I Love Crab Cakes!
50 Recipes for an American Classic
Tom Douglas with Shelley Lance
Published by HarperCollins

Connie Adams/July 2006