hello! hi everyone! Wesley here. Today we’re diving back into our series dedicated to foods from TV and film with a shot at some Thai style crab cakes inspired by the film Wedding Crashers. Now, as we all know, the state of Maryland is well known for doing two things, which are crab cakes and football. A Maryland crab cake, of course, is iconically seasoned with Old Bay and worchestershire sauce. For our version today though, I thought I’d use this as an opportunity to explore the wonderful and interesting ways in which this VERY iconically American dish occurs in Asian cuisine, or more specifically, Thai food. This means that, while our crab cakes will still fundamentally be the same thing (which is to say, a cake, made of crab), we’re also going to be adding a few other elements to twist our crab cakes into a southeast Asian dish, including a bit of shrimp, as well as some Thai chile, cilantro, and fish sauce. Finally rounding this all out, in lieu of the more typical tartar sauce that you might see with a Maryland crab cake, we’ll be serving ours with some Thai sweet chile sauce, for a sweet and savory finish. Hope you try it.
Yields 12
INGREDIENTS
16oz crab lump meat
8oz frozen shrimp (peeled, deveined, and steamed)
4 cloves garlic
1 inch (about 1 tbsp) ginger
4 Thai chiles
1/4 cup cilantro
1/2 lime juice
2 tbsp fish sauce
1/2 cup AP flour
peanut oil
INGREDIENTS (breading)
1 egg
1/2 cup AP flour
1/2 cup panko breadcrumb
PREP
CRUSH and mince 4 cloves of garlic and add to a large mixing bowl
MINCE ginger and add to the mixing bowl
SLICE the Thai chiles and add to the mixing bowl
DESTEM and slice the cilantro, then add to the mixing bowl
MINCE the shrimp, then add to the mixing bowl
ADD the crab, fish sauce and 1/2 cup of AP flour to the mixing bowl, then mix to combine
PREPARE the breading station with 1 egg whisked with 2 tbsp water in one bowl, followed by 1/2 cup AP flour in a second bowl, and 1/2 cup panko breadcrumb in the third bowl
ROLL the crab mixture into 12 equal balls, then dip first in the AP flour, followed by egg mixture, followed by panko breadcrumb
ON THE STOVE
HEAT a wok over medium high heat, then add 1/2 cup peanut oil and long yao
ADD the crab balls two at a time, then flatten with a spatula into a pancake shape
FRY for two minutes on each side until golden brown, then remove to a dry rack to cool
FINISH with lime juice and cilantro, and serve with a side of sweet chile sauce
tagged with Woo Can Cook, Thai food, crab cakes, thai crab cakes, wedding crashers, maryland crab cakes, seafood, crab recipe
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