Crab Cakes!

What to do when you have a craving for seafood and nowhere near the sea... and you're the only one craving seafood?? Why make it yourself of course!

I'm on a "let's see if I can make my own" kick or when I eat something in a restaurant that I really like: "Let me see if I can try to replicate this" so I can always eat it whenever I have a craving without breaking the bank...or having to drive there. As it would seem most of this is driven by inner cheap and lazy...but it produces a positive outcome, delicious food (hopefully) and stress relief from the fun things that accompany adulthood: life.

To be honest, I think I've only had crab cakes maybe once or twice and I can't really remember them. Not that I didn't like them, they were probably not too memorable. What drove this experiment was mainly because I was craving crab, oh did I want crab! So what is the most concentrated form of crab you can get? Crab cakes! Even the actual crab probably has less than the crab cake. 

So I poked around the internet, found a few recipes with ingredients that I liked and of course gave it my own little twist and BAM, craving was fed and it was yummy. I was surprised how big these came out. Shortly after I had made these I decided to order some the next time I was in a restaurant that served them and not to toot my own horn or anything but I'd rather much prefer these. While I was looking up recipes and such, I learned that there are different versions of crab cakes depending on where on the east coast so these might not be the most conventional if you're from the east coast but for a CA girl like me, they're not so bad. I do want to try making different versions of crab cakes to test out which ones I prefer but for the time being, here is 1 version:
 

Crab Cakes
Makes 4 cakes

Ingredients:

• 8oz crab meat
• 2/3 cup panko (I mixed in some Italian bread crumbs)
• 1 tbsp fresh parsley (dried works fine too)
• 2 tbsp green onions, chopped
• 2 tbsp mayo (I used spicy chipotle mayo)
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard (I only had creamy dill mustard, I'd imagine any mustard will be fine)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp Old Bay Seasoning
• 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• pinch of salt
• pinch of ground red pepper
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten 
• 2 tbsp grated Parmesan (optional)

Procedures:

1. Combine 1/3 cup of panko w/all the other ingredients except for crab meat and olive oil
2. Slowly add meat into the mixture then shape, coat with leftover panko crumbs, and flatten
3. Cook over medium heat in a flat skillet. Cook for approximately 3 mins on each side of until golden brown