We’re celebrating summer in Virginia with these delicious Chesapeake crab cakes loaded up with fresh summer sweet corn and tomato salsa, the perfect meal for a balmy summer day!
Good morning, friends, and happy Monday! There is such a thing, isn’t there? In our case, we’re just riding the high off a fun weekend, which makes it seem like a pretty great Monday.
We were up early on Saturday to let the Lumber Liquidators crew in to lay in our new hickory floors on the second floor. That’s part of my massive nesting effort – my goal is to overhaul the whole second floor before our little man arrives. The carpet was gross, so we decided to bump up new floors in our project pipeline, which meant we had to move a whole bunch of furniture, paint walls, put in new wainscoating and window treatments…because nesting. So, yeah.
But that meant that we lost a lot of the day and when friends came over for dinner, we needed one of my favorite – and easiest – summer dishes! My favorite crab cakes. They’re not the fastest thanks to the refrigeration time you need, but since you do a little prep, then refrigerate and forget, then do a little prep, then refrigerate and forget, they’re easy to make when you’ve got a lot going on!
These are even more a favorite now that we’re in northeastern Virginia and we’ve got fresh Chesapeake blue crab meat ready at hand. In April and May, they’re just starting to show up, but plentiful! June through August is peak blue crab season, and we’re looking forward to a summer of crab fests, southern boils, and ice cold beverages. Even if it’s lemonade or iced tea for me this time instead of an ice cold beer {eight months pregnant here, friends}, it’s a little bit of heaven.
So let’s kick off the summer – and this little food blog – with this delicious dish!
Crab Cakes with Tomato + Corn Salsa
Ingredients
For the Crab Cakes:
- 1 lb lump crab meat flaked, picked, and drained
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 cup bread crumbs
- 1 ea egg large
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 2 ea green onions trimmed and sliced
- 1 tbsp parsley fresh, chopped
- 1 tbsp stone-ground mustard
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 6 cups mixed salad greens
For the Tomato + Corn Salsa:
- 2 ears corn husked
- 2 cups Roma tomatoes coarsely chopped
- 1/2 ea medium red onion finely diced
- 2 ea green onions trimmed, sliced
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp ground cumin
Instructions
- Let’s start with the salsa. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the ears of corn and let them cook for 5 minutes. Then lift the corn from the water and set aside to cool.
- When the corn is cool enough to handle, scrape the kernels off the cob with a sharp knife into a large bowl. Add the tomatoes, onions, green onions, balsamic vinegar, and cumin powder and toss gently. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours.
- Let’s make the crab cakes. In a medium bowl, sprinkle the crab meat with lemon juice and gently toss. In a large bowl, combine the bread crumbs, eggs, mayonnaise, green onions, parsley, mustard, and salt and pepper. Add the crab meat and mix to combine.
- Shape the crab meat into small patties, about 1 inch thick by 2 inches wide, and place on a large baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
- Over medium heat, heat up 1 tbsp each of the butter and vegetable oil in a large skillet. Fry half of the crab cakes in this mixture until they’re golden, 3-5 minutes per side.
- Set the crab cakes aside to drain on paper towels. Repeat with the remaining butter and oil and the other half of the crab cakes.
- Divide the salad greens among 3 plates. Top each plate with 3 crab cakes and top with salsa. For a little extra punch, drizzle with a small amount of balsamic vinaigrette. Enjoy!
Notes
As a note, the recipe time doesn’t account for the refrigeration time on the salsa. You can keep the salsa just fine in your fridge for about 3 days. After that, the tomatoes start getting mushy.
I love the combination of the slightly tart salsa with the sweetness of the crab cakes. And with summer coming and the sweet corn nice and fresh at market stands everywhere, I’ll be looking for lots more recipes to combine this salsa with!
What summer recipes are you guys looking forward to breaking out?
