Pellet Smoker Cooking: Blue Crab Cakes and Cheesy Penne

My 31 2015

Crazy Ohio weather, it was 85 Friday and Saturday after the all night and day rain that started Saturday night about 8pm I don’t think it hit 70 deg. today. We got over 2.5 inches; the front looked on radar like it passed just after noon today but it was a fine sprinkle all afternoon.

On a trip to Sam’s club a couple weeks ago my wife had bought two pints of premium lump blue crab meat. We gave a pint to the kids and I fixed crab salad with the other pint for lettuce wraps. When she made another trip to Sam’s she got another pint and said she had not noted the price of the first she bought but it was $22 for one pint. Now to me that is expensive!

I didn’t think my crab salad was that great so wanted to try something better with this pint. With any seafood Old Bay seasoning is a favorite across a lot of the US for crab and shrimp boils so went there for my recipe.

I thought about doing the crab cakes outside on the Weber Spirit but with the weather I did them inside. I think crab cakes are better fried in some oil and butter and did mine in my Lodge carbon steel skillet.

About 4:30 I mixed up the crab cakes; I made 6 patties and coated them with Panko bread crumbs. I covered with plastic wrap and in the fridge. The Panko bread crumbs were the only change to the Old Bay recipe.

My cheesy pasta dish was to use up some of my shredded cheese. I boiled eight oz. of penne pasta to el dente and drained then back in the pan with a pat of butter. I placed back on a low burner and added a scoop of ricotta cheese, a scoop of sour cream, about a 1/3 cup of 4 cheese Mexican, 1/3 cup of 4 state cheddar, 1/3 cup sharp cheddar, ¼ cup parmesan and some half and half cream. I stirred to melt the cheese and added a little more cream. I wanted to keep it creamy for the wife, I like it more set up by baking. I mixed in some Penzey’s 4S salt and sprinkled some more on top.

I poured it in a casserole dish and covered; it went in a 300 deg. oven for about a half hour then I fried up the crab cakes. I covered the bottom of my steel skillet with olive oil and added a tablespoon of butter on med. high heat. I fried 4 of the crab cakes for 3 minutes on each side and served two each on some iceberg lettuce along with some of the pasta for the wife and me.

The crab cakes were great as was but for me I would like some sauce added. I tried some Cholula’s chili lime sauce on a bite then tried some smoky horseradish sauce. I really liked that I spread some on the second cake and enjoyed. I think a mayonnaise and sour cream dill sauce would be good too. The pasta was good; about half way between the way my wife and I like it so we were both happy!

Click here for printable crab cake recipe

For the Crab cakes