Oregon Coast Crab Cakes

Crab Cakes:

~Chop in a uniform dice and sauté in olive oil
1/2 c onion until soft and sweetly fragrant
~Add and continue cooking until slightly soft-
1/2 c diced celery
1/2 c chopped seeded sweet red or yellow bell pepper
2-3 cloves garlic minced
let cool- add 1/2 8oz can chopped water chestnuts
1 c. defrosted frozen corn kernels
1/2 c. chopped marinated artichoke hearts
~Process to fine grind (don’t let it get too mushy) set aside or
just do a good job on the dicing part!

~Combine with:
1 lb. shelled lump crabmeat (fresh Dungeness is best- a real labor of love to shell it! but I’ve used canned sometimes, too- and rinsed it with water and added a bit of lemon juice)
2 Tbl sweet hot mustard
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
juice of 1/2 -1 lemon (or to taste)

~Process sour dough bread (or other) to make about 3 cups soft bread crumbs or
substitute Japanese Panko crumbs. (set aside)

~add handfuls of the bread crumbs until it’ll hold together enough to form into small hamburger size patties- dip the patties in more crumbs to cover and set on wax paper lined cookie sheet. Cover and chill for 30mins or so. Saute in oil until browned. (3 mins/side or so)
Drain before serving.
Serve with:
Garlic/lemon aioli (just mix up flavors with mayo to taste)

~Makes about 8-10 patties.