Pappadeaux Crab Cake Recipe

how to make Pappadeaux Crab Cake

• Make Sauce: In a large mixing bowl, add two tablespoons of mayonnaise, and one teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce. Now let’s season it up with one teaspoon of old bay seasoning, half a teaspoon of black pepper, and a little bit of salt. Now use a hand whisk and give it a good mix.
  
• Add Fresh Ingredients: Once the crab sauce is made, it’s time to add further ingredients. Take one stalk of celery, finely dice it and add them into the sauce. Now take a bunch of parsley, finely chop them, and add 3 tablespoons of them to the sauce. You can keep the left parsley for garnishing. Use a rubber spatula at this stage and gently mix the fresh ingredients with the sauce.
  
• Add Breadcrumbs: Next, add half a  cup of panko breadcrumbs and gently mix. Don’t forget to add one teaspoon of dijon mustard; you can add it while making the sauce, but adding it after mixing other ingredients will bring its flavor more precisely. Now, give it a final mix, check if you need more seasoning, and add.
  
• Add Egg: Our mixer is now in the perfect texture to make crab, but we didn’t yet add the crab. As soon as we add the crab, the mixture will dry out and isn’t going to bind together, so we will add two eggs to moisten the mixture.
  Add two large eggs; you can beat and then add the egg or just crack and add as you wish. Then, mix gently again with a rubber spatula.
  
• Add Crab: Finally, we will add our last and the main ingredient, crab. The classic pappadeaux crab cake is made with crab meat. But I don’t have them right now, so I am using the lamb crab. You can also use claw meat or mixed crab as well. 
  Don’t worry, it won’t change the taste too much, just the meat flavor. Now, fold and gently mix all the ingredients.
  
• Make The Crab Cake: Once mixing is done, we are ready to make the crab cake. When you take the crab mixture, use a spoon or scoop to ensure all crabs are the same size. Here I am taking one scoop of crab mixture in my hand; if you want to make it larger, take half a scoop more. 
  Now gently make it a ball, press, and give it a cookie shape. Like this, make all the crab cake and place them on a tray lined with a baking sheet.
  
• Rest: After you have made all the crab cake, it’s time to let it set. If you try to fry these crab cakes at this stage, they will break down in oil. So cover and leave the tray in the refrigerator for 45-60 minutes or until the crab cakes are set. If you don’t have much time in hand, keep them in the fridge for 10-15 minutes.
• Fry: Put a skillet on a stove on medium-low heat. Add oil; you don’t need to add too much oil; we won’t deep fry the crab cake. Just fry both sides. Once the oil is smoking heat, place the crab cake one by one keeping enough space. Flip and fry both cake sides until they are crisp and golden brown. 
  If you are a butter lover like me, add one shave of butter after flipping one side. Fry all the crab cakes like this.
  
• Garnish: Crab cakes are oil fried, so place them on top of a cooling rack, or use tissue paper to wipe off excess oil. You can now eat or garnish these crab cakes for a better eating experience. Garnish it by adding some remoulade, tartar sauce, and some fresh parsley on top of it. 
  But in pappadeaux, you will be served this crab cake with some tiny tomato pieces, crawfish, and a few basil slices. Scallion with capers is also on the list, but it’s not seen so often.
  
• Serve: Once garnishing is done, transfer the crab cakes to a serving plate, and serve as per your need. You can eat it warm or cold as you want. But if you want to get the same taste of pappadeaux crab cake, you have to add the pappadeaux sauce on top of it and serve it with warm bread. Because this is how pappadeaux serve at their restaurant, and people love the combination.