Sometimes when life gets hectic, you need to be able to throw something together quickly for a speedy, satisfying dinner. One of my favourite things to have on hand is the 1 lb. containers of pasteurized crab meat available at Costco. It’s relatively inexpensive, especially compared to the stuff you get from the seafood display at the supermarket. It’s much cheaper and fresher tasting than the stuff you get in tins with a decent amount of leg-meat, and the bonus is, that because it is sealed, it has a quite long shelf-life in the refrigerator (>6 months!). When I am at Costco now, I make sure to pick up one, that will get used within the month.
Today was one of those days. I’ve been out in the yard doing heavy digging and lifting, and hubby was out for an early evening bike ride, so we needed a quick dinner. Lucky there’s crab in the fridge!
Mayo in the fridge, an egg, a small sweet pepper and half an onion, and some panko breadcrumbs in the pantry. A bit of chopped cilantro from the bunch going to seed in the garden, and we’re set!
When I make crab cakes at home, I put lots of crab in them, and save the crumbs for the outside — another great idea from Jaques Pepin (on whom I have a serious culinary crush!). Accompanied by a quick pull-together pasta salad with: leftover rice-pasta, pale yellow heirloom tomatoes, some garlic, olive oil, sherry vinegar and some chopped olives that were lurking in the fridge.
About 25 minutes of prep + cooking time all told…
To round out the evening meal, I made up a quick banana bread with some quickly blackening bananas… plain, no nuts, brown sugar, lots of vanilla. It baked while we ate, and was ready in time for dessert. Stick a fork in me, I’m done!