Paper Palate

A new day has dawned: there is now an entire cookbook about crab cakes. (There might be another one, but it didn’t come up on the first several pages of an Amazon search!) The Sacramento Bee offers a review of the book, which even has a cute title: “I Love Crab Cakes! 50 Recipes for an American Classic.” The bright cover of this book has caught my eye in the bookstore, so I was happy to get the opportunity to learn more about this one.

The author, Tom Douglas, is the chef and owner of four Seattle restaurants. He “takes a thorough tour through ingredients and techniques, never casting aspersions on the various kinds except to say King crab has a different texture.” The recipes in the cookbook are Douglas’ own and are compiled from other chefs, including Emeril Lagasse and Mark Bittman. You will find a recipe for crab cakes with no filler at all and others for tempura crab cakes and a crab cake sandwich. The Bee notes that, at times, Douglas stretches the definition of a crab cake in order to include a recipe, but this indiscretion is forgivable in light of the reputations of the chefs whose recipes are featured.

There is an entire chapter on salsas and sauces for crab cakes. It also offers detailed discussion of different techniques for making crab cakes.

Imagine sinking your teeth into a bite of pure crab — no egg, no mayo, no chunks of bread, artisan or otherwise. Can such a morsel exist? Believe. Thanks to a technique that involves squishing the minced crab and spices into ring molds, then breading just the exposed ends before sautéing the cakes in oil, these lightly crunchy pucks look inviting and taste even better. You don’t even need the clam aioli that creator Thierry Rautureau, a French chef who works in Seattle, suggests — but if you’d like to try it, it’s on Page 138 of the book.

The stylish cover of this book made me tempted to ignore the old adage and just buy it for its cover. It is nice to know that the inside of the book meets the expectations set by its outside.