Dress Up Any Meal with an Appetizer. Crab Cakes Anyone?

Making date night happen can be hard, can’t it? Going out for a nice meal sounds great, but that cost really adds up. And if I’m going to eat out, I want to take my time and enjoy it – which is tricky with packed schedules. That’s just one of the reasons that I made this goal for 2011: plan ahead and make more well-rounded meals at home.

Plus, when Ryan and I cook together, we can prepare our dinner faster. And when we take the time to sit down together to eat a real meal at the table, even a simple dinner can be a date. One little trick I learned from my mom? Light a candle at dinner. Even if you’re eating mac n’cheese, a candle turns food into a meal.

In an effort to keep some variety at our house and to dress up a weeknight meal, I decided to try a new recipe: Crab Cakes With Sesame Sour Cream. Not only did I feel very accomplished for tackling a recipe that was totally foreign to me, having a special appetizer to pair with our meal really dressed it up! It reminded me that any night at home can be a date night.

To make your own Crab Cakes With Sesame Sour Cream, first consider the quantity you want to prepare. If it will be dinner for two, cut the recipe in half like we did. For a larger party, follow the recipe directions and you’ll have plenty!

Now preheat your oven to 400°F and prep your sauce. Toasting the sesame seeds is easy – just add the seeds to a small skillet over medium heat. Use a spatula to move them around until they begin to brown. In the meantime, mix together the sour cream, horseradish and sesame oil. Then add the toasted sesame seeds. Cover the sauce and put it in the fridge until you’re ready to serve up the crab cakes.

For the crab cakes, grab a medium-sized bowl and combine the green onion, sour cream (or mayo), ginger, garlic, soy sauce and egg. Since we were making a half-batch of crab cakes, I beat my egg in a small cup and then eye-balled pouring half of the egg into the mixture.

Stir until well mixed, then add the crab meat.

To crush my saltines, I put about a “sleeve” of crackers into a plastic bag and used a rolling pin to crush them as smoothly as I could. This helps keep crumbs from spreading all over your kitchen.

After a cup of crackers are stirred into the crab mix (or half a cup if you’re cutting the recipe down), use a tablespoon to measure your cakes out. A level tablespoon will give you a small crab cake, or you can do a heaping spoonful to make larger cakes.

Slightly flatten the mix into a patty with your hand.

Then place the patty into a bowl of the remaining cracker crumbs to coat both sides.

Melt butter and olive oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Then add as many crab cakes as you can fit while still leaving room for flipping. Let them brown on the bottom.

Then flip the patty over to brown the other side.

After both sides have browned, repeat until all your crab cakes are all browned. Place them on a pan and bake the cakes for 5 – 8 minutes until they are heated through.

Now, grab that sesame sour cream dipping sauce from the fridge and serve the crab cakes hot with some green onion as a garnish. This dish will dress up any meal – from date night in to dinner parties!

Try these Crab Cakes With Sesame Sour Cream at your next special dinner, then rate and review the recipe online.

Come back in a few days when Liz will share a delicious lemon dessert.

Amanda is paid to write for the Land O’Lakes Recipe Buzz® Blog.