Recipe

Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes from the Garden & Gun Club

Featuring a secret ingredient straight out of the pantry


To a California native, crab cakes will always mean Dungeness. But since Ann Kim, executive chef of the Garden & Gun Club at the Battery Atlanta, moved South, she’s come around to blue crab. The good news is, any crab works beautifully with Kim’s take on the dish thanks to her secret ingredient: saltines. 

“Coating them with saltine crumbs gives them a little bit more of a dense consistency,” Kim explains. And with the addition of ginger, you get a pleasing bite to a meal that’s just fancy enough to merit a special occasion. “Since crab isn’t something people generally eat on an everyday basis, these are especially great for the holidays.” 

The Garden & Gun Club at the Battery Atlanta is open for lunch and dinner and accepts walk-in diners and reservations. Visit the Club’s website for more information.


Ingredients

  • Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes (Yield: 4–6 servings)

    • ¾ cup red bell pepper, small dice

    • ¾ cup celery, small dice

    • ¾ cup yellow onion, small dice

    • 1 tbsp. ginger, finely minced

    • 1 tbsp. garlic, finely minced

    • ¾ cup crumbled saltines or panko

    • ½ cup mayonnaise

    • 2 lb. jumbo lump crab meat

    • 2 tbsp. flour

    • 1 tsp. lemon juice

    • 1 tsp. Dijon mustard

    • 2½ tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

    • 1 tsp. salt

  • For the breading:

    • 3 cups all-purpose flour

    • ½ tsp. salt

    • Pinch black pepper

    • 5 eggs

    • ¼ cup water

    • 4 cups crumbled saltines or panko

    • 4 cups oil for frying (vegetable, canola, or peanut)


Preparation

  1. Mix the crab cakes: Sauté red bell peppers, celery, and onions until soft. Add ginger and garlic and sauté for a few more minutes. Let vegetable mix cool down and mix with crumbled saltines or panko, mayonnaise, crab, flour, lemon juice, salt, mustard, and Worcestershire. Using your hands, form into 3- to 4-oz. balls.

  2. Bread and fry the crab cakes: Mix flour, salt, and pepper in a shallow dish. Whisk eggs with water in a bowl. Place saltines or panko in a deep bowl.

    Coat portions of crab mix with flour, then dip in egg wash. Try to avoid excess egg wash while ensuring the crab is completely coated, leaving no dry flour patches. Place crab cakes in saltine or panko mix and coat well. Shape crab cakes to a flattened, circular shape about 1-inch thick. Repeat until all the crab cakes are breaded. 

    In a stock pot, heat oil to 325°F. Fry crab cakes until golden brown. Do not overcrowd the oil, as the temperature will drop significantly. 

    Serve.


Kinsey Gidick is a freelance writer based in Central Virginia. She previously served as editor in chief of Charleston City Paper in Charleston, South Carolina, and has been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Travel + Leisure, BBC, Atlas Obscura, and Anthony Bourdain’s Explore Parts Unknown, among others. When not writing, she spends her time traveling with her son and husband. Read her work at kinseygidick.com.


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