Valentine's Day - Part 1

Although Valentine's Day is a highly commercialized holiday, my husband and I like to use it as an excuse to eat something super delicious. We decided to stay in and go with a surf and turf theme.

Jim found a steak recipe that he wanted to try while watching Discovery Health: A LYON in the Kitchen. Jim did an amazing job cooking this steak, and as he so proudly explained to me, he even achieved "sexy grill marks." We will definitely be making this recipe again!

On the surf side, I wanted to make a crab cake recipe that I had been eyeing up for as long as I owned the cookbook, Ted Allen's The Food You Want to Eat.

Crispy oven-fried crab cakes

Ingredients: (I halved this recipe)

1 lb. jumbo lump crab meat

1/4 c. mayonnaise

1 large egg, beaten

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

2 small scallions coarsely chopped (about 2 tbsps.)
2 heaping tbsps. chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/4 tsp. Old Bay or Paprika
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. Tabasco
1/4 c. coarsely processed fresh bread crumbs (dense, country-style loaf preferably)
3 c. cornflakes

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine the crab meat, mayonnaise, egg, mustard, scallions, parsley, Old Bay or paprika, salt, pepper, and Tabasco. Stir gently with a fork to combine. Gently stir in the bread crumbs. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or up to 4 hours.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Process the cornflakes to coarse crumbs in a food processor and dump onto a plate. Form about 1/3 c. of the chilled crab mixture into a 3-inch cake. Gently dredge the cake in the cornflakes, turning over and completely covering the crab cakes. Continue forming the rest of the crab cakes and place onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes.

The whole dinner was remarkably easy and extremely delicious! We will be making both of these recipes again. Happy Valentine's Day!