Recent Eats: Crab Cakes and Lemon Caper Baked Snapper

I've always been a fan of cooking, but with my busy schedule lately and lack of downtime, it's become outright therapeutic. 

Last night I had tennis practice, work to do, homework that needed to get done, laundry that needed to be folded, and a house full of things to be done, but I also had a refrigerator full of fresh fruit, vegetables, and fish that was just begging to be cooked. 

I mentioned in my Fresh Harvest post that they were sending me snapper and crab, and when it was delivered on Tuesday my mind immediately starting dreaming up all the ways I was going to use it, and last night I was a woman on a mission.

I spent a solid 45 minutes perusing Pinterest and various cooking blogs finding the perfect recipe, and I gotta tell you... I nailed it. 

I knew I wanted to make crab cakes, and in my past attempts the 'cakes always turned out too crumbly. I was on a mission to make the perfect cakes that didn't fall apart while cooking. I'm not sure which addition to my method was what sealed the deal, but these cakes turned out PERFECTLY. I modified it slightly and included my ingredient list and steps below!

For the Crab Cakes

• 2 large eggs
• 2-1/2 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• A couple shakes of Worcestershire sauce
• A couple shakes of Old Bay seasoning
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chopped zucchini, about 1/2 a normal size zuke
• ~1/2 cup of corn, cut fresh off the cob
• 8 oz lump crab meat 
• 1 cup panko
• Vegetable oil for cooking

Combine the eggs, yogurt, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire, Old Bay, and salt in a large bowl and mix well. Add the crab meat, zucchini, corn and panko; gently fold mixture together until just combined. Shape into crab cakes and place on prepared baking sheet. Cover and stick in the freezer for 20-30 minutes. Once solid, heat oil and wait until it's hot! Sprinkle some water in and if it sizzles, it's ready. Place the crabcakes in the pan and let them cook 2-3 minutes per side, flipping 3-4 times. I like to flatten mine a little after each side has been cooked. 

The original recipe only called for 1 egg, and after adding the extra veggies I just felt like it was going to crumble, so I added the second and a few more bread crumbs. Good call on my part. Same with throwing them in the freezer. I let them firm up while I worked on prepping the rest of the meal. 

Next up was this recipe for the fish. I used far more seasoning (all I had was Creole seasoning on hand but it worked perfectly!) than the recipe called for, and ended up needing more butter to actually create a sauce, but who complains about more butter? I also used the juice of a whole lemon instead of half, and I like a lot of capers so used more like 1.5tbsp but ya'll. The fish was out. of. this. world. Honestly, the whole meal was one of the best things I've cooked in a while. It could be re-created with any white fish, and crab can be found for ~$10 in your local grocery store. Pretty fancy stay-at-home meal for a date night or delicious treat for one!