Seafood is Definitly "Good Eats"

You can probably tell by this title that I really like Alton Brown from the food network. I love how he give you new ideas for all different types of food. This morning I watched his show on frozen crab (I had tivo'd it) where he changed the traditional crab cakes recipe into crab fritters. Boy did these look good. Here's the recipe:

Crab Fritters
Recipe courtesy of Alton Brown


1 cup lump or backfin crabmeat

1 cup special crabmeat (small pieces white crabmeat)

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 lemon, juiced

1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs

Vegetable oil, for frying

If using a deep fryer, heat vegetable oil to 375 degrees F.

In a bowl combine the crabmeat, mayonnaise, and pepper. Form into
either 1-ounce balls for fritters or into 3-ounce cakes. Roll in the
panko to evenly coat. Deep-fry the fritters in until golden brown,
about 5 to 7 minutes or pan-fry the cakes in 1 to 2 inches of 375
degree F vegetable oil until golden brown and flip to brown on the
other side about 3 to 4 minutes per side. Drain both on a tray lined
with paper towels. Serve immediately.

Now as good as this sounds, I think I would change it up a bit. Put my own touches to it, you know?

For starters, I would make my own bread crumbs by just slowly baking sliced bread until it's golden brown all over then using my mini food processor to grind it up along with some grill seasoning. I think the seasoned bread crumbs would be great on these fritters.

For me, I would have to add little bit of veggies into the mix. Not too much, I don't want to over power the crab meat. I'm thinking just a little finely chopped broccoli and carrots would do just nicely.

Of course, I'd want to use domestic seafood. With so many recalls on foods lately I think it's pretty important to know where your foods come from and that the foods you eat, especially seafood, are local and fresh.

I think that this dish and my additions would make a great contender for a cook off. The Great American Seafood cook off is coming up on August 2-3 in New Orleans. I can hardly wait to see what these 14 chefs can do. One of their challenges is to create a dish that would be easy for an everyday person to recreate at home. They also stress the importance about knowing the source of your seafood.

Quote: “We want people to really think about their seafood,” said
Louisiana Chef John Besh, “about where it comes from. Events like this
raise their awareness.”

So tell me your suggestions and recipes for seafood dishes. I'd love to hear them.

*This post is sponsored by the great American cook off.