For our Week Two Tailgate Menu, we stay close to home as Famous Jameis and the Saints host Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Both teams are 1-0 to start the season, but neither team looked exceptionally sharp in their Week One victories.
That said, Tom is currently in some hot water, not only with his lack of personnel around him, but also with the his better half on the homefront, and she can be one fiery Brazilian.
With that in mind, and Jameis’s own love of the crab, this Week Two menu item was a no brainer.
So, without further ado, The Tailgate Kings presents….
The Spicy Brazilian Crab Cake
What we Need:
About 2 pounds of lump crab meat
1 Red Onion
1 Red Bell Pepper
2 Jalapenos
A Habanero
2 Lemons, quartered
Bulk of Green Onion
2-3 Bulbs of Garlic
Cup and 1/2 of Mayo
1/4 Cup of Dijon Mustard
2 Eggs
2 Ounces or about a 1/4 Cup of Capers
Panko Bread Crumbs
Parsley
Your Favorite Hot Sauce (we’re going with Jammin’ Jelly’s)
Honey
Worcestershire
1/4 Cup of OJ
1 Stick of Butter
Grapeseed Oil
Salt & Pepper
What We’re Doing With It:
To start, preheat the oven to 375.
Now we’re going to be doing both parts, the crab cake and the remoulade, at the same time, so with that in mind, go ahead and grab a bulb or two of garlic and wrap it in foil with a little grapeseed oil, salt, and pepper. Then add it to an oven safe pan alongside your oiled up jalapenos and habanero. Then put the pan in the oven to roast.
Next get to work on dicing up your red onion, red bell pepper, and a couple cloves of garlic. Then dust out some fresh parsley.
In a pan, let a 1/4 stick of butter melt with a little grapeseed oil to help, then add your diced up veggies and sweat them out. Add a little dust up parsley, salt, and pepper to taste. When the veggies are getting close to translucent, add about a quarter cup of orange juice and cook it all down.
While you’re waiting, chop up your green onions into perfect little rings and set aside. The veggies should be done, so take them off the heat and set aside to cool.
Check your garlic and hot peppers in the oven. Then should have a slight roast to their skin letting your know they’re done. Then also set those aside to cool.
You can use this intermission to catch up on Tom & Gisele gossip. Can you really believe Brady is playing another year? Of all the nerve…
By now your roasted garlic and hot peppers should have cooled down enough. Start by squeezing the garlic out of each clove. It should come out easily like a paste. Now go to your jalapenos and habanero. You should be able to pull off the outer skins, and then under a faucet, deseed and devein them. Also, be sure to wash your hands after to get all the oils off.
At this point, your sweated veggies should also have cooled off enough. If not, wait. We’re about to add eggs and mayonnaise, so you don’t want anything to have any heat.
Now in a big mixing bowl, add two eggs to 1/2 a cup of mayonnaise and whisk it together. Then squeeze in about two fresh lemons worth of juice, a quarter piece at a time. Add a 1/4 cup of Dijon mustard and about 3 good shakes of Worcestershire sauce, then whisk that all together again.
Next is the star of the show, our lump crab meat. Add that in and slowly stir it around with a big stirring spoon, now forsaking the whisk. Slowly add your veggies and the panko bread crumbs until you get a ratio you feel is right. We tend to err on the side of too much crab, but that’s just us!
Finally, we’re going to add a little bit of our favorite hot sauce, Jammin’ Jelly’s, to bring up the Brazilian heat to these cakes!
Now before we go forming a dozen patties, the Kings suggest that you make yourself a little taster cake to see if the flavor’s right. After our taster, we added more lemon (which we already reflected up top). If the taste is right, get to forming your patties. For a tailgate, it may be better to go with a little smaller and slimmer cake than what you might get at a restaurant. Arrange your cakes onto a tray or plate and place then in the refrigerator to firm up for about 20 minutes.
That gives us just enough time to finish our Brazilian Remoulade.
In a blender, add your remaining cup of mayo to your capers, roasted garlic, roasted jalapeno, about 1/2 a cup of melted butter, and lemon juice to taste. If you know you like it hot, go ahead and add in the habanero, but otherwise, this is again to taste, so add in your jalapenos bit by bit, check the heat as you go. Add in a little honey, and salt and pepper to taste. When you’ve found your flavor level, refrigerate.
Melt down a 1/4 stick of butter in your frying pan and grab your cakes from the fridge. Now you’re going to sear each side to a nice, light bright color. Don’t get your butter too hot as you don’t want to burn your cakes.
The final moves are as simple as plating your cakes, drizzling some of your remoulade on top, and then garnishing the dish with your chopped green onions.
Your fellow tailgaters will thank you.
Let us know what you think! Or what you’d like to see on future menus! His us up on Twitter @TheTailgateKing, @KingsTailgate, and @TheTailgateKid
