Crab Cakes with Avocado Mango Salsa @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: Hayley Snow’s mother Janet in the Key West food critic mysteries is a caterer whose reputation has blossomed in Key West. She will cater the spread for Hayley's coworker Danielle’s rehearsal dinner in book 14, including these crab cakes. She makes mini-sized cakes, topped with a mango-avocado salsa. I thought we should enjoy them too!

BTW, our local CT fish market told me that fresh lump crabmeat is expensive and hard to find. They use Boss pasteurized crabmeat that comes refrigerated in a can, so I tried it too. 

Ingredients for the crab cakes:

One pound crab meat, picked over to remove bits of shell

½ cup panko or fresh breadcrumbs

Two scallions, finely minced

1 stick celery, finely minced

¼ teaspoon celery seed or salt

½ teaspoon paprika

¼ tsp cayenne

1 ½ teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

2 ½ tablespoons mayonnaise

Fresh black pepper

2 eggs





Mix the ingredients from scallions to eggs. Then fold in the crab meat and the panko, sorting through the crab as you go to make sure no cartilage or shell remains.



Shape the crab mixture into ½ cup-sized cakes. This should result in six. If they are to be served as appetizers, make them smaller. Refrigerate for an hour or more to help the mixture set.



Heat a tablespoon of olive oil and a tablespoon of butter over medium heat. Add crab cakes. Sauté them until brown, then flip carefully and continue to sauté the other side.



Serve with avocado mango salsa or cocktail sauce (one part horseradish to two parts ketchup).

Ingredients for Avocado Mango Salsa



One large ripe mango

Two ripe avocados

1 tablespoon minced red onion or 2 scallions

1 tablespoon minced jalapeno, or to taste

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

½ lime

1 to 2 teaspoons olive oil

Salt-and-pepper to taste




Cut the mango and avocado into small chunks. Mix this gently with the onion, cilantro, and jalapeno. Squeeze the lime juice over the top and drizzle with the olive oil. Then salt and pepper to taste.




You could also serve this with pan fried yellowtail snapper or Key West pink shrimp. You could even serve it with tortilla chips as an appetizer.

USA TODAY BESTSELLING #13 in the Key West food critic mystery series, in stores now!

Food critic Hayley Snow and her pal Miss Gloria are overjoyed to welcome Violet and Bettina Booth, aka the Scottish Scone Sisters, to Key West. The sisters will host The UK Bakes!—Key West Edition. But the same day they arrive, the bed-and-breakfast the sisters are staying in gets torched.

The contest begins the next morning featuring three local bakers. One is the inn owner’s wife, Rayna, who is not only the most talented chef of the group but now a person of interest in the fire. The next night, a dogwalker discovers a body near the bed-and-breakfast. The victim appears to be Rayna’s husband, and the murder weapon points directly to the Scottish Scone Sisters.

But the show must go on. In between filming sessions, the three elderly ladies and Hayley must search for clues to the brutal murder in order to find out who wants to force them out of the kitchen. But as they draw closer to the answer, the threats from a murderer grow closer too. Are they now in danger of getting baked off?

"Food lore, island delights, and mystery provide something for everyone."

—Kirkus Reviews

“But how many new ways can an author concoct for the protagonist to find a dead body? I needn’t have worried – and neither should fans. This Key West murder mystery has twists, turns – and cake.” –Cathy Salustri, The Gabber

Order the book wherever books are sold!