Crab Cakes with Avocado Mango Salsa @LucyBurdette for a Book Launch

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 is catering the spread for Hayley's coworker Danielle’s rehearsal dinner in A POISONOUS PALATE, book 14--out on August 6, 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.

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