When I interviewed Robert Duvall at the Houstonian Hotel in 2006 he gave me his mother's crab cake recipe. Could be a nice dish for the holiday table with a little fun trivia attached to it. The recipe is written in his own words. And up to that point it had never been published, he said.
Mother's Crab Cakes
Source: Robert Duvall
Interviewed by: Cleverley Stone, 2006
Ingredients
1 pound crab meat: jumbo lump or back-fin.
(Jumbo is best for large patties, but not good for tiny ones.
Back-fin is good for both.)
2 heaping tablespoons mayonnaise
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 small onion, grated
1/2/ tablespoon mustard powder
Secret Ingredient: 18 Ritz crackers, crumbled
Butter for sautéing
Directions
1. Combine all ingredients except the crackers.
2. Add cracker crumbs as close to sautéing as possible so that they don't get too moist from the other ingredients.
3. Form patties the size of hamburgers or hors d'oeuvres size, depending on how they will be served.
4. Sauté in frying pan on medium-to-high heat in butter. Ten minutes per side. Make sure that it's crispy outside but moist and juicy inside. The above recipe makes enough for about six hamburger-sized cakes or 15-18 hors d'oeuvres.
Make a simple tartar sauce to accompany the crab cakes: Mayonnaise, grated onion, lemon juice (eye the proportions).