Cura is proud to celebrate our chefs during National Culinary Arts Month! Meet Matthew Parkins, the Cura Executive Chef for Longwood at Oakmont, a Presbyterian SeniorCare Network community in Pennsylvania. Chef is a graduate of the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute of America, a recipient of Wine Enthusiast’s Award of Excellence from 2001 to 2015, and a James Beard Nominee. “As the Executive Chef for the past two decades, I’ve learned that creating a strong and dedicated team has been the challenge to execute any kind of culinary service. My advice is most of the problems are ‘low hanging fruit’, meaning if you correct the small things like accountability and breaking down silos, the culinary team will right itself to a path of greatness.” One of Chef’s favorite recipes are his crabcakes! Thank you Chef Matthew for being a culinary inspiration.
Savannah’s Famous Crab Cakes
1 can of Phillips® Jumbo Crab Meat
1 shallot, minced
1 jalapeño pepper, minced
2 scallions, finely sliced 1 red pepper, fire-roasted, peeled and minced
1 egg
3 tbsp. mayonnaise
¾ lbs. Russet potato
¾ cup stale breadcrumbs
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 375° and bake the potato for 20-30 minutes or until just starting to give to the touch. You want your potato to be firm but not raw. Remove and cool to room temperature. Combine shallots, jalapeño, scallions, red pepper, egg and mayonnaise in a bowl large enough to fit all ingredients in the recipe and mix well. Add stale breadcrumbs. If you do not have stale bread, you can toast a few pieces of white bread at 300° in your oven until dry and pulse in a processor. Peel your cooled potato and shred on a box shredder. Combine with mixture and mix well. Add your canned crabmeat, salt and pepper. Fold with a rubber spatula until combined, careful not to break up the crabmeat the best you can (some will fall apart and that’s okay). Form into cakes by hand. (Usually using a ping-pong sized ball portion of the mixture to form into a cake works well.) Place on parchment paper and refrigerate until ready to cook. To cook your crab cakes, you need to keep two things in mind: one, do not overcrowd your pan or the crab cakes will not brown but will fall apart because they are so fragile; and two, the moisture in the cakes tends to splatter in the oil so be very careful. With that said, heat a 10” skillet on medium-high with enough olive oil to completely cover the bottom until it just begins to smoke. Add your crab cakes in batches of four at a time and cook until you see the edges begin to brown. The cakes are very fragile and again the oil is very dangerous, so the technique I use to flip them is to place a thin metal spatula underneath the cake and gently tilt the skillet so the oil is away from the cake I’m about to flip. I flip it away from the oil so that it lands in a minimal amount of oil. This way, you have less chance of splashing yourself. Cook for another 1½ minutes and transfer to a warmed platter. Continue until all cakes are cooked. Serve with your favorite sauce.
