(Gluten Free) Crab Cakes and Beef Tenderloin with a Simple Accompanying Salad
Easy to Prepare and Fast to Cook Surf and Turf
Impress Your Boo With This Foo
If your goal is to knock the socks off whoever you’re cooking for with decadent, complex flavors, then any or all these dishes together is exactly what you need. Gorgeous crab cakes smothered in butter and lemon where the hardest part of the whole dish is being patient and flipping the cakes softly. Cooking a Steak can be a hard task for someone a little lost in the kitchen luckily, I will explain what cut, technique, and seasonings should be used to craft a truly impressive steak. Homemade dressing always seems to wow guests who will be amazed you gave so much time and effort just to feed them when a dressing takes no more than 5 mins to mix up.
Crab Cakes:
16 oz can or jar of Lump Crab Meat
(Gluten Free) Panko Breadcrumbs approximately equal in volume to the crab
1 large egg
3-4 lemons
1 stick unsalted butter
2 Tablespoons Old Bay Seasoning or any other zesty Seafood Seasoning mix
Sea Salt recommended but not required any salt will work, and black pepper
1. Begin by washing your crab meat with cold water and placing it into a large mixing bowl
2. Crack the egg into the crab, mix thoroughly, add in the breadcrumbs, and mix
3. Once the egg, crab, and breadcrumbs are mixed well season with your salt, pepper, and zesty mix and mix that in
4. Spread your crab mixture on a cutting board about half an inch to one inch thick
5. Using something round with straight sides (Drinking glass) cut out your crab cakes and place them on parchment paper
6. Take one lemon cut it in half and juice it over the cakes letting the fresh lemon juice seep into the crab
7. (Optional) at this point chilling the crab cakes in the fridge for a while will make them easier to work with during the cooking process
8. Next, slowly melt the whole stick of butter on low heat trying to avoid the butter bubbling or cooking as this will turn the butter into brown butter changing the flavor profile
9. Once the butter has melted juice another lemon into the pan to create some lemon butter to serve as our cooking liquid for the crab cakes
10. Warm the butter until it begins to bubble very slightly and add in your crab cakes using either your hands or a fish spatula
11. As the cakes cook do not interact with them directly you can shake the pan but any extra touching with spatulas or spoons may break your cakes apart
12. Once you see browning along the edges carefully flip the crab cake onto the other side using a fish spatula. (Any metal spatula can work if you don’t have a fish one) Do this slowly and flip them from very close to the pan as this is the most likely time for the cakes to break up
13. Lastly, transfer your finished crab cakes back to parchment paper for easy serving
Steak:
Your Choice of size for Beef Tenderloin, try to find your steak in the fresh butcher section of your grocery store as it will be much juicier than pre-packaged beef
2 Cloves of minced Garlic per steak
1 tablespoon Vegetable Oil
1 Tablespoon Steak Seasoning Mix
Salt and freshly cracked black Pepper
1. In order to cook this steak, we are going to sear it on the stove and finish the cooking process in the oven so begin by pre-heating your oven to 425 degrees
2. Next, season your beef with a generous amount of salt and pepper on every side
3. For the flavoring, only put on the top and bottom of your steak not along the sides and be sure to rub it in with your hands so it doesn’t fall off during the searing process
4. Next, heat a pan over medium-high heat with your oil
5. Once the Oil is warm the consistency will be much runnier more like water and the pan is ready, simply add in minced garlic and let that sizzle for 30 seconds to 1 min
6. Next add your steak(s) to the pan on to the most presentable side, this will usually be the smoothest side of the cut
7. Do not touch your steak until you can clearly see browning along the edges of the side contacting the pan, when you do, flip your steak once to the opposite side ideally some of the garlic will have stuck to one side and make sure to get more garlic underneath the new side of the steak, Try to not flip the steak any more too much agitation at this point will ruin the Millard reaction we are shooting for
8. Once both sides are seared transfer the meat to an oven safe dish presentation side up, once placed pour any remaining oil and garlic left in the pan over the top of the steak
9. Place into the oven uncovered and take it out when
a. Using a Meat Thermometer In the center of the cut (Easiest): Medium Rare 125-130 Degrees, Medium 135 Degrees, Medium Well 140 Degrees
b. By Touch (Much Harder): Medium Rare just beginning to firm up, Medium closer to squeezing the patch of flesh in between your thumb and pointer finger, Medium Well Much less elastic than the previous two
10. Finally, after taking your meat out of the oven place it on a cutting board and cover it with foil for at least 10 mins of rest this will allow the juices to be reabsorbed by the interior cells of the meat meaning it won’t all come pissing out when you cut the steak, It will also finish the cooking process as the heat dissipates
Dressing:
¼ cup of mayo
Juice of one lemon
Pinch Sea salt
Pinch Freshly cracked black pepper
1. Mix everything together
2. In terms of texture add more lemon juice until it is fluid enough, add more mayo to thicken the dressing
3. Adding more salt will bring out the flavor to a point keep in mind that the citrus from the lemon doesn’t need much salt
4. Bigger flakes of pepper can be achieved by twisting the top of your pepper grinder to allow for the larger pieces to fall through
Chef Notes:
In terms of presentation I sliced an extra lemon and placed the slices in between my crab cakes
My recommendation for the actual salad would be a mix of some baby spinach for the softness and some baby arugula for the crunchiness simply mixing these two greens can be much more satisfying to bite into than a big plate of lettuce
When flipping your crab cakes if they are puffing up at all in the middle try to tap them flat before flipping as this is the reason many of mine that break up in the pan end up doing so
