Old-Fashioned Crab Cakes

April 5, 2006 — -- Renowned chef, restaurateur and media personality Mario Batali has teamed up with NASCAR to create a one-of-a-kind, officially licensed NASCAR cookbook, "Mario Tailgates NASCAR Style: The Essential Cookbook for NASCAR Fans."

The book is full of nearly 100 recipes perfect for any NASCAR party.

Old-Fashioned Crab Cakes

One of my favorite tracks is Dover, aka the Monster Mile. Its concrete surface and seriously banked turns make for some incredible racing -- and Dover is in Delaware, which is crab country. Which means there will be crab cakes.

Serve these before a simple entree. The minimal effort you put into the main course will go unnoticed in the shadow of these delectable appetizers.

Serves 4

For the crab cake sauce

To make the sauce: In a small bowl, mix together all the sauce ingredients until well-combined. Cover and keep cold in a refrigerator or ice-filled cooler until ready to serve for up to 48 hours. In a medium bowl, gently mix together the crabmeat, scallions, parsley, bacon, mayonnaise, egg, bread crumbs, Old Bay seasoning, salt and pepper, keeping the mixture as loose as possible. Gently shape the crabmeat into eight roughly 1-inch-thick by 2-inch in diameter crab cakes, handling the crabmeat as little as possible. Place the cakes on the plate, leaving some space between them. Cover with plastic and keep cold in a refrigerator or ice-filled cooler for at least one hour or up to four hours. Place a skillet on a medium-hot grill, add the olive oil and heat. Arrange the crab cakes in the pan so they aren't touching and cook until they are nicely browned on the bottom, about three minutes. Turn the cakes over and cook three minutes more. Serve with a dollop of the sauce, a sprinkling of lime juice, and a few dashes of hot sauce.