a man, a plan, a crab, etc.

This experiment-in-progress will be a little more difficult for you to make if you're not in the American southwest. Tonight's serving suggestion is two salsas: chunky-style homemade avocado salsa (2 avocados, 3 limes, salt, and 2 tbsp of Trader Joe's pineapple salsa) and a really exceptional store-bought roasted tomato salsa from Texas, Mateo's.

The below technique for the cakes is perfect, it was adapted from Cook's Illustrated's very helpful tome The Best Recipe, my additions being the green chiles, a slight uptick in amount of green herbs used, and replacing standard bread crumbs with toasted corn tortillas (not tortilla chips cuz they'd add too much Earl).

I made a couple of extra, because that's how it works around here; I imagine tomorrow one or more of them will become part of a Green Chile Crab Melt (UPDATE: it did). Below is a picture of one waiting for some avocado salsa and/or some sour cream. Garnishes.

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green chile crab cakes.

1 lb. jumbo lump crabmeat
4 scallions, green part only, minced
4 tbsp fresh cilantro, minced
1 and 1/2 tsp Old Bay seasoning
3 or 4 tbsp fresh corn tortillas, toasted, rested for 10 minutes then pulverized (roughly 2 tortillas 'worth)
1/2 cup mild green Hatch or poblano chiles, roasted, skinned and chopped
1/4 cup mayonnaise
freshly ground black pepper
1 large egg, beaten

1/4 cup fine cornmeal, for dredging
neutral oil, for frying

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Combine scallions, cilantro, Old Bay, tortillas, chiles, and mayo. Gently fold in crab so as not to break it down. Taste for seasoning, add black pepper and if necessary salt, but it should be OK salt-wise b/c Old Bay is salty. Fold in egg. Make 4 semi-spherical patties about 3 inches in diameter andabout 1.5 inches thick. Place on a baking sheet lined with wax paper and refrigerate for an hour.

After an hour, gently dredge cakes in cornmeal and fry in 1/4 inch oil over medium-high heat for 5 minutes a side.

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