This past week was my dad’s birthday, and every year I like to make him something special.  This year I made crab cakes and tartar sauce. I got up that morning and made him breakfast, lox eggs and onions. We then went to the cemetery to visit my mom and then for lunch we ended up having a scoop of ice cream.

I was going to serve avocado on the side and realized when we got home from our day that I forgot the avocado. So, I decided to put it in the tartar sauce.  Below I have my recipe for my crab cakes which was my mothers.  The only thing I did differently was I added the guava garlic salt versus garlic salt, and I put black garlic mayo instead of regular mayo.  I know that if my mom was still here, she would’ve loved the change to her recipe since she loved garlic so much. My mom was born in Philadelphia but raised in Maryland, so we have been making and eating them our whole life.

She always made her homemade tartar sauce and kept it in and old Hellmann’s jar.  I will share my new Tartar recipe with you soon, so stay tuned.

Now the next question I had for myself is what wine we should pair with our crab cakes for dinner. Since last week I pair dinner with Sauvignon Blanc I decided this week 2016 Renaissance by Reyes Chardonnay. This Chardonnay comes from the same Vineyard that we source our Sauvignon Blanc that I wrote about last week. This Chardonnay has delightful aromas of citrus, lemon zest and a hint of grapefruit. Aged in French oak for 20 months, creating a multi layered and complex wine. It is rich on the palate and filled with notes of tangerines and quince. This wine has been very easy for me to pair this with so many delicious dishes. The acidity pairs perfectly with a rich tasting dish, such as crab cakes.  To complete my dinner, I served a frisee salad with a champagne vinaigrette and roasted corn.  Enjoy!

Crab Cakes

Ingredients

• 1-pound crab meat, shredded
• 1 ½ tablespoons dry breadcrumbs
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon old bay seasoning
• ½ tsp guava garlic salt
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 1 egg
• 1 ½ tablespoons black garlic mayonnaise (If you don’t have this, you can use garlic powder and mayo)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions

1. Add olive oil to cast iron frying pan over medium heat.
2. Combine crab meat, breadcrumbs, parsley, old bay, and guava garlic salt
3. Combine crab meat mixture with other ingredients and mix well.
4. Form into patties and place on a lightly greased broiler pan or baking sheet. You should be able to get about 10.
5. Fry for about 5 minutes on each side.
6. Let sit for 5 minutes and serve with tartar sauce.