Krab Kakes

Krab Kakes

Ingredients:

14 to 16 oz. prepared seitan (see below)
2 cups 1-cm-cube bread crumbs
2 tablespoons fresh, minced onion
1 ripe plantain
2 teaspoons lemon juice and pulp
5 dashes Tabasco sauce
4 tablespoons mayonnaise (see below)
8 teaspoons Old Bay (see below)
1/4 cup or less of chopped dried nori (seaweed)
1 teaspoon fresh parsley, chopped

Method:

Cut the seitan into pieces roughly 1cm by 1cm by 3cm -- you know, the size of picked crab meat. Gently mix it in a large bowl with the bread crumbs. Add the onion and mix again.

Process the plantain with the lemon juice and Tabasco sauce in a food processor or with an electric blender until smooth. Add this blend to the seitan mixture and gently stir. Add the mayonnaise, Old Bay, nori, and parsley, and stir. Cover and chill at least one hour.

Dust hands with flour and shape the mixture into 12 or 15 patties or balls. Bake on a cookie sheet at 350 degrees F until brown and heated through (30 or 40 minutes). Serve hot, garnished with parsley and a slice of lemon. Squeeze a lemon over them and/or flavor with Tabasco sauce.

Notes:

Important notes about seitan: Seitan is available in natural food stores, prepared, flavored, and packaged in tubs. This seitan is not recommended, because it is seasoned for Asian dishes and has ginger in it. Ginger is not an appropriate flavoring for a crab cake, vegetarian or not! Your best bet is to obtain unflavored seitan or to make it yourself. Arrowhead Mills sells packages of "Seitan Quick Mix," which is easy to prepare. (Seitan can also be made from scratch with normal bread flour, but this process is long and tricky.) Finally, to get a nice seafood flavor in the seitan, toss a handful or two of dried nori (seaweed) and a teaspoon of Old Bay into the water as the seitan dough boils.

Note about mayonnaise: You can purchase prepared vegan mayonnaise from many natural-food stores, and it can also be made from tofu. I don't have a tofu-mayo recipe; Nasoya's "Nayonaise" works well.

Note about Old Bay: This is a blend of spices easily found on the U.S. East Coast. Now that McCormick has bought the original company, it's distributed nationwide and can be found in the fresh fish area or spice aisle of any large supermarket. If you can't find it, any other blend of crab boil should do.

Preparation time is about an hour, plus preparation time for the seitan.

Yields 12 to 15 krab kakes.

When preparing this recipe and any other food you enjoy, please use organically-grown vegetables, fruits, grains, and flavorings. The Earth you save may be your own.