Alton Brown never disappoints with his culinary savvy backed by food science that he manages to explain in the most entertaining way over his long career as a cooking show host. Brown’s often unconventional decisions pay off in most instances, and his recipe for crab cakes is the perfect example. In his New York Times bestselling cookbook, “Alton Brown: EveryDayCook: A Cookbook,” Brown adds a spicy kick to his recipe for crab cakes with the help of kimchi.
Kimchi is a quintessential Korean staple, but it’s quickly becoming a powerhouse staple ingredient in other cuisines as well. We even recommend adding kimchi to a grilled cheese sandwich. As a fermented cabbage relish, kimchi brings an umami funk and spicy heat to complement the oceanic umami of crab while also bolstering the batter with a subtle crunch.
Brown adds 3 ounces of drained and chopped kimchi to 16 ounces of crab meat, bread crumbs, mayo, limes, and egg, blending the mixture into a batter. He then forms rounds, adds an extra coating of panko bread crumbs for an especially crunchy exterior, and fries the crab cakes in canola oil. Even a small helping of kimchi is enough to replace conventional spicy seasonings like cayenne pepper or hot sauce. Plus, you’ll have plenty left over for future use as a side dish or garnish.
Take your kimchi crab cakes to the next level
Kimchi isn’t just fermented cabbage and vegetables; the spicy kick comes from rubbing the veggies in chilies or chili paste before fermenting them. You can control the spice level of kimchi by making it yourself using our recipe for classic homemade kimchi. That said, if you don’t have two weeks to let the cabbage ferment, you can use store-bought kimchi for Brown’s crab cakes. In fact, he recommends it! We have a list of the best kimchi brands, and we think that Chi Kitchen’s napa kimchi is the one kimchi brand you should never leave the store without.
Since you’ll have plenty of kimchi left over after throwing a few ounces into your crab cake batter, there are plenty of recipes worthy of the same spicy kick. You can even make kimchi the star of its own fritter with our recipe for crisp and spicy kimchi fritters as a prelude to the crab cakes. The same process of draining and chopping kimchi applies to both recipes, so you can use this strainer to prepare it for the crab cakes and fritters as well as the same frying pan. You can play up the taste of the kimchi in the crab cakes by pairing them with a complementary dipping sauce. Gochujang, like this Chung Jung One brand, is as much of a staple in Korean cooking as kimchi is, so you could serve the kimchi crab cakes with gochujang mayo or gochujang creme fraiche.
