With old friends in town, the plan was a late summer day sail on the Chesapeake serving Crab Cake Sliders for 7. But the day turned out being this…

…so we bagged the sail but kept the sliders. Cozed up in a cabin with beer and sliders on a rainy day is not such a bad day after all.

Crab Cake Sliders, as you can image, are just mini crab cakes mass produced. But these are different. With a variety of spicy ingredients that give these sliders a kick, we added that pirate’s one-eyed opener. Remember these for this fall’s football season when everyone else is bringing chili. Make sure you have plenty of beer. Heavy Seas is the perfect choice for any Chesapeake pirate.

Crab Cake Sliders

(serves 6-8)

2 lbs cooked crab meat
2 packages Old Bay Crab Cake Classic
1 cup mayonnaise
4-5 scallions, minced
2 cayenne peppers, minced (can be substituted with jalapeños, serranos or habañeros.)
2 cups Panko Bread crumbs
Non-stick aluminum foil

Sandwich ingredients:

12 small knot rolls, cut in half
Fisher’s Crab House Mustard (can substitute with another semi-sweet mustard but it won’t be the same!)
1 package (4-5 cups) fresh watercress
1 Vidalia (Sweet) onion, thinly sliced
Tartar Sauce

Pre-heat your oven to 400º or at least very hot. If you don’t trust your oven to get hot enough, these can be fried in Canola oil on the stove top. Just be very careful when you turn them so they don’t break apart.

In a medium sized bowl, mix the two packages of Old Bay Crab Cake Classic mix with one cup of mayonnaise. Break up as much of the dry mix and you can and set aside.

Mince the scallions and cayenne peppers. In a large bowl, place the 2 lbs of crab meat, sifting through with your fingers to pick out any obvious crab shells. Fold in the minced scallions and cayennes into the crab meat.

Gently stir in the mayonnaise mixture. Shape into balls slightly smaller than billiard balls. 

Roll lightly in Panko bread crumbs, flatten every so slightly and place on a baking sheet lined with non-stick foil. Place in your hot oven for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, light your broiler and brown the tops. Remove the crab cakes from the oven and shut off the broiler burner. Keep the oven lit.

With a spatula lift each crab cake onto a serving platter. Keep the foil on the baking sheet as you will be putting the sandwiches on that to go back into the oven.

Crab cake assembly looks like a mess, but we’ll make it easy for you.

To easily build the crab cake sliders we’ve created a little graphic for you, below. Click on the ingredients, starting from the bottom up.

Let’s start at the bottom…

Sliders are typically mass produced for a large hungry crowd, often eager to help. Don't let them. There is precision to assembling Crab Cake Sliders that can't be done haphazardly. Here are basic instructions for layering, starting bottom up.

The Bottom

Cut your knot roll in half. Lay the bottom half on the cooking sheet. Do that for all 12 sliders.

Fisher's Crab House Mustard

Next, slather a whole lot of Fisher's Crab House Mustard on the bottom bun. It's not an easy mustard to find but in Maryland you can get it in the specialty foods section at Graul's Market. Or you can order it online. It's got the flavor of Old Bay, but a kick that will knock your socks off if you're wearing any. You WILL GET FAVORABLE COMMENTS from your guests, guaranteed.

Watercress

To add to the kick of Crab Cake sliders, lay a handful of watercress on top of the Fisher's Mustard. Arugula can be substituted if you can't find watercress. But the crisp, pungent, bitter pepperiness of watercress compliments the crab cake flavor perfectly.

Vidalia Onion

Vidalia onions, or sweet onions, do not have that strong fresh onion, --bad breath-- flavor to them. They are simply sweet and can be eaten raw, still leaving you with kissably good breath. Slice these, even shave them, as thinly as possible and lay them on top of the watercress.

Crab Cake

Next comes the crab cakes. Gently lay the crab cakes on top of the bed of onions and watercress on each slider, careful not to let the cakes fall apart. They should still be hot from the oven.

Tartar Sauce

It may seem strange to have two different sauces on one sandwich, but just think of it as having both ketchup and mustard on a hot dog. It goes without saying. Place a dollop of your favorite tartar sauce on the crab cake.

Top Roll

Crown your towering crab cake sliders with tops of your knot rolls. They should stick right onto the tartar sauce.

Your sliders are now complete and ready for a quick heating up in the oven.

Place the Crab Cake Sliders in your oven to bake for just 10 minutes until the bread gets crispy on top.

Serve warm. With beer. Or…Dark and Stormy’s. Depending on the weather.

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Crab Cake Sliders

Mini crab cakes with a huge pirate kick!

Ingredients

Mini Crab Cakes

• 2 lbs Crab meat
• 1 cup Mayonnaise
• 4-5 Scallions, minced
• 2 Fresh cayenne peppers, minced (can be substituted with jalapeños, serranos or habañeros)
• 2 cups Panko bread crumbs
• Non-stick aluminum foil

Ingredients for Slider sandwiches

• 12 Small knot rolls, sliced in half
• Fisher's Crab House Mustard (or any semi-sweet mustard of your choice)
• 4-5 cups Watercress
• 1 Vidalia (sweet) onion
• Tartar Sauce

Instructions

Mini Crab Cakes

• In a medium sized bowl, mix the two packages of Old Bay Crab Cake Classic mix with one cup of mayonnaise. Break up as much of the dry mix and you can and set aside.
  
• Mince the scallions and cayenne peppers. In a large bowl, place the 2 lbs of crab meat, sifting through with your fingers to pick out any obvious crab shells. Fold in the minced scallions and cayennes into the crab meat.
• Gently stir in the mayonnaise mixture. Shape into balls smaller than billiard balls. Roll lightly in Panko bread crumbs, flatten every so slightly and place on a baking sheet lined with non-stick foil.
• Place in your hot oven for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, light your broiler and brown the tops. Remove the crab cakes from the oven and shut off the broiler burner. Keep the oven lit. (the crab cakes can be fried in canola oil instead of broiled if that's better for your oven situation. Be sure to turn them very gently when frying as they can fall apart.)
• With a spatula lift each crab cake onto a serving platter. Keep the foil on the baking sheet as you will be putting the sandwiches on that to go back into the oven.

Slider sandwiches

• Start from the bottom up on each slider: Slather the bottom roll with Fisher's Crab House Mustard. Add a handful of watercress, then sliced Vidalia onions. Place a crab cake on top and add a dollop of tartar sauce to the crab cake. Place on the top of the roll. Do this to all 12 sliders.
• Place back into your hot oven for 10 minutes or until rolls are a little crusty. Serve immediately. 

Notes