To be honest, we didn’t create this dish. Our first kitchen manager, Juve, did. It’s the best example of what can happen when you give staff members a voice. Juve’s dish, along with our evolution of it, became one of our All-Time Top-Three Bestsellers during our lunch days.
2–4 SERVINGS
WASABI AIOLI:
1⅓ tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons sugar
⅓ teaspoon kosher salt
1⅓ tablespoons wasabi powder
1 cup Starry Kitchen Mayo
“CRACK”:
1 pound imitation crab (aka krab) meat, or real crab meat, I suppose*
⅓ teaspoon kosher salt
⅓ teaspoon ground black pepper
⅓ bunch cilantro, coarsely chopped
2 ounces jalapeños, coarsely chopped
2¼ teaspoons coarsely chopped Thai chilies
6½ tablespoon Starry Kitchen Mayo
⅔ teaspoon yuzu juice†
lime, zested‡
1 (2-pound) package tempura flour§
2 large eggs
1 (8-ounce) bag panko bread crumbs
BALLS OUT
40–80 SERVINGS
WASABI AIOLI:
4 cups lemon juice
2 cups sugar
6 tablespoons kosher salt
4 cups wasabi powder
12 cups Starry Kitchen Mayo
“CRACK”:
30 pounds imitation crab (aka krab) meat, or real crab meat*
3 tablespoons kosher salt
3 tablespoons ground black pepper
9 bunches cilantro, coarsely chopped
4 pounds jalapeños, coarsely chopped
1½ cups coarsely chopped Thai chilies
3 cups Starry Kitchen Mayo
6 tablespoons yuzu juice†
3 whole limes, zested‡
15 (2-pound) packages tempura flour§
30 large eggs
30 (8-ounce) bags panko bread crumbs
1. FOR WASABI AIOLI: Combine lemon juice, sugar, salt, and wasabi powder in a bowl. Mix until sugar dissolves. Add Starry Kitchen Mayo and fold everything together with a pleasant little spatula. Store in the fridge, and dip away!
2. FOR THE “CRACK”: Heat 2 inches of oil in a pot to 350°F over medium-high heat.
3. Wearing gloves, combine krab, salt, black pepper, cilantro, jalapeños, Thai chilies, Starry Kitchen Mayo, yuzu juice, and lime zest in a bowl. If there was ever a time to mix like there’s no tomorrow, this might be it. And while you’re looking toward a tasty new tomorrow, be careful to NOT rub your eyes!
4. Next, take a small handful of your krab mix, pack it tightly together, and gently shape a Krab cake—“with a capital K,” as my customers always like to remind me—about the size and shape of a hockey puck.
5. To dredge the cakes professional-like, start with three mixing bowls. In the first bowl, pour in tempura flour. In the next bowl, blend eggs. In the third bowl, pour panko bread crumbs.
6. First, lightly coat cakes all over with tempura flour. If cakes come apart, you didn’t pack them well enough. Repack, recoat, and do it with more passion and fervor this time!
7. After you coat cakes with tempura flour, dredge them with eggs.
8. Finally, coat cakes with panko bread crumbs, completing the professional triple-dredge maneuver. (I’m easily amused by any cooking technique that is more than “just add water.”)
9. When oil is hot, fry dem suckas, for 2 minutes per side, or until golden brown on both sides.
Remove and shake off excess oil; serve with rice or in a Banh Mi topped with Wasabi Aioli; serve with an additional side of aioli for continued wasabi delightfulness. Eat and let the crack-liciousness ensue.
* Try to find the kind of krab that actually has thin flaky strands like real crab. Try to avoid the chunky chunks, readily available everywhere.
† You can buy yuzu juice bottled. It is a little pricey, but if you have a choice of cheap versus expensive, veer toward the more expensive end. We find the cheaper ones more diluted, with less distinct flavor.
‡ Math is odd when you work backwards from a large recipe sometimes!
§ Want the “good stuff”? Look for the “secret ingredient” in the tempura flour, that is, monosodium glutamate aka MSG.