Usually, when making crabcakes, I use an old standby recipe from Maryland's Eastern Shore, and fry them. While going through all those cooking magazines, this one caught my eye. Although a bit more complex to make, it's worth it in the end. But see my notes which follow:

CRABCAKES WITH MUSTARD SAUCE

THE CASTINE INN

1 cup onion, finely chopped

2 tbls vegetable oil

1/3 cup parsley, minced

5 large eggs, beaten lightly

2 tbls finely ground toasted hazelnuts

3 tbls milk

2 cups Saltines, crushed

2 lb lump crab meat

for the sauce:

2/3 cup dry vermouth 3 tbls red-wine vinegar

2 shallots, minced 3 black peppercorns

1 ½ cups fish stock or clam juice 2 cups heavy cream

white pepper to taste 1 cup Dijon mustard

2/3 cup sour cream

1 cup dry bread crumbs ½ stick unsalted butter, melted

In a small skillet cook the onion in the oil over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until it just turns golden. In a large bowl combine the onion, parsley, eggs, hazelnuts and the milk and stir in 1 cup of the Saltine crumbs and the crabmeat.

Make the mustard sauce: In a saucepan combine the vermouth, vinegar, shallots and peppercorns. Bring the mixture to a boil and boil until liquid is almost evaporated. Add the stock and boil until reduced by half. Add the cream and boil until reduced by one third, and add white pepper and salt to taste. Remove pan from the heat and whisk in the mustard and the sour cream. Strain the sauce through a fine sieve into a bowl and keep it warm, covered.

Form the crab mixture into cakes, using 1/3 cup for each cake, and transfer them as them are formed to a jelly-roll pan sprinkled with the remaining 1 cup Saltine crumbs. Sprinkle the crab cakes with the bread crumbs, transfer to a baking sheet, and bake them in the middle of a preheated 450 degree oven for 8 minutes. Brush the tops of the crab cakes with the melted butter and broil the crab cakes under a preheated broiler, about 4 inches from the heat, for 2-3 minutes, or until they are just golden.

Serve the crab cakes with the mustard sauce.

Makes 16-18.

Notes: I cut the recipe in half, used an ice cream scoop for portion control, and got 10 crabcakes.

There is more than enough reserved cracker crumbs to coat the cakes. Breadcrumbs are not necessary, and I skipped them. And, with the nice addition of ground hazelnuts, I also used hazelnut oil to saute the onion.

The sauce was a problem. Reading the ingredients, I thought that was an awful lot of mustard. And so it proved. For a full recipe I would use only 1/3 cup.

Final thought: For just a meal, it's probably not worthwhile following this recipe because of the complexity of the sauce (I mean, just how many triple-reduction sauces have you made?). But for a special occasion or dinner party, I would surely consider it.