Recipe: Baked Crab Cakes - Amanda: I really don't see why you cannot bake your crabcakes.

I do have high cholesterol and I bake my "empanadas", my "tostones" & my "sorullitos"& all those other fried delicacies that I should not eat. Here is a recipe for baked crabcakes. I hope you like them!

BAKED CRAB CAKES

1 pound Jumbo Lump crab meat
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
1/2 teaspoon fresh minced garlic
1/8 teaspoon crushed dried tarragon
1 pinch of cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
6 saltine crackers, crushed fine
1 large egg, beaten
1/4 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
3/4 teaspoon Hungarian paprika

Toss crab meat with the lemon juice, refrigerate.

Saute onion with butter and olive oil over medium heat until barely limp, about one minute. Transfer to a small bowl to cool.

Mix together Old Bay, garlic, tarragon, cayenne pepper, mayonnaise, crackers, and beaten egg. Add the onions and mix well. Fold gently into the crab meat. Divide into 6 portions.

Butter a baking dish that will fit your broiler.

Roll the crab into 6 large balls, put on buttered dish 2-inches apart.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

Remove from oven and flatten each ball a little. Sprinkle each one first with the cheese and then the paprika.

Broil to toast the cheese a bit. Serve hot.

Source: Gladys L. Hull, Salisbury, MD.