The Art of Perfection: A Crab Cake Masterclass

As we begin our culinary journey, it's essential to understand that perfection is not just about following a recipe but also taking responsibility for the outcome. Gordon expertly demonstrated this point by handing over a set of cookie cutters and encouraging us to take control of our crab cakes.

With the pan preheated to 80 degrees, we carefully removed the cutter from the crab cake, creating two perfectly rounded patties. However, as we all know, perfection is not just about the equipment; it's also about putting in the effort and energy required to create something truly exceptional. Gordon reminded us that with a little bit of care and attention, even minor imperfections can be overlooked.

Now, let's move on to cooking the crab cakes. As Gordon instructed, we took a teaspoon of olive oil into the pan and carefully rolled it around to distribute the oil evenly. Next, we placed our first crab cake at 12:00 and our second one at 6:00, allowing them to cook for a few minutes until they developed a nice color.

The key to achieving this perfect color is not just about cooking time but also about understanding the Maillard reaction, that magical process where amino acids and reducing sugars interact with heat to create new flavor compounds. As our crab cakes cooked, the aromas wafting from the pan were tantalizing, teasing us with the promise of a truly exceptional dish.

Meanwhile, Gordon expertly prepared the dressing for our salad. He combined mayonnaise, Capers, mustard, chopped Red Onion (which he kindly offered to chop himself), and a squeeze of lemon juice in a bowl. The result was a beautifully balanced vinaigrette that would add depth and complexity to our dish.

Now it's time to dress the salad. Gordon instructed us to take a light hand when adding salt and pepper, as we want to enhance the flavors rather than overpower them. With a gentle sprinkle of salt and pepper, we tossed the dressing into the bowl, creating a delicate harmony of flavors that would complement our crab cakes perfectly.

As we approached the final stage of preparation, Gordon emphasized the importance of presentation. He encouraged us to create a "garden" on top of our plate, using the salad as the base and adding the crab cake at its center. With a sprinkle of zest and a delicate drizzle of Remoulade sauce, our dish began to take shape.

The moment of truth arrived as we carefully lifted our crab cakes onto the plate. Gordon's guidance had been invaluable, but it was up to us to execute the final touches with finesse. As we added the finishing touches – a sprinkle of paprika and a delicate drizzle of Remoulade sauce – our dish began to take on a life of its own.

The moment we finished cooking the crab cakes, Gordon presented us with his signature phrase: "Turn around and show me yours!" The anticipation was palpable as we anxiously awaited the reveal. But, alas, it seemed that not everyone had mastered the art of perfection. One dish, in particular, looked a bit...uninspired.

Despite the setbacks, Gordon's words of encouragement were reassuring. He reminded us that practice makes perfect and that even minor imperfections can be overcome with patience and persistence. As we took our first bites of the crab cakes, the flavors exploded on our taste buds, and for a moment, all was forgiven.

In the end, it was clear that Gordon's masterclass had not only taught us how to cook exquisite crab cakes but also the importance of taking ownership of our culinary journey. With his guidance, we learned that perfection is not just about following a recipe but also about embracing the process and pushing ourselves to create something truly remarkable.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is Shane I've got 15 minutes to teach him how to make the most amazing crab cake without actually showing him anything all he's going to be doing is hearing my voice audio on a scale of 10 how bad are you uh pretty bad I'd say two okay that's got me more nervous uh 15 minutes your time starts now let's go okay first things first take the crab okay okay put it flat side down on the board like this just like that got it and then get your hands underneath get your two thumbs in place at 6:00 and you push up and you lift that up and that's called the purse now from there take these big legs off I think I took them all off but all right no cuz there's no point of wasting time on the little legs we'll be here all day get your cloth put your cloth on top get the back of your knife and lightly crack the claws that opens them up and then look what happens from there you sort of crack open and then get your finger inside and Beau y slide out this incredible nugget of crap beautiful all right I'm I'm trying to get the nuggets have you got the Nuggets I'm not getting the Nuggets try pinch the end here they're kind of pinching me they're pinching you Shane the crab is dead did you push hard enough on the knife uh perhaps not okay so you got to give it some some well as we say in England Please and crunch your hands there you go okay you've got crab ready yes yes I do thank goodness for that right let's start with the bell peppers okay right so top and tail okay all right what should I do with the crab Gordon okay so put it back in the bowl and clear off your bench okay Shane yeah if you work nice and tidy will'll produce a stunning crab cake if you work in a mess we'll produce the mess right top and tail your bell peppers okay and then you take your knife and slice down slice around that way we get rid of the bitter Parts in the center all we do now is form a beautiful julen skin side's quite rough so put the skin side down onto the board and then from there chop now the secret of these Peppers is to make sure it's small dicing okay okay what do you consider small Gordon uh I would say half a centimeter I don't I don't know metric you don't know metric Shane come on we are in the 21st century I'm sorry now once you finally dice yes all your bell peppers yes lift them up into the bowl for your crab with me yes they're in the bowl good now the secret is to make sure that once they cook they almost disappear so make sure they're not big from there get your crab meat got it and Flake the crab meat into the peppers we're going to season the crab meat with salt and pepper open up the top of the pepper mill so we get a nice crunch of pepper in there salt and then take your lemon and then zest that into the mixture now all right uh wait Spin The Lemon getting my zest here keep up with me please I'm doing my best okay take a little slice of the top of the lemon and squeeze the juice in there from there take an egg beat up the egg season that as well salt pepper as well sorry what am I doing with the egg so you just put the egg into the bowl uhhuh EG the whole egg and you whisk and then wait I got to bre in in that mixture there Shane yes okay stay with me a teaspoon of mustard a teaspoon of wish of sauce and then a little touch of kayenne pepper and then Shane yes I just want you to take that and smell the sort of bowl and make sure it smells nice and fragrant it does and then taste a little bit Taste of seasoning we can't season it after we've cooked it so we season it okay it tastes good I was a little spicy to be honest that's the idea but you cook it will lose a bit of that spice now from there lightly sprinkle your bread crumbs over the mix all of it no lightly sprinkle breadcrumbs over the mix got it and Shane what we're trying to do here now is use the breadcrumbs to bring the crab cake together take your sheet tray and then you take your cutter and and you press the crab meat the secret here yeah is to press the crab meat into the cutter you know we're up against it time wise I'm pressing okay so press it in there got it from there we're going to turn on our pan wash our hands washing my hands you're doing a great job for a minute you know that great job now we're going to sit these into the pan turn your pan on to a medium high medium high at 80° now once that gets up to temperature very carefully remove the cutter from your crab cake and you got two nice perfectly rounded crab cakes perfect uh Gordon I'm so my my circles are now perfectly circular here and the a little bit misformed Shane um first of all don't blame the equipment take some responsibility and I gave you a perfect set of cookie cutters so if they're not perfectly done yes there's no reason why you press them down you put a little bit of effort and energy into the crab cake and you mold it okay with me I am with you good now we can start cooking all right take a teaspoon of olive oil into the pan roll the pan round and then from there get your spatula under your crab cake lift it up nice and gently okay okay nice thing is across these crab cakes there'll be no visual Peppers cuz you would have fine DIC them they're so finely diced you wouldn't know there's pepp there you go that's the secret into the pan the first one goes in at 12:00 and the idea now is to get some color on those crab cakes to put some what to get some color color okay no color no flavor got it second one in goes at 6:00 6:00 it's in okay great now from there now we're going to move on to the dressing okay this is where it gets really exciting take your mayonnaise excuse me mayonnaise add your Capers one tablespoon of Capers one teaspoon of mustard into the mayonnaise take your chopped Red Onion uh I do not have chopped onions I'm going to have to chop it myself here we go you can take some of mine there you go excellent now gently give your crab cakes a little shake from there spoon and mix all that in take the other half of your lemon squeeze the lemon juice in there and then roughly chop the taragon into the remad good the Teragon is what what's the Teragon tagon have a little taste oh no no I see it I see it so like nice long strands yeah now the salad take your radish okay open up the radish we're going to season the salad with the lemon juice and a little touch of olive oil now we need to dress this salad very lightly okay salt pepper with me I'm with you I'm adding my pepper great and then we take the spatula and we start to turn our crab cake turn it turn it very care put your hand on the top at 12:00 listen carefully spatula underneath yeah and turn it turn it over beautiful turn it over okay good looking good ready for the most exciting part okay great and that's to dress the plate take your salad dressing lightly toss the dressing and then want to create the salad at the top of your plate get your salad into almost like a sort of like a rose at the top of your plate sorry I'm a rose a rose remember the last time you bought roses yeah there you go so imagine this Rose wait wait with the with the Sal at the top of yeah we're creating a garden at the top of our plate I got it a fresh Delicious Garden okay your plate on the board put salad on the plate gently zest over the salad the fragrance of your lemon get your Rema and Spoon your remad at 6:00 and then run your spoon through it so it looks like a beautiful smear on the plate gently lift your crab cakes out okay and just place them on set like that and then very carefully we're going to finish it with a little drizzle cakes to the r and then I'd like the plate absolutely spotless and there we go and that is how to perfect an amazing crab cake fing finished with a stunning remad and a fragrant salad like it's just been picked Shane are you with me I'm with you on the count of three turn around and show me yours one two 3 holy Shane did you drop it I didn't drop it Jesus Christ I did everything you told me to two a te that looks a lot I want to eat that Jesus Shane I'm sorry you are bad okay um I'm not sure that's cooked through so I hope it'll be okay for you Shane it looks like a dog's dinner I'm so sorry you have to taste this it's actually seasoned nicely but the presentation is shocking um Gordon do do you think I succeeded no no I know that was tough uh and you hadn't touched crap before but uh you were bad but promise me you'll keep on trying uh you've you your encouragement means something to me I'm going to try I'm going to try cooking I promisethis is Shane I've got 15 minutes to teach him how to make the most amazing crab cake without actually showing him anything all he's going to be doing is hearing my voice audio on a scale of 10 how bad are you uh pretty bad I'd say two okay that's got me more nervous uh 15 minutes your time starts now let's go okay first things first take the crab okay okay put it flat side down on the board like this just like that got it and then get your hands underneath get your two thumbs in place at 6:00 and you push up and you lift that up and that's called the purse now from there take these big legs off I think I took them all off but all right no cuz there's no point of wasting time on the little legs we'll be here all day get your cloth put your cloth on top get the back of your knife and lightly crack the claws that opens them up and then look what happens from there you sort of crack open and then get your finger inside and Beau y slide out this incredible nugget of crap beautiful all right I'm I'm trying to get the nuggets have you got the Nuggets I'm not getting the Nuggets try pinch the end here they're kind of pinching me they're pinching you Shane the crab is dead did you push hard enough on the knife uh perhaps not okay so you got to give it some some well as we say in England Please and crunch your hands there you go okay you've got crab ready yes yes I do thank goodness for that right let's start with the bell peppers okay right so top and tail okay all right what should I do with the crab Gordon okay so put it back in the bowl and clear off your bench okay Shane yeah if you work nice and tidy will'll produce a stunning crab cake if you work in a mess we'll produce the mess right top and tail your bell peppers okay and then you take your knife and slice down slice around that way we get rid of the bitter Parts in the center all we do now is form a beautiful julen skin side's quite rough so put the skin side down onto the board and then from there chop now the secret of these Peppers is to make sure it's small dicing okay okay what do you consider small Gordon uh I would say half a centimeter I don't I don't know metric you don't know metric Shane come on we are in the 21st century I'm sorry now once you finally dice yes all your bell peppers yes lift them up into the bowl for your crab with me yes they're in the bowl good now the secret is to make sure that once they cook they almost disappear so make sure they're not big from there get your crab meat got it and Flake the crab meat into the peppers we're going to season the crab meat with salt and pepper open up the top of the pepper mill so we get a nice crunch of pepper in there salt and then take your lemon and then zest that into the mixture now all right uh wait Spin The Lemon getting my zest here keep up with me please I'm doing my best okay take a little slice of the top of the lemon and squeeze the juice in there from there take an egg beat up the egg season that as well salt pepper as well sorry what am I doing with the egg so you just put the egg into the bowl uhhuh EG the whole egg and you whisk and then wait I got to bre in in that mixture there Shane yes okay stay with me a teaspoon of mustard a teaspoon of wish of sauce and then a little touch of kayenne pepper and then Shane yes I just want you to take that and smell the sort of bowl and make sure it smells nice and fragrant it does and then taste a little bit Taste of seasoning we can't season it after we've cooked it so we season it okay it tastes good I was a little spicy to be honest that's the idea but you cook it will lose a bit of that spice now from there lightly sprinkle your bread crumbs over the mix all of it no lightly sprinkle breadcrumbs over the mix got it and Shane what we're trying to do here now is use the breadcrumbs to bring the crab cake together take your sheet tray and then you take your cutter and and you press the crab meat the secret here yeah is to press the crab meat into the cutter you know we're up against it time wise I'm pressing okay so press it in there got it from there we're going to turn on our pan wash our hands washing my hands you're doing a great job for a minute you know that great job now we're going to sit these into the pan turn your pan on to a medium high medium high at 80° now once that gets up to temperature very carefully remove the cutter from your crab cake and you got two nice perfectly rounded crab cakes perfect uh Gordon I'm so my my circles are now perfectly circular here and the a little bit misformed Shane um first of all don't blame the equipment take some responsibility and I gave you a perfect set of cookie cutters so if they're not perfectly done yes there's no reason why you press them down you put a little bit of effort and energy into the crab cake and you mold it okay with me I am with you good now we can start cooking all right take a teaspoon of olive oil into the pan roll the pan round and then from there get your spatula under your crab cake lift it up nice and gently okay okay nice thing is across these crab cakes there'll be no visual Peppers cuz you would have fine DIC them they're so finely diced you wouldn't know there's pepp there you go that's the secret into the pan the first one goes in at 12:00 and the idea now is to get some color on those crab cakes to put some what to get some color color okay no color no flavor got it second one in goes at 6:00 6:00 it's in okay great now from there now we're going to move on to the dressing okay this is where it gets really exciting take your mayonnaise excuse me mayonnaise add your Capers one tablespoon of Capers one teaspoon of mustard into the mayonnaise take your chopped Red Onion uh I do not have chopped onions I'm going to have to chop it myself here we go you can take some of mine there you go excellent now gently give your crab cakes a little shake from there spoon and mix all that in take the other half of your lemon squeeze the lemon juice in there and then roughly chop the taragon into the remad good the Teragon is what what's the Teragon tagon have a little taste oh no no I see it I see it so like nice long strands yeah now the salad take your radish okay open up the radish we're going to season the salad with the lemon juice and a little touch of olive oil now we need to dress this salad very lightly okay salt pepper with me I'm with you I'm adding my pepper great and then we take the spatula and we start to turn our crab cake turn it turn it very care put your hand on the top at 12:00 listen carefully spatula underneath yeah and turn it turn it over beautiful turn it over okay good looking good ready for the most exciting part okay great and that's to dress the plate take your salad dressing lightly toss the dressing and then want to create the salad at the top of your plate get your salad into almost like a sort of like a rose at the top of your plate sorry I'm a rose a rose remember the last time you bought roses yeah there you go so imagine this Rose wait wait with the with the Sal at the top of yeah we're creating a garden at the top of our plate I got it a fresh Delicious Garden okay your plate on the board put salad on the plate gently zest over the salad the fragrance of your lemon get your Rema and Spoon your remad at 6:00 and then run your spoon through it so it looks like a beautiful smear on the plate gently lift your crab cakes out okay and just place them on set like that and then very carefully we're going to finish it with a little drizzle cakes to the r and then I'd like the plate absolutely spotless and there we go and that is how to perfect an amazing crab cake fing finished with a stunning remad and a fragrant salad like it's just been picked Shane are you with me I'm with you on the count of three turn around and show me yours one two 3 holy Shane did you drop it I didn't drop it Jesus Christ I did everything you told me to two a te that looks a lot I want to eat that Jesus Shane I'm sorry you are bad okay um I'm not sure that's cooked through so I hope it'll be okay for you Shane it looks like a dog's dinner I'm so sorry you have to taste this it's actually seasoned nicely but the presentation is shocking um Gordon do do you think I succeeded no no I know that was tough uh and you hadn't touched crap before but uh you were bad but promise me you'll keep on trying uh you've you your encouragement means something to me I'm going to try I'm going to try cooking I promise\n"