‘midnight pasta’, but this time without the pasta

 

We had been to a holiday party, and although we had enjoyed some terrific hors d’oeuvres (Chinese-Portuguese tapas, actually), when we arrived back home we both felt we could use a little more substance. I had anticipated the probabliity by defrosting two crab cakes earlier in the day, the trusty central ingredient of one of my go-to, short-notice meals.  The whole deal probably took less time than boiling a pot of water, but it wasn’t a race, so who cares?

• two crab cakes from PE & DD Seafood (ingredients: crab, egg, flour, red & green peppers, garlic, salt, pepper, breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, milk, celery, parsley), heated in a heavy cast iron pan, 3 to 4 minutes on each side, and served on a bed of 6 Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods, which were chopped and combined with salt, black pepper, one finely-chopped fresh not-so-hot red cayenne pepper from Oak Grove Plantation, and some chopped fresh oregano leaves from Stokes Farm, and then some of the liquid from the salsa drizzled over the cakes
• red watercress from Max Fish Hatchery, washed, drained, dried, and dressed with good olive oil, organic lemon juice, salt, and freshly-ground black pepper
• the wine was a California (Central Valley) white, JC van Staden Pinot Grigio 2014
• the music was that of (Johann) Michael Haydn, who was no slouch, even compared with his brilliant older brother