Recipes
Lion’s Mane Crab Cakes
This elegant, wild dish is a favorite of mine, and now that lion’s mane is widely available through cultivation, it can be enjoyed any time of year. It is an excellent substitute for folks with shellfish allergies or simply as a vegetarian substitute.
What always amazes me is how closely lion’s mane mimics crab in this recipe. I often serve this to unsuspecting diners, and they always ask where I sourced the crab. My answer, in season, is I found them in the woods. A great conversation starter for a dinner party or date night.
Ingredients
- 12 oz of shredded and cleaned lion’s mane mushrooms
- 8 oz (more or less) of panko breadcrumbs
- ½ bell pepper, diced (red, yellow, or green)
- 4 Tbs of avocado aioli (mayonnaise)
- ½ cup of finely diced red onion
- 2 pasture-raised eggs
- 2 cloves garlic, diced
- 4 tbsp of liquid aminos
Optional: fresh herbs of choice for color and flavor (chives, oregano, cilantro)
Instructions
- Start by cleaning and shredding the lion’s mane into 1- or 2-inch chunks. Bring a cast-iron skillet or frying pan to medium heat, add the chunks of lion’s mane, and a pinch of salt to sweat the water out of the mushrooms (about 4-5 minutes). Continue to agitate the pan throughout to make sure all sides of the mushrooms are lightly toasted as this brings out the unique seafood flavor of the ingredient. You will see the mushrooms release their water when they come to temperature. You can press them gently to encourage this release.
- After sweating the mushrooms, let them cool. While cooling, combine all the other ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix thoroughly. What you should be left with is a thick cake-like batter. You can regulate this by adding the panko slowly throughout. Stir in the cooled and sweated lion’s mane chunks.
- You can let this set up overnight, but it is fine to cook the cakes right away. Form the mix into two sections, each about the size of a baseball. Press them down on a cutting board until they are about 1 inch thick.
- In the same pan where you sweat the lion’s mane chunks, lightly grease the pan with olive oil or your favorite organic cooking oil, then bring it back to medium heat. Place both cakes into the pan and cover. Let the cakes cook for 7-10 minutes per side and remove from the heat. No longer than 20 minutes. You can speed up the cook time by pressing the cakes as they cook.
- Remove from the heat and plate the cakes. Add a salad of mixed greens, then top with avocado aioli or your favorite sauce (remoulade or horseradish also works well), along with some minced herbs. If available, a few edible wildflower florets as garnish add beautiful color and a deeper sense of wild elegance to this dish.
Enjoy!
