My Birthday Dinner - NY Strip Steak, Crab Cake with Cajun, Seafood Sauce

So, a few weeks ago, I saw this BEAUTIFUL picture of the steak with a crab cake and lobster sauce and I was like, OMG, I have GOT to make that!!!! So, I search high and low for a recipe for a lobster cajun sauce and found it. I went to 2 grocery stores and could not find the lobster base needed to make the sauce. So, what I did was improvised. I made a sauce using clam juice, seafood stock and tomato paste in lieu of the lobster base. Below, you will find the list of ingredients and directions, along with a few pictures of how to make this DELICIOUS dish!!!

Ingredients:

NY Strip Steaks (or any cut of steak you desire)

Baking potatoes

Ingredients for your favorite salad

Steak Seasoning

For the Crab Cakes:

1lb of lump crab meat

1 tablespoon of black pepper

Lawry's Seasoning Salt

1/2 cup of Mayo

2 tablespoons of Olive Oil

1/2 medium red onion

1 celery stalk

1 bell pepper

1/4 cup of Seasoned Bread Crumbs

For the Cajun Seafood Sauce:

1 green onion

1 pint of heavy whipping cream

3 tablespoons of Cajun seasoning

2 tablespoons of Worcestershire Sauce

4 tablespoons of butter

1 tablespoon of hot sauce

1 tablespoon of Paprika

1/2 cup of clam juice

1/2 cup of seafood stock

3 tablespoons of tomato paste (get the squeezable tub so that you can refrigerate un-used portion easily.)

Directions:

Here's a picture of most of the ingredients.

1. Preheat oven at 350 degrees. 

2. Get a baking sheet and line it with parchment paper.

3. Open and spread the crab meat onto the lined baking sheet and place broil, in the oven, for about 5 minutes.

This is how it'll look once taken out:

I discovered something when I broiled the crab meat.  The shells and cartilage became easily distinguishable and made it easy to pick out. Notice where the tip of my knife is in the picture below. The shells are glowing almost. All of the white specks, throughout the meat, were shells. I was able to pick out almost all of the shells and cartilage.  

4. Chop up the red onion, bell pepper and celery stalk.

5. Add olive oil to pan and saute the vegetables until they become soft and translucent; about 10 minutes on low heat.

Before

10 Minutes Later

6. Take the veges off the heat and set aside to cool off.

7. Add cooled veges to the bowl of crab meat.

8. Add mayo, pepper, Lawry's, seasoned bread crumbs and mix well.

I know you laughing that my I'm using a low fat mayo. LOL

9. Use a spoon to scrap up the crab meat and form into tennis ball sized balls (or larger if you like). This recipe will make approximately 8 tennis ball sized crab cakes.

10. Place crab cakes in the oven and back for about 15 minutes. THEN, broil for an additional 3-5 minutes until they have a nice brown color. Don't burn 'em now. Keep a close eye on them. :-)

Here's how mines looked when I took them out the oven:

11. Pour the whipping cream into a sauce pot, whisk on low heat for about 10 minutes AND WATCH CAREFULLY.

If you do not keep an eye on this cream, it will boil over like mines did. It was all over the sides of the pot and the stove. I cleaned up most of the mess before taking this picture. :-)

12. Add Cajun seasoning and whisk vigorously and constantly.

13. Add Worcestershire, paprika, hot sauce and whisk for a few minutes.

14. Add clam juice, seafood stock, tomato paste and butter and whisk. Let sauce simmer (and whisk) for another 10 minutes.

15. Taste your sauce. If it's too salty, add more cream (or milk if you are out of cream) and add 1 teaspoon of sugar. If it has a slight, weird after taste, add more acid (tomato paste, apple cider vinegar or lemon juice.) 

16. Turn flame off and let sauce sit. The longer it sits, the thicker it gets. Taste again after it has been sitting because it sauces tend to get saltier and spicier the longer it sits.

This is how my finished sauce looked like:

17. Turn a pan on and add olive oil for the steaks.

18. Tenderize your steaks. I used a fork to poke several times, in both directions, on both sides.

19. Season both sides of the steak with the Steak Seasoning.

20. When the pan begins to smoke, place one steak at a time in and cook for about 4-5 minutes on 1st side.

22. Flip steak over and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes.

23. Take the steak out and set aside until all the other steaks are done.

24. Place steaks on a cooking sheet and place in the 350 degree oven and let it cook until your desired state of "doneness." I like my steaks cooked medium to medium well so I baked in the oven for an additional 7-8 minutes. You're frying the steaks in the pan to get a good sear on them. Put them in the oven to finish cooking.

25. Pull steaks out of the oven and let them REST for at least 6-7 minutes so that the juices can re-distribute throughout the steaks. If you don't wait, and cut into the steak, all of the juices will run out leaving you with a dry steak.

26. Place steak on your plate, place a lump of crab cake on top of the steak, ladle the sauce over the crab cake and steak, fit up that baked potato of yours, fix your salad baby, you have yourself a beautiful meal.

Enjoy and please let me know how yours turned out. :-)