Crabcakes are a favorite seafood meal anytime of the year

What better way to celebrate the start of fall than with an easy delicious vacation-type meal any time of the week.

Making crabcakes with the claw meat is cost efficient yet wonderfully delicious.

On a homemade biscuit, even better. After you make and taste these biscuits, you will find many other meals that you will want to use them.

Note to this recipe is that you can always cut the recipe in half to make a smaller batch of each the crabcakes and the biscuits.

Fresh Crabcakes

Makes 15-4 ounce crabcakes

3 pounds of crab claw meat

2 cups of breadcrumbs

1 ½ cups of mayonnaise

5 large egg

4 scallions, finely chopped

¾ cup of red bell pepper, small dice

1 cup of celery, small dice

Salt and black pepper, to taste

Seed oil, for frying

6 tablespoons of unsalted butter, for sautéing

Sauté all of the vegetables, in a medium-sized spray coated with a small amount of seed oil. When the vegetables are translucent, remove from the pan and set aside to cool.

To a large bowl, add in the remainder of the ingredients, except for the sautéing oil. Mix gently to combine. Form the mixture into 4-ounce patties, making approximately 15 crabcakes. Before frying the patties off, evenly coat each crabcake with breadcrumbs.

In a small amount of oil to a pan, brown each crabcake on both sides, until tested for doneness with a kitchen thermometer reading 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

Drain each crabcake on a paper towel. Set each done crabcake on a sheet pan. Now, into a 350 degree oven, bake all of the crabcake patties for 10 minutes to finish them off.

Cheddar Biscuits

Makes 15 large sandwich biscuits

7½ cups of all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon of baking powder

1½ teaspoons of baking soda

1 tablespoon of fine salt

1 tablespoon of sugar

3 sticks plus 6 tablespoons of frozen unsalted butter, all grated

3¾ cups of cold buttermilk plus extra to brush on the biscuits

9 ounces of yellow cheddar cheese, grated plus extra grated cheese for the topping

Topping

1 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature

1 tablespoon of minced garlic

2 tablespoons of fresh parsley, finely chopped

Mix all of the dry ingredients together. Add in the 9 ounce of grated cheddar cheese and the grated frozen butter. With your hands, break up the butter into smaller pieces and gently mix.

Now, pour in the buttermilk and mix just to combine. With an large ice cream scooper, level out each portion of your individual biscuit dough and place onto a parchment-lined sheet pan. Place the full pan into the freezer for 30 minutes. You want to place your biscuits cold into a hot oven.

Brush each biscuit with buttermilk and sprinkle with cheddar cheese. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes or until golden brown and baked through. Test-tasting when slightly cooled is encouraged! You know how slow or fast your oven bakes. You can adjust timing as needed.

Heat all of your topping ingredients together and brush over the baked biscuits. Enjoy your fresh homemade biscuits.

Sarah Schweitzer is dual-certified in Culinary Arts and Baking & Pastry from the Escoffier School of Culinary Arts (www.escoffier.edu). She is currently Line Cook and Baker at CB’s on Center in Jim Thorpe. She can be reached at sarah.schweitzer18@gmail.com.