Blue Corn Crab Cake with Smoked Red Pepper Sauce

Don't adjust your computer.  The title says blue but you ARE seeing yellow.  I didn't have any blue and didn't want to purchase for just this recipe, so I used yellow.  Same flavor, different visual.

This was a last minute addition to our Mesa Grill Dinner.  I had a can of crab meat I wanted to use so I made these.  Yes, the texture was slightly different from uncooked crab.  Yes, the flavor wasn't quite as brilliant.  However, a crab cake is a crab cake and they made a great started with a glass of red wine.  Don't skip the sauce - it is a show stopper!

So in case you were keeping score our Mesa Grill Dinner consisted of:
Blue Corn Crab Cake with Smoked Red Pepper Sauce
Coffee Rubbed Rib-Eye
Roasted Garlic Green Onion Smashed Potatoes
Roasted Green Bean and Mushroom Salad

Blue Corn Crab Cake with Smoked Red Pepper Sauce (Adapted from Bobby Flay)

6 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium red onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 jalapeño chiles, diced

1/4 cup sour cream or crème fraîche

1/4 cup prepared horseradish, drained

3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 pounds lump crabmeat

3 tablespoons Wondra flour

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 cups blue cornmeal

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a medium sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until soft, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic and jalapeños and cook for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool slightly.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sour cream, horseradish, mustard, and onion mixture until combined. Pick over the crabmeat to remove any bits of shell. Add the crab and the flour to the bowl and gently fold to combine; season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate, covered, for 1 hour and up to 24 hours.

Divide the chilled crab mixture into 8 patties about 1/2 inch thick. Dredge each cake in the cornmeal and tap off any excess.

Heat the remaining 4 tablespoons olive oil in a large nonstick saute pan over high heat and fry the cakes until crusty and lightly golden brown, about 3 minutes on each side.

Place 2 crab cakes on each of 4 dinner plates and top each cake with mango-green onion relish and red pepper sauce. Garnish with chives.

Smoked Red Pepper Sauce

4 red bell peppers, roasted, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1/2 small red onion, coarsely chopped
4 cloves roasted garlic, peeled
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon chipotle chile purée (I took a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce and pureed them.  I used 1T here and froze the rest in 1T spoonfuls on waxed paper.  One they are frozen I put them in a freezer bag until needed)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup canola oil

Combine the red peppers, onion, garlic, vinegar, honey, mustard, and chipotle purée in a blender, season with salt and pepper, and blend until smooth. With the motor running, slowly add the oil and blend until emulsified.  This sauce can be made 1 day in advance and refrigerated.