- For sauce:
- 1/2 ripe medium California avocado, pitted and peeled
- 1 tablespoon low-fat mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon sugar
- 1 fresh jalapeno chile (including seeds), stemmed and quartered lengthwise
- 1/4 cup fat-free milk
- For crab cakes:
- 1 pound jumbo lump crabmeat, picked over and coarsely shredded
- 3 tablespoons low-fat mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup minced fresh chives
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed
- 1/2 teaspoon herbes de Provence
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with foil.
- Make sauce: Pulse avocado with mayonnaise, lime juice, salt, sugar, and one fourth of chile in a food processor until chile is finely chopped. Add milk and puree until smooth. Add more chile if desired, processing until smooth. Transfer sauce to a bowl and chill, covered.
- Make crab cakes: Stir together crabmeat, mayonnaise, chives, lemon juice, mustard, pepper, and 1 tablespoon panko in a large bowl until blended well, then chill, covered.
- Melt butter in a medium nonstick skillet over moderate heat, then cook garlic, stirring, until golden and fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add herbes de Provence, salt, and remaining 7 tablespoons panko and cook, stirring, until golden brown, about 6 minutes. Transfer crumbs to a plate to cool. Discard garlic.
- Divide crabmeat mixture into 4 mounds on a sheet of wax paper. Form 1 mound into a patty, then carefully turn patty in crumb mixture to coat top and bottom. Transfer to a baking sheet and repeat with remaining 3 mounds, then sprinkle remaining crumbs on top of crab cakes. Bake until heated through, about 15 minutes. Serve crab cakes with sauce.