Kickin' Crab Cakes from ProStart winners

Members of the winning team from Wednesday's National Restaurant Association ProStart culinary competition are: Kelsea Keppinger, Amy Perez, Melinda Champion and Melody Champion.

They will advance to the state competition in Las Vegas.

Their winning menu consisted of crab cakes, tri-tip steak with fresh-herb pasta and vegetable-cream sauce, hand-whipped strawberry ice cream with whipped cream, strawberry slices and graham cracker bits.

Here are two of those recipes:

Kickin' Crab Cakes

1 large crab leg

1 cup plain bread crumbs

1 T. oregano, dried

1Ú4 tsp. dry mustard

1 tsp. Worcestershire

1Ú4 red roasted bell pepper

2 green scallions

1 clove garlic

1 large egg

21Ú2 T. unsalted butter

1 large tomato

1Ú2 avocado

1Ú4 cup sprouts

1. Break crab leg. Make sure all the meat is removed from the shell. Place in a medium-size bowl.

2. Add 1Ú4 of the bread crumbs into the crab meat; add the large egg, Worcestershire sauce and dry mustard into the bowl.

3. Brunoise roasted bell pepper.

4. Small dice the green scallions.

5. Mince the garlic.

6. Sauté peppers, green scallions and garlic with 1Ú2 tsp. unsalted butter until onions turn transparent.

7. Add sautéed mixture into crab-cake mixture.

8. Place the rest of the bread crumbs and oregano onto bowl or plate.

9. Roll crab cakes to desired size, then roll in bread-crumb mixture.

10. Place remaining butter into a small, nonstick frying pan.

11. Cook cakes until golden brown on both sides (about 5-7 minutes)

12. Slice the tomato into semi-thick slices. Slice the avocado into four slices.

13. Place the sprouts on the bottom of the presentation plate.

14. Stack tomato, avocado and crab cake onto the sprouts.

Yields: 2 crab cakes

Butter-Lemon Sauce

1 T. unsalted butter

1Ú2 lemon

1Ú2 tsp. basil, dried

1. Melt unsalted butter in saucepan.

2. Add lemon juice and basil into the butter.

Place on top of crab cakes.