Crab cakes

I was reading this Guardian Word of Mouth piece on crab cakes last week, and realised that I'd never eaten one. I'm sure I've had fish cakes with a lot of potato and a hint of crab, but not these American-style crab cakes which have very little filler. So I thought I'd rectify that this weekend.
I used Felicity Cloake's basic recipe, but made a few adjustments based on ingredient availability and the flavours I like.

Recipe (enough for 4-5 crab cakes):

100g fresh crab (half white meat, half brown meat like this one)
100g tinned crab (ideally lump crab)
2 small, mild spring onions, finely sliced
Around 2 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs
Around 1 tbsp finely grated grana padano cheese (or similar hard cheese)
A grating of nutmeg
Generous sprinkle of paprika
A bit of salt and pepper to season
A couple of tbsp of plain flour for coating
Sunflower oil for frying

Combine all of the above, except the oil, to form a mixture that is firm enough to form into cake shapes. Lightly dust with plain flour, and refrigerate for an hour or so. I used some brown crab meat in my mix and this seemed to create enough moisture to bind everything so I didn't need to add any egg. Once they've firmed up in the fridge, heat a shallow layer of oil in a large frying pan and when it's hot (but not smoking) gently place the crab cakes in. They are quite delicate, but were relatively easy to turn after a few minutes on each side. Everything in them is cooked, so you're really just heating the crab through and browning the outside a bit.

I really liked these crab cakes served with a bit of salad. They were crispy on the outside, but soft inside, with the brown meat contributing a strong crab flavour. I added a bit of cheese as I quite like to defy convention and have some with seafood, but actually you couldn't really taste it. I think it helped a bit with binding though. I will definitely be making these crab cakes again, but I think I might add some stronger flavours such as chilli, and maybe garlic, as I've found that these combine well with brown crab meat. But anyway, I can now successfully cross crab cakes off the 'to eat' list.

Spaghetti with crab and rocket

I only started cooking this relatively recently when fresh picked crab meat started appearing in my local supermarket but it has undoubtedly become one of my favourite speedy recipes. It's light enough to eat in the summer, especially with the rocket leaves which act like an integrated salad, but is also lovely in the winter when you're in need of some hearty fare. The brown crab meat forms an instant sauce so additional ingredients like cream aren't required, and it's so quick the thing that takes longest to cook is the pasta.

There seem to be lots of variants of this recipe but this is my version (probably initially inspired by Nigella or someone else off the telly though). For enough for two you'll need:

100g picked crab meat (white and brown)
2 or 3 spring onions (finely sliced)
1 fat clove of garlic (finely chopped)
1 medium red chilli (finely chopped; remove seeds if you don't want too much heat)
Large handful of rocket
Plenty of olive oil
Enough spaghetti for two (about 200g)
Plenty of seasoning

Bring a pan of water to the boil and cook the spaghetti. At the same time gently sweat the spring onions in a generous amount of olive oil until they've softened without colouring. Add the garlic and chilli, stir for a couple of minutes and then add the crab meat and cook until it's heated through. Remove from the heat and then stir through the cooked pasta. Season to taste and add an extra splash of olive oil if you want. Either add the rocket directly to the crab and pasta and mix or serve on top (and eat immediately).

It has also been known for all of the above to be combined with enough pasta for one and eaten solo. But definitely not by me, no definitely not.......