RECIPE – Bang Bang Crab Cakes

Cesare - Dragon Chef

Cesare

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I am Cesare - Dragon Chef. Marvel at my culinary expertise, humans. I cook with Bang! Bang! Oil and produce awe-inspiring dishes to blow your tiny minds.

These spicy little fellas are great for a midweek supper and at about 85 calories each, they’re pretty much guilt-free.

Using tinned crab is fine, but if you can get hold of fresh crab meat it’s worth the extra expense. And if you’re feeling adventurous you could always try preparing a whole fresh crab yourself.

Be warned though – I gave my monkey human sous chef a whole crab and told him to get on with it. He disappeared into the kitchen with various power tools and after an hour of crashing, smashing & swearing, he emerged mad-eyed & bleeding, covered in bits of shell whilst bearing less than a teaspoon of usable crab meat.

So on balance, if you are going with fresh, best get someone who knows what they’re doing to deal with it.

Ingredients

• 240g white crab meat (drained if tinned)
• 80g natural breadcrumbs
• 5 spring onions
• A thumb-size piece of fresh root ginger, peeled
• 1 tbsp Bang! Bang! Oil
• 2 red birds eye chillies
• 2 limes (1 whole, 1 zested & juiced)
• A bunch of fresh coriander, leaves roughly chopped and stalks separated
• 2 free range eggs
• Plain flour

To serve

• Bang Bang Chilli Jam (or sweet chilli sauce)
• Mayonnaise
• Bag of ready-made salad
• Olive oil

Method

1. Finely chop the ginger, chilli, coriander stalks and spring onions.
2. Over a low heat gently sweat the spring onions for a few minutes until translucent.
3. Add the ginger, chillies and coriander stalks and cook for a further two minutes.
4. Remove from the heat and put aside to cool.
5. When the spring onion and chilli mix is cool add to a basin with the crab meat, lime juice and zest and Bang! Bang! Oil and mix well.
6. Add half the breadcrumbs and add one of the eggs and stir well again until you have a slightly sticky mix.
7. Flour your hands and then separate the mix out into 10 small patties.
8. Beat the second egg together with 1 tablespoon of water, and put the remaining breadcrumbs in a shallow dish.
9. Coat each crab cake in flour, dip in the egg wash and then coat with breadcrumbs.
10. Place in the fridge to chill for 20 minutes.
11. Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C Fan.
12. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan, and fry the cakes for 2-3 minute each side until the breadcrumbs have turned crisp and golden.
13. Transfer to a baking tray and put in the oven for 5-10 minutes until piping hot all the way through.
14. Serve with salad, Bang Bang Chilli Jam (or sweet chilli sauce), mayonnaise and wedges of lime.