Louisiana Crab Cakes

I have had Delia Smith's book 'How to Cheat at Cooking' for some time. Some very good recipes but I haven't really used it much. Why you may ask. Well the thing is the shopping list for the 'cheat's' ingredients is quite lengthy and I never seem to have the right things in the larder. It seems it is quite expensive to be a cheat. I noticed these crab cakes sometime ago and bought the tins of crab but as usual they got pushed to the back of the cupboard. I was however inspired by a photograph of them in Vi' pantry and decided to make them. I didn't have the jarred peppers for the required red pepper mayo but I made my own. They are really delicious and so easy to throw together. I will definitely be keeping the tinned crab meat to make these again. We had them as a main served with chips and salad but one would make a lovely starter I think.

Ingredients

43g tin John West dressed crab, plus 170g jumbo crab meat (Asda Extra Special) or other white crab meat, drained 2 spring onions1 pack (about 25g) fresh coriander1 piece jalapeño pepper, from a jargrated zest of ½ lemon1 medium egg, beaten3 rounded tablespoons dried breadcrumbs (Waitrose Cooks? Ingredients) or dried ciabatta breadcrumbs (Tesco Ingredients)a good pinch of cayenne pepper 1 heaped tablespoon semolina1 tablespoon groundnut or other flavourless oil

For the red pepper mayonnaise

the equivalent of ½ fresh red pepper (from a jar of roasted peppers)1 fat clove garlic, peeled2 rounded tablespoons Delouis Fils fresh mayonnaisea good pinch of cayenne pepper

First of all, chop the spring onions, half the coriander (minus any very thick stalks) and the jalapeño in a mini-chopper. Combine these with the rest of the ingredients (except the semolina and oil), season and mix well. After that, divide the mixture into 6 and form it into round patties, squeezing the mixture together firmly. Spoon the semolina on to a plate and coat the crab cakes on all sides.

For the mayonnaise, whiz the ingredients together in a mini-chopper and empty it into a dish.

To cook the crab cakes, heat the oil in a medium frying-pan till very hot and shimmering, then cook them for about 2 minutes on each side. Serve with the remaining coriander to garnish and a good helping of the mayonnaise.

Serves two as a main course. (Three cakes each)

What I did

I didn't have fresh coriander so I used some parsley and dried coriander.

I moulded the cakes in a cookie cutter to give them a good shape

I popped them in the freezer for ten minutes in case they fell apart when frying

I made a sweet chilli and garlic mayo by putting some chilli jam and a little garlic paste into some Hellman's. I used about 4-5 tablespoons of mayo as Delia's didn't give a very large amount. Well I needed something to dunk those chips into now I am no longer dieting.