beautiful homemade crab cakes with a hot blackened salsa

Ingredients

500 g potatoes, peeled and larger ones halved

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

olive oil

500 g mixed white and brown crabmeat, 2:1 brown to white, from sustainable sources, ask your fishmonger

2 lemons

a few sprigs of fresh flat-leaf parsley

½ fresh red chilli

3 spring onions, trimmed

For the salsa

1 red pepper, quartered and deseeded

10 cherry tomatoes, on the vine

1 fresh red chilli, halved lengthways and deseeded

1 spring onion, trimmed and finely sliced

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

a few sprigs of fresh basil

Method

Add the potatoes to a large pan of salted boiling water and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, or until tender. Meanwhile, blacken the pepper, tomatoes and chilli in a large frying pan on a high heat with a small splash of olive oil, then leave to cool.

Drain the potatoes in a colander and leave to steam dry for a few minutes then return to the pan. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and the crabmeat then mash with a potato masher. Finely grate the zest of a lemon onto a board, add the parsley, chilli and spring onions and chop it all together, mixing as you go, until fine. Scrape this into the pan of crab mixture and mash again till well combined. Divide into 12 portions then shape, pat and hug each one into a patty. Pop in the fridge for at least 4 hours, or overnight, to firm up.

When you're ready to cook, add a splash of olive oil to a large frying pan on a high heat. Add half of the patties and cook for about 5 minutes, turning halfway, or until golden, crisp and cooked through, then repeat with the second batch.

Meanwhile, chop the blackened veg with the sliced spring onion as coarsely or as finely as you like. Have a taste then add a pinch of salt and pepper, the extra virgin olive oil and the juice of ½ a lemon. Pick and add the basil leaves, discarding the stalks. Chop again until you're happy with the consistency.

To serve, lay the crab cakes out on a platter and top with that delicious salsa. Serve with a simple lemony dressed rocket salad and lemon wedges for squeezing over.