Caribbean crab cakes and mango salsa

Preparation

• 1
  1. Peel the potato and cut into small dice. Place in a pan of boiling water and simmer for 10-12 minutes until the potato is soft. Drain, leave to steam for a minute or two then mash until really smooth.
• 2
  2. Chop the spring onions very finely and place in a bowl. Add the clove of garlic, peeled and crushed, then chop the leaves of the fresh herbs very finely and add them to the bowl. Deseed the chilli, chop half of it really finely, reserving the other half for the salsa, and mix that in too.
• 3
  3. Place the cooled mashed potato in a large bowl and mix in the chopped onion, chilli, garlic and herbs. Put in the crabmeat and mix it well into the potato. [I used mixed white and dark crab meat, but just use white if that’s what you prefer.] Stir in the mustard and hot pepper sauce. Season well to taste with salt and black pepper.
• 4
  Beat the egg in a separate bowl, then add it, a little at a time, to the mixture, stirring it in to bind everything together
• 5
  you probably will not need all of the egg, you don’t want the crab cake mixture to be too wet to handle. Cover the bowl and leave to chill in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.
• 6
  4. To make the salsa, chop the flesh of the mango into small dice and place in a bowl. Deseed and finely chop the red pepper and the green chilli, finely chop the spring onions, basil and coriander leaves, and mix with the mango. Stir in the juice of half the lime, reserving the other half to cut into wedges to garnish the crab cakes, and a tablespoon of olive oil, season with salt and black pepper and then cover and leave to chill in the fridge.
• 7
  5. Sift 3 tablespoons of plain flour onto a large plate and season with salt and pepper. Take spoonfuls of crab cake mixture in floured hands and quickly roll them in the flour, forming each one into a small ball and flattening slightly into shape, until all the mixture has been used up.
• 8
  6. In a large frying pan, heat the sunflower oil. Add the crab cakes to the hot pan and cook for about 3 minutes, until golden brown, before carefully turning them over and cooking on the other side
• 9
  you will probably want to cook them in two batches to avoid crowding them in the pan. Place the first batch on a baking tray in a warm oven while you cook the second batch if you are serving them hot.
• 10
  Serve hot, accompanied by the mango salsa and garnished with wedges of lime, or, if you prefer, you can serve them cooled to room temperature.