It happened when I was in Brazil… For the first time of my life I loved crab!

I have always envied people who love crab, I find it very convivial to eat with your fingers, no fuss with fork and knife, just a glass of white wine to pair with, that’s it.

My father loves crab, I’ve always seen him buying crabs alive, boil them and then break the claws, the shell and eat and suck up absolutely everything nature, not even with a drop of lemon. I tried a few time, but I have never understood such an infuation for crab, fo lobster neither.

And when I was in Brazil, it happened…

To celebrate the carnival we were invited to eat the famous Feijoada but before, to accompany shots of Cachaça…Crabs. It’s been a revelation… They are small, from the lagoon and the flesh is so delicate and tasty that I couldn’t stop eating and sucking up everything, like my father uses to do. It was not the effect of Cachaça at all (I actually started crab before Cachaça), but very much the Brazilian crabs and their so lovely and fresh sea taste. I thought about my father so much!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To celebrate my new status of Brazilan’s crab lover, here is a recipe of cute crab cakes :

 

Serves 2

Ingredients :

-200g of potatoes, boiled and peeled

-100g of crab meat

-2 spring onions chopped very finely

-100g whole oats

-1 egg

Method :

Mash the boiled potatoes, drain the crab meat well, mix the potatoes, crab and spring onion, season and shape into 4 or 6 (depends on the size you want) cakes.

Dip the crab cakes one by one into the beaten egg then into the oats to coat. Leave aside for 15/20 min to firm up.

Heat sunflower oil in a non-stick pan and fry the cake around 5 min on each side.

That is the basic recipe of crab cakes, the crab can be replaced by fish (cod, maquerels, salmon) you can also add hot chillies and lime zests for a punchy exotic touch. The coating can be made with bread crumbs or with corn flakes whizzed it will be very crunchy.