Deep-fried spanner crab cakes with sweet chilli and cucumber

These crab cakes are a variation on the ubiquitous Thai fish cake. You can easily substitute prawn meat for the crab if you wish — the method remains the same. The mixture can be made ahead of time but be sure that you cook the cakes as you need them as they fall flat and do not respond at all well to reheating. Other alternatives for spanner crab are blue-swimmer, mud, Dungeness and spider crab.