Ingredients

• 1 cooked brown crab
• weighing about 1.25kg/2½lb
• 300ml/10fl oz olive oil
• 1 large carrot
• chopped
• 1 leek
• chopped
• 1 medium onion
• chopped
• 900g/2lb potatoes
• flour
• for dusting
• 2 eggs
• beaten
• 100g/4oz breadcrumbs
• 2 tomatoes
• skinned
• seeded and chopped
• 10 fresh basil leaves
• 6 thinly sliced and 4 left whole
• juice of ¼ lemon
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 150C/130C Fan/Gas2.
• Extract all the meat from the crab but reserve all the shells. Place the shells with the olive oil in a shallow roasting pan with the carrot
• leek and onion. Bake in the oven for 2 hours to gently extract the flavour. Leave to cool then strain the oil and discard the debris.
• Cook the potatoes in lightly salted boiling water until soft. Mash with a fork and mix in three-quarters of the white crab meat
• half the brown crab meat and one third of the crab oil. Correct the seasoning with salt. Divide the mixture into balls each weighing about 50g/2oz. On a floured surface
• shape into round flat patties with a palette knife. Pass the cakes first through the flour
• then the egg and then the breadcrumbs.
• Put the remaining crab oil
• the tomatoes
• sliced basil
• lemon juice and the rest of the crab meat in a pan and warm through but do not boil.
• Set the deep-fryer to 160C/320F or heat some oil to the same temperature in a large pan. Add the cakes and fry for three minutes. Remove and drain on kitchen paper.
• Divide the crabcakes between four warmed plates. Pour the dressing around the crab cakes. Garnish with a whole basil leaf placed on top of the dressing. Serve immediately.