Easy peasy home-made crab cakes

Hi everyone,

Today I have a recipe for home-made crab cakes witha zingy lime & creme fraiche dip. This is such a simple dish to make & it's great for dinner parties too. The only hard part about this is cooking & picking the crab (unless you're buying ready to eat crab meat!).

For the crab cakes you will need: (Makes around 12)
1 large crab (or around 250g of fresh crab meat)
1/2 a loaf of white bread, blended into breadcrumbs
1 small egg
2 tbsp of full fat mayonnaise
The juice & zest of 2 limes
1 tsp each of sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

For the zingy lime & cremè fraichè dressing:
1 pot of full fat creme fraiche
The juice & zest of 2 limes
1/2 a tsp each of sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Too cook the crab:

Fresh, live crab is the best as the meat will be firm & sweet. Pop the crab in the freezer for half an hour- this will knock it out so it won't feel a thing when you drop it in the boiling water. Have a big pot of boiling, slightly salted water on the hob. A common misconception is that crabs "scream" when you drop them into the pan. All this is is the air escaping. The crab isn't in pain- it is already in a coma-like state so it will die instantly once submerged. Let the crab boil for about 40 minutes. Let the crab cool down for a bit before you pick the meat out. Start by removing the legs & claws, using a skewer to pull the meat out, or a hammer to crack them open to remove the meat. Use a screwdriver to prise the body away from the head. There is also plenty of sweet white meat in the body. Inside the head remove the dead mans fingers (these look like slimy brown feathers. Remove the white intestinal tract too & you will be left with the lovely soft brown meat (this can go into the crab cakes too)

To make the crab cakes:

After you have got your crab meat in a bowl (make sure there is no shell left in it) combine with the rest of the ingredients to make a sticky, dough-like mixture. Roll into balls about the size of a small apricot & flatten slightly into patties. Leave to chill in the fridge for at least half an hour. Fry in a small amount of oil until crisp & golden-brown.

To make the dressing:
Combine the creme fraiche, lime juice & zest, & salt & pepper. Divide into small dip pots or ramekins.

A great way to serve these tasty little crab cakes is with rice & some steamed veg, or a salad. Either way, I hope you enjoy this recipe & would really love to know what you all think!

Thanks for reading :) Xxx

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For questions, suggestions, opinions & comments, place a comment below or feel free to email me at:
dollytrolley1994@gmail.com

1 year & 6 months without Facebook

Hello everyone!

Got a post for you today on the last year & a half since I got rid of Facebook. This is a bit of a random one but I was inspired to write about it after seeing a question on Yahoo answers asking for advice on taking a break from social media.

So the story behind this is last January me & my fiance both made the decision to get rid of Facebook. This was for several reasons- neither of us spoke to a majority of the people on our friends lists, there were certain people who we just didn't want to be trying to contact us (I won't go into details but we both ended up having to change our phone numbers because of certain people who didn't understand "I don't want to speak to you- leave me alone") & we were both getting kind of tired of logging on & just seeing everyone airing their dirty laundry in public.

I know for most people now they couldn't live without their phones & social media, & some of you probably think I'm crazy. Thing is though for me, the minute I confirmed that I wanted to shut my profile down it was like a huge weight off my shoulders- I wasn't getting notifications every 5 seconds & my email wasn't being clogged up with games requests or friend suggestions.

Of course it wasn't easy to make my friends understand- as I had changed my number & just disappeared off of Facebook, I'd also been ill from college & a couple of weeks later when I went back they said stuff like "OMG we thought you'd moved away" or "Have you & your other half broken up because we've not been able to contact either of you". It got me thinking on just how much people rely on social media- gone are the days when people visit each other- they totally rely on Facebook & Twitter to keep up with eachothers lives.

Overall, I am glad I don't have Facebook anymore. I don't need it. This last year & a half has been proof of that.

Hope you found this interesting & I would love to know what you think! Thanks for reading :)!

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For questions, suggestions, opinions & comments, email me at:
dollytrolley1994@gmail.com