Crab cakes

I saw a tin of crab meat in the supermarket and thought to myself - I had to have it! I've often seen Nigella and Jamie and other chefs using it in their cooking to make crab cakes, crab pasta, etc but was always dismayed that I didn't know where to find it in Australia or Singapore. In the UK, it's available in gourmet shops which our chefs undoubtedly would know the locations of. Me, I don't know any fancy smancy gourmet shops here, or even if I did, they usually stock the usual (boring) stuff like cheese, olives and other preserved vegs, and if lucky, more exotic things like Mediterranean sauces. After trawling the internet for ang mo and Thai versions, here's my version of an East-West crab cake.

Ingredients
1 tin (250g) crab meat, drained
1 potato, peeled and grated finely (squeeze out any juice that comes out)
1 egg, beaten
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1 tbsp mayo (I like the Japanese version)
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp mustard
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cracked black pepper

Method
1) Combine the crab meat, potato, egg, mayo, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, salt and pepper in a bowl. Mix well. Pour in the beaten egg and 1/2 cup of the panko bread crumbs and combine well. Set aside in the fridge for about 1/2 hour to harden up, otherwise it will break apart when handling.

2) Take tablespoons of the mixture and form into a ball. Transfer into a plate of panko breadcrumbs and press down the ball to form a patty. Coat each side of the patty carefully and transfer onto a non-stick baking sheet. At this point, if you want, you can put the whole baking sheet into a freezer and freeze the patties for later use. These can be baked or fried from frozen at a later date.

3) As soon as you have coated all the patties, heat up a pan with a little oil. The coated patties shouldn't be allowed to sit out too long, otherwise, the newly coated panko will absorb all the moisture from the mixture and get soggy. These crab cakes don't need a lot of oil (they're pan fried, not deep fried). When the oil is hot, fry each patty. Fry each side for approximately 2 minutes per side, till golden brown. Serve immediately with Thai sweet chilli sauce.

4) The patties can also be baked. Spray a little cooking oil spray onto each patty and baked them on the baking sheet in a pre-heated oven for approximately 10 minutes at 200 deg C. Remember to flip halfway and spray the top with cooking oil.