Thai Style Crab Cake Sandwich with Chili Mayo

When I first moved to Norway 10 years ago, the only fast food joints were American burger franchises, pizza franchises, and kebab fast food restaurants.  These places never caught my fancy, however they were the only options we had 10 years ago.  Things have changes since then and fast food has become some what of a fad in Oslo.  But this fad  comes with a price...and extremely high one! For my American readers, can you imagine paying $20 dollars for a burger?   What happened to catering to the masses?

However there are a few affordble gems in Oslo. The Vietnamese Bahn Mi sandwiches can be found in many Vietnamese restaurants in Oslo.  Bahn mi sandwiches are a combination  marintated beef, pickled vegetables that is served on a French baguette.  The Vietnamese were the originators of fusion cuisine and the bahn mi sandwiches are a pefect example of this. What makes these sandwiches great is the balance of sweet, salty, spicy, and crunchy and not to mention at a affordable (by Norwegian standards) price.

Tonight's dinner was inspired by this fusion of East and West fast food style, Thai Crab Cakes served in a Ciabatta bun, with pickled carrots and a chili mayo sauce. Below is my recipe for my  Thai crab cakes and should yield 4-6 servings.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

12 oz canned crab meet

2 cups panko bread crumbs

2 eggs

Vietnamese seasoned fish sauce (Nuoc Cham)

Half inch knob of Galanga

1-2 red chili

1 lemon grass stem

3 kefir lime leaves

Lime juice

Shredded carrots

Lettuce

Mayo

Siracha hot sauce

Oil for frying

4 ciabatta buns

Preparation:

1. Grate carrots and allow to marinate in seasoned fish sauce (1.5 cup fish sauce, 1 cup water, 1/4 cup sugar, juice from 1 lime, 4 cloves garlic minced, and 2 chilies chopped)
2. In a food processor, combine the red chilies, galanga, lemon grass, kefir lime leaves, juice from half a lime, 6T of seasoned fish sauce. Blitz till the ingredients turn into a red paste.
3. Add crab meat, 1 and 1/4 cup panko (save the remaining 3/4 for dredging), and 1 egg.  Blitz till the all the ingredients are combined.
4. Form the crab mixture to 4 large patties and dip each patty in egg and dredge in panko.
5. Fry each patty for 2-3 minutes on each side on medium heat, or till they turn golden brown.
6. For the chili mayo, combine 4T of mayo, 1-2 T Siracha hot sauce (could be more or less depending on your tolerance), 2T seasoned fish sauce and mix well.
7. Serve crab cakes in a ciabatta bun with pickled carrots, lettuce, and topped with chili mayo.

---The Frustrated Fil-Am Chef