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sausages in a foil-lined roasting tin or, better still, a throwaway foil baking tray.
    • Mix the chilli, cranberry and soy sauces in a measuring jug and whisk in the sugar along with the clementine (or satsuma) and lime juices.
    • Pour the glaze over the cocktail sausages and turn them so they are evenly coated, before putting the tin in the oven for 30–40 minutes, with a gentle turnover after 20, by which time they should be hot, burnished and gorgeously sticky. (If you’re cooking chicken wings or ribs, having marinated them overnight in the cranberry-chilli-soy goo, you will have to up the cooking time: the wings should need about 45 minutes; the ribs an hour.)
    • When serving, provide cocktail sticks and napkins, or make sure you have finger bowls or babywipes to hand.
    MAKE AHEAD TIP:
    Put all the sausages into a large, sealable bag (or glass bowl) and add all the other ingredients. Shake or stir everything together until the sausages are well-coated and leave in the fridge for up to one day. When ready to use, just tip everything into cooking tray and cook as directed.
    FREEZE AHEAD TIP:
    Make ahead as above and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge.
    WASABI CRAB CAKES
    I cook crab cakes so often, and tinker about with them to suit my mood, that I can offer up any number of variants on the recipe below. I will try and contain myself, though, as too much choice can be paralysing rather than liberating. But feel free, if it suits you, to use 100g brown rice flour in place of the breadcrumbs. If you can’t find wasabi, use English mustard (powder or paste) as directed for the Japanese stuff and substitute lemon or lime juice for the rice vinegar.
    Makes approx. 45 crab cakes
    500g fresh white crab meat or frozen white crab meat, thawed
    4 spring onions, very finely chopped
    1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
    2 teaspoons wasabi (Japanese horseradish) powder, or 3 teaspoons wasabi paste
    2 teaspoons rice vinegar
    3 teaspoons tamari or Japanese soy sauce
    100g fresh breadcrumbs
    groundnut or other vegetable oil for frying
    lemon or lime wedges to serve
    • Press and drain any liquid from the crab meat, and put the crab meat in a large bowl. Add the spring onions, garlic, wasabi, rice vinegar, soy sauce and breadcrumbs, and mix together to combine.
    • Spoon or pinch out walnut-sized dollops, and press together tightly with wet hands or wearing vinyl disposable gloves, to form bite-sized crab cakes. Arrange the little crab cakes, on a clingfilm-lined sheet that will fit into your fridge or freezer (don’t freeze if using frozen crabmeat – see tips, below). You can have a double-decker arrangement if you put another layer of clingfilm on top of the crab cakes. Cover with a final layer of clingfilm and stash in the freezer overnight or for a few hours. If you’re using thawed frozen crabmeat, do not refreeze, but just let the patties sit for about 30 minutes in the fridge to firm up.
    • When party time comes around, preheat your oven to 120°C/gas mark ½. Line a baking sheet large enough to take all the crab cakes with a double layer of kitchen paper.
    • Heat a frying pan filled with oil about 5mm deep, take the frozen crab cakes out of the freezer, then fry the unthawed crab cakes until golden brown and crisp on both sides, which won’t take long.
    • As they brown, transfer the crab cakes to the paper-lined baking sheet and put in the oven for 20 minutes to heat through, holding them in the oven to keep warm before serving, if required. If you’re using thawed crab meat, fry the patties for a few minutes a side only, though you can hold them in the low oven if you want to keep them warm. The crab cakes will not be quite as crisp, but they will be scrumptious.
    • Remove the crab cakes to a platter or pair of plates, scattering lemon or lime segment wedges among them. They are lovely, too, with sweet chilli sauce. Use a good bottled one or, as I’ve done, mix a squirt of lime juice (to