COOKING.
Freshwater crayfish are easy to cook if you know how. Basically anything you can do with a prawn, crab or lobster you can do with yabbies. One of the important things to remember is that yabbies are freshwater. This means you should have high levels of salt in the water you cook them in when ever possible. Salt enhances that crustacean flavour. Ideally cook in sea water for an excellent taste. If not available then one tablespoon of salt per litre of water would be the equivalent.
Most people just heat water to boiling point and drop yabbies in 4-5 minutes and they are red and ready to eat. Stir them with a spoon to ensure even cooking. Generally it’s best to dip them in icy water or run them under the cold tap after boiling as they can continue to cook once the heat or water is removed.
Also, by cooling them down rapidly it is generally considered easier to peel them as the flesh pulls away from the shell.
Personally, when I cook yabbies at home I steam them. This gives me the best colour and flavour and uses the least amount of water.
The most important ingredient for excellent taste is to cook the yabbies live. If you leave them to die and then cook them you will not receive the same firm texture of flesh and flavour.
The best way to handle live yabbies prior to cooking them is to place them in an ice slurry for 10 - 20 minutes. An ice slurry is a mixture of salty water and ice. You can also just put them into the freezer for an hour. You are not trying to freeze the yabbies only put them to sleep. Yabbies are cold blooded so by cooling them down sufficiently they go into a hibernation state. You will not be able to kill them over a short period so they will still be moving but they will be feeling nothing. This is the humane way of cooking them, you feel no pain when you drop them in the pot and they feel no pain when they are dropped in the pot of boiling water.
Many restaurants only blanch their yabbies. On the day they are received they cook them all but only for one minute. They then store them in the cool room and bring out what they need each day and finish cooking them as required.
If you are just boiling yabbies then there are a large number of ingredients you can add to the water to enhance the taste. Some of these include a whole lemon – peel and all, just cut into quarters and drop in. Beer, vinegar, honey, caraway seeds, dill, olive oil or even lemonade can be added to your boiling water. A traditional bush recipe is boil the water in the billy. Open a bottle of beer, put ½ in the water and ½ into you.
Some of my favourite recipes follow.
RECIPES
1. YABBY DIP
INGREDIENTS
250mls cream (thickened)
⅓ cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon mild prepared mustard
2 dessertspoons malt vinegar
1 teaspoon chilli sauce (mild)
1 kg yabbies -cooked, peel and chop meat finely.
METHOD
Combine all ingredients leaving the meat till last. Chill before serving.
Serve in large crayfish shells or bowls surrounded with cracker biscuits.
2. YABBY COCKTAIL
INGREDIENTS -Serves 6
- 100 mls cream (fresh or thickened)
- 100 mls mayonnaise
- 50 mls tomato sauce
- 2 dessertspoons
- Worcestershire sauce
- Add a squeeze of lemon juice
- Plus a dash of tabasco
- 1 5kgs yabbies -cook peel and cut into halves or chunks
- shredded lettuce
- parsley sprigs
- 1 lemon sliced
- Rye bread (optional)
METHOD
Combine cream, mayonnaise and sauces, chill at least 1 hour before serving.
Line 6 bowls with shredded lettuce, add cut yabby meat and pour sauce over the top.
Place a sprig of parsley on top and a piece of lemon on the side and serve with rye bread.
INGREDIENTS
3 ripe avocados
1 kg yabbies –cook, peel and dice. Keep some whole for garnishing
Yabby Cocktail Recipe No.2.
Rye Bread (optional)
METHOD
Halve avocados and remove seed, scoop out the flesh, mash until smooth, blend with cocktail recipe, combine the yabby meat and refill avocado shells. Garnish with a few whole or halved yabbies and rye bread. Serves 6.
VARIATIONS
May be served as a dip.
Use with Yabby Nuggets Recipe No. 4 leaving out the yabby meat.
4. YABBY NUGGETS
INGREDIENTS
36 yabbies -shelled
⅔ cup self raising flour
⅓ cup custard powder
⅔ cup beer
breadcrumbs
METHOD
Make a well in middle of combined flour and custard powder, add beer gradually and mix with a wooden spoon until smooth. Leave stand for a minimum of 1 hour. Roll yabby tails in flour, add to batter, and roll in breadcrumbs.
Deep fry until golden brown 5 -7 minutes.. Serve with dip, Cocktail Sauce Recipe No.2, Avocado and Cocktail Sauce Recipe No.3 (leave out the yabby meat) or may also be added to Sweet and Sour Crayfish Recipe No.18.
5. GARLIC CRAYFISH
INGREDIENTS Serves 6
- 2 kgs yabbies -shelled and halved or cut into chunks
- fresh chopped parsley
- In 6 ovenproof dishes add to each:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 crushed cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon fresh chopped chilli or to your taste
- 1 tablespoon butter or margarine
METHOD
Place on tray in hot oven for ten minutes the 6 ovenproof dishes. Divide yabby meat between dishes, return to oven 4 -8 minutes. Serve immediately sprinkled with chopped parsley.
6. SKEWERED YABBIES
Place on skewers, alternatively yabby tails or chunks, with sultana and seedless black grapes, heat slowly on B.B.Q. until cooked 5- 8 minutes, rotating regularly for even heating.
7. GRILLED CRAYFISH (LARGE)
1 crayfish per serve.
Cut in half lengthwise, baste with butter, place in hot oven for 10 minutes, flesh side up, then place under preheated griller for further 5 -8 minutes.
Serve as is with a bowl of Cocktail Sauce Recipe No.2 or with Mornay Sauce Recipe No.9, side salad and hot potato chips
8. CRAYFISH STOCK INGREDIENTS
- ½ kilo raw cray heads and shells
- 1 litre water
- ½ dozen peppercorns
- 1 bay leaf
METHOD
Bring all ingredients slowly to boil, simmer gently with lid on for 1 hour. Strain.
9. CRAYFISH MORNAY
- 3 kgs yabbies, cook, peel and dice
- 120 grams butter or margarine
- ⅓ cup plain flour
- 1 cup stock, or milk
- 1 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon mild prepared mustard
- 1 cup grated Gouda cheese
METHOD
Melt butter, add flour, mix well, slowly blend in milk and stock if used and bring to boil, simmer 1 minute. Add grated cheese and mustard, heat through until cheese melts, add yabby meat, warm through, do not boil as this will toughen meat. If the sauce is too thick add a touch more milk.
Serve in large crayfish shells or ovenproof dish, sprinkle extra grated cheese on top, grill until golden. To hold crayfish shells still on plate, place small amount of mashed potato underneath, serve with side salad, potato, rice or pasta with grated cheese sprinkled over top.
VARIATION
Use Grilled Crayfish Recipe No.7 and pour Mornay Sauce over the top.
10. BARBEQUED GARLIC YABBIES
INGREDIENTS-Serves 2
1kg yabbies plus olive oil
2 cloves garlic crushed
2 onions diced
METHOD
Either cut yabbies in half down centre or break tails from yabbies. Fry on a hot plate in oil, crushed garlic and onion until bright red, approx 5 minutes.
11. YABBY CHOWDER
INGREDIENTS Serves 4
- 1 kg yabbies (green or cooked)peeled and chopped
- 2 cups water
- 3 peeled and diced medium potatoes
- ½ stick diced celery
- 1 diced leek or medium onion
- 2 diced bacon rashes
- tablespoon butter
- ⅓ cup dry white wine
- seasonings
METHOD
Cook potatoes in water for 15 minutes, mash them in their water.
Cook celery, leek, bacon and yabby meat gently in butter for 5 minutes, add to the potato pot, then add milk and wine, stir thoroughly, heat through and season to taste.
12. YABBY BISQUE
This is reputed to be an aphrodisiac.
INGREDIENTS-Serves 6
- 1kg yabbies (green)
- 2 diced carrots
- 1 diced celery stalk
- 1 diced onion
- 175 grams butter
- 3 tablespoons brandy
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 1 bay leaf, crumbled
- 3 tablespoons rice
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- ⅔cup cream
- salt, pepper and cayenne
- 1 tablespoon sherry
METHOD
Remove stomach and waste line from yabbies, keep tomally and coral. Cook carrots, celery and onion in 2 tablespoons of butter until soft. Add yabby pieces, when the shells redden, pour over the warmed brandy, ignite and turn the shells and flesh over in the flames, add wine and boil hard for 2 minutes.
Turn off heat. Remove yabby pieces from soup, cool, shell, dice and keep the meat separate. Smash the shells and boil them in the stock in a separate pan, uncovered, for 20 minutes, strain finely into the soup, discarding the shells.
Add herbs, washed rice and tomato paste, bring to boil and simmer 20 minutes. Liquidize this mixture with the cream and most of the meat. Season.
Mix the tomally and coral with remaining butter and whisk into the bisque. Add remaining meat and sherry, serve from a heated tureen.
13. YABBY SOUFFLÉ
INGREDIENTS -Serves 6
- 2 kgs yabbies, cooked and finely chopped
- 90 grams butter
- 6 tablespoons plain flour
- ¾ cup fish or yabby stock
- ¾ cup cream
- 8 egg whites
METHOD
Melt butter over low heat, stir in flour and cook until golden, blend in stock and cream continuously until very thick. Remove from heat and season to taste, add finely chopped flesh, beat in egg yolks, one at a time. Beat egg whites until stiff, then fold into yabby mixture and pour into six buttered soufflé dishes.
Bake in preheated, moderately hot oven 200Deg.C until puffed and set, about 15-20 minutes, serve immediately.
14. YABBY NEWBURG
INGREDIENTS Serves 2
- 1 kg yabbies, cooked
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
- 2 tablespoons sherry
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- ¾ cup water
METHOD
Peel and cut the yabbies in half length wise. Melt the butter in a saucepan over very low heat and blend in the flour. When the flour is well blended, add the seasonings and mix well. Remove the pan from the heat and slowly stir in the evaporated milk and water. Cook over a medium heat until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat and stir in the sherry, add the yabbies, heat thoroughly and serve.
15. CRAYFISH CARDINALE
INGREDIENTS Serves 4
- 2 kgs yabbies (green) peel, cut into chunks
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- teaspoon white pepper
- I bunch shallots
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tablespoons chopped parsley
- ½ cup white wine
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- Milk, enough to make a medium cream sauce
METHOD
Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a heavy saucepan. Add the flour, mix well and slowly add milk until the thickness of a medium cream sauce. Set aside.
In a skillet slowly sauté the shallots and yabby meat until the shallots are soft, add garlic, white pepper, salt and parsley and let simmer for a couple of minutes. Combine the mixture with the cream sauce and stir constantly while adding the wine and tomato paste. Let this slowly simmer for 3 minutes, then turn the heat off. Let sit for 2 or 3 minutes and serve over mounds of fluffy rice.
16. HOT CRAYFISH DIP
INGREDIENTS
- 1kg yabbies (green) peeled and chopped
- 1 Pkt cream cheese, softened
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
- ½ teaspoon white horseradish
METHOD
In a small bowl, combine all ingredients until well blended. Turn into baking dish. Bake uncovered in preheated 180Deg.C oven for 15 minutes. Stir often.
Serve warm with crackers.
17. CRAYFISH CARPETBAG
INGREDIENTS Serves 6
- 6 Steak fillets with a pocket cut
- 1.5kgs yabbies
- 6 strips bacon
METHOD
Peel yabbies and fill each pocket with yabby meat, wrap each fillet with a bacon strip and secure with a wooden pick. Grill, watch grill carefully; do not overcook.
Serve with Béarnaise Sauce.
BEARNAISE SAUCE
INGREDIENTS Serves 6
- ¼ cup tarragon vinegar
- 3 tablespoons dry white wine
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
- 2 teaspoons dried tarragon
- 1 teaspoon chopped parsley
- ¼ teaspoon white pepper
- 3 egg yolks
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup butter
METHOD
In a small saucepan, combine vinegar, wine, onions, lemon juice, tarragon, parsley and pepper, bring to boil. Cook until reduced to about 3 tablespoons.
Remove from heat, cool. In food processor, using metal blade, combine egg yolks and salt, process until thick (about 1 minute). Continue processing and add cooled reduced liquid then butter, 2 tablespoons at a time.
Serve over carpet bag steaks.
18. SWEET AND SOUR CRAYFISH
INGREDIENTS Serves 4
- 2kgs yabbies (green), peeled and halved
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1 carrot sliced
- 1 capsicum sliced
- 2 onions cut into wedges
- 2 teaspoons cornflour
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- ¼ cup tomato sauce
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- ⅓ cup brown vinegar
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1 tin pineapple pieces
METHOD
Heat oil in wok or frypan, fry vegetables and yabby meat for about 3 minutes, add all remaining ingredients except pineapple, stir until the sauce boils and thickens, add drained pineapple and heat through, serve with boiled rice.
VARIATIONS
Use Yabby Nugget Recipe No.4 instead of peeled yabbies and add with the pineapple and heat through.
19. YABBY SANDWICH
Freshly peeled Yabbies, fresh bread and lots of butter. Washed down with a cold beer is a traditional bush favourite.
Add salt & pepper to taste.
Add lettuce and or cocktail sauce.