Seafood Extravaganza

The final menu for tonight is: Oysters Kilpatrick followed by mud crab with freshly baked focaccia bread and home made lime mayonnaise. Yes, it is over the top and a giant reach, but it was sooooo worth it. I was planning to cook fresh seafood a few weeks earlier but could not find where to get it. Uncle Mark to the rescue suggesting Samies which is found on the way to the airport.

Sunday morning I made my way to Samies to check out the seafood action. Walking in, it was nothing all that special to the eye but the seafood on offer was excellent. I would love to walk in there every Sunday morning and design a menu for the evening based on what inspired me there (with the help of mobile internet - I am nowhere near creating recipes).

The muddies were there, kept in plastic crates and covered in wet hessian bags. I felt like I was doing the good work that Bob Brown was neglecting for bigger, more sexy causes like old growth forests (trees grow back)** and climate change (calm down, they're called seasons people)**. I was liberating one of these wretched, imprisoned creatures who had been mandatorily detained for no other reason than being incredibly succulent and tasty.

** These do no necessarily represent the views of the author and may have been expressed for entertainment value only. Many of the author's best friends are trees from old growth forest and carbon emissions.

I also picked up some oysters still in their shells. I wanted them unshucked just for the experience of opening them (I had bought a new oyster knife) and now that I have cooked fresh oysters, it is the only way to go as the juices are retained and make for a tastier dish. I am not sure if I can get myself to the point of eating them raw but there is still time.

So I had the muddie on the passenger seat in the car and I was on the way home. I was VERY excited that I had found a live mudcrab so called Carla. She unfortunately asked if I had named the crab which seemed like a bad idea considering I was about to euthanase it (that is fancy talk for cook and eat it). One thought led to another and our mudcrab was henceforth known as Sammy. We did no bother naming the oysters- all oysters look the same, not like our Sammy who was personality plus (And apparently oysters are nearly as close to pants as animals- or that is what vegetarian ethicists say to justify eating them).

I went home and developed a project plan (I really did). I was making 2 courses with four distinct dishes (including the bread and mayo) and they all needed to be started at different times to get them out in the right sequence. I am not naturally good at estimating times so I knew I was out of my depth with the complexity of my menu. I did make the mayo in advance and set that aside (and it was really easy - not much more than whisking oil and egg yokes).

Carla arrived and was excited by the menu, but very disturbed by the project plan. This was definitely a two person job so it was all hands on deck this week. The first order of business was bread making. Carla is the dough queen so made the dough with dazzling skill (girl job) and I was on kneading duty (boy job). We left it to rest for half ah hour. It was now time to shuck.

Armed with the oyster knife and research on how to shuck an oyster, we and channelled our inner Masterchef (but not whingy Joanne- we totally shucked better then her) and went for it.

The first one was a challenge but after that, we had the technique down and it ended up being fun. There is satisfaction in being able to pry open nature's equivalent of a mini-safe. I added the bacon and Worcestershire sauce and grilled away. They were absolutely divine. It may have helped that they were served with a chilled bottle of Verve.

It was on to the main attraction now - Sammy's time to shine. It was pretty easy to prepare - boil the whole crab and serve. The hardest part was going to be cutting it up after it was cooked and I was really worried about over cooking it. I threw Sammy in (who had been euthanased under RSPCA guidelines) and it was quite cool - crab changes colour from dark green / brown to red as soon as it goes in the boiling water. He only just fit into the pot - which was a good sign - and his claws were each the size of a car door- which was a great sign.

While Sammy was enjoying his hot bath, we prepared the focaccia. To get the authentic focaccia look, I punched knuckle imprints into the top and then we sprinkled rock salt onto it. This was all coming together nicely.

So the crab was removed from the pot and immersed in cold water to stop the cooking process. I followed a video on youtube to work out how to actually cut it up- I would have had no idea otherwise. It was much easier than I expected. The top of the crab came right off, I removed the gills and other unpleasant bits and cut it into 4 pieces. It was served on a bed of ice and with fresh baked bread and French butter (salted of course). Just as we were about to start, I remembered the finger bowl so ran back into the kitchen to get it - big mistake. I ended up slipping on some water and slid across the floor. I still have a burn scar below my knee. Carla was very compassionate . . . after she stopped laughing.

Armed with our nut crackers and insatiable appetite for mudcrab, we dived in. So how did it taste - AMAZING. We ate with our hands like barbarians and loved every second. We left the claws until last and raced to find that bit of the crab claw that lets you open and close it. The bread was great because it was freshly made (and the French butter helped as well) but it needed more salt in the dough (something for next time). There was crab shell all over the table and floor and we did not care (well, Carla didn't because apparently cleaning is a boy job).

Overall - It was so much fun to actually cook and even more fun to eat. It was a great night and I can't wait until I get to write about next week's dinner - Rabbit Pie.

This post is dedicated to the memory of Sammy who gave his life for the enjoyment of others (mostly Carla and mine).