Cooking crayfish/lobster the French way

One of the memorable scenes I still remember from the movie Julie and Julia was when Julie plucked up her courage to attempt her last recipe challenge from Julia Child's cookbook: to kill a live lobster and cook it.

I'm afraid I don't have the determination of Julie. First, I am not as diligent as her in keeping my food blog up-to-date (Yes, I'm feeling guilty about my long hiatus in trying new recipes and posting them here). Secondly, the act of killing something alive for my dinner plate is still too much for me.

Nevertheless, for our annual fancy Christmas meal in 2009, we still decided to try something new. Rare oysters is a French Christmas tradition that I decided we must stick to, since I love them more than Rémi. And our favourite deli supermarket was taking pre-orders for crayfish for Christmas, which we couldn't resist. I wasn't planning to kill the crayfish myself, but we ordered a live one anyway, as I was sure Rémi will take care of it. Not sure if it was a right move, but we kept the crayfish covered in newspaper in the fridge, hoping to sedate it. And it survived the cold and was still moving when we were ready to cook it the next day.

We don't have Julia Child's cookbook to guide us along, just some advice from Camille and Youtube tutorials. From Camille: for the more adventurous cook, use a sharp knife to slit the live crayfish from head to tail, that will give it a very quick death. After watching more video tutorials, Rémi decided he will opt for the coward option: throw the crayfish into boiling water, cover and cook for 3 minutes.

All the time, the cowardly me was hiding outside the kitchen :) and enjoying the finished result after.

Here's the recipe from Camille for the adventurous cook. We had replaced lobster with crayfish.

Crayfish Grilled with Tarragon Butter
Serves 2

1 crayfish
1 tablespoon of butter, softened
2 branches of tarragon
salt and pepper

Put the crayfish into boiling water for 3-4 minutes. So hopefully it didn't suffer for too long. The flesh will still be partially raw after 3-4 minutes.

Take out the crayfish and cut into two pieces lengthwise, from head to tail. Put into a baking tin, the flesh side up.

Spread soft butter all over and sprinkle salt and pepper. Grill for 5 minutes and spread butter on the crayfish once or twice during the grilling.

When the edge of the flesh has turned golden in colour, take out and transfer to serving plate. Pour the melted butter from the baking tin over the crayfish and sprinkle tarragon over. (Actually, we had chopped half our tarragon and mixed into the soft butter before grilling)

Note from Camille: it's best to kill the crayfish alive by slitting it into two, and skipping the boiling part. But this requires courage.

And yes, the lobster and crayfish can be used interchangeably.

And yes too, the end result was real yummy.

Fresh Oysters with Vinaigrette of tomatoes and shallots

Yes, we have a lot of fresh food over the weekend.

Besides the duck liver (which is still sitting in the fridge and no longer fresh by now) and freshly grated coconut, I finally satisfied my craving for fresh oysters without the exorbitant price tag that comes with eating them at restaurants.

For people like Rémi who are less tolerant of the taste of raw oysters with just lemon juice (strange, since raw oysters feature very much in the French traditional Christmas feast, much to my delight), I made a vinaigrette to kind of mask the rawness of the oyster taste. At least, there's something to crunch on besides the jelly soft oyster meat.

The vinaigrette draws inspiration from what we recently had at a restaurant (it cost $4 per oyster, so we had only 1 each), as well as a quick browse of some google results.

Fresh Oysters with Vinaigrette
1 dozen fresh oysters

2-3 cherry tomatoes, chopped
1 shallot, chopped
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
pinch of salt and pepper
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
juice of half a lemon

Mixed ingredients for vinaigrette altogether. Serve with the fresh oysters.

Octopus Stew in Red Wine

I would think our 'portion control' exercise has been quite successful. We definitely have comparatively smaller appetites than the usual Kiwis. We struggle to finish our main course in restaurants (well, the servings at restaurants are huge here), get full by sharing between two of us, a main course and a starter dish.

Back at home, we hardly eat outside mealtimes. We seldom have space for the traditional French course of cheese (that is served before dessert).

For dinner, we have moderate servings. Like sharing a tuna steak or a lamb shank (it's also so that we can enjoy a bigger proportion of vegetable to meat). Last night, dinner was octopus stew. To be more precise, we shared a tentacle of an octopus. Hmmm...this is making us look like Scrooge. Well, a smaller main course serving allows us to have a hearty salad for starter, and space for a sinful dessert.

The stew was done entirely by Rémi, who wanted to reminisce the octopus stew he used to have during his Corsican summer holiday. Recipe comes from our Ultimate Fish cookbook. Original cooking time was supposed to be more than two hours, but we halved it and the meat was just as tender as we could have wished for.

Octopus Stew in Red Wine
Serves two

Prepared octopus (up to you to choose how many tentacles is enough to feed you)
2 onions, sliced
1 bay leaf
2 ripe tomatoes (or use canned whole peeled tomatoes)
olive oil
2-3 garlic cloves
sprinkle of castor sugar
sprinkle of rosemary or oregano
1 tablespoon fresh parsley
70ml red wine
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
chopped fresh herbs, eg basil for garnish

Begin by tenderising the octopus meat, after cleaning and skinning it. Place the meat in a plastic bag, and beat well with the back of a knife or rolling pin.

Put the octopus in a large pan of gently simmering water with one quarter of the sliced onions and bay leaves. Cook gently for 1 hour (we halved the cooking time here).

Peel skin off tomatoes by first putting them into boiling water for 30 seconds and running under cold water. Chopped up the fresh.

Drain the octopus and cut into bitesize pieces.

Heat oil in pan, and fry the octopus, remaining onions, crushed garlic and cook over low heat. Stir occasionally for 3 minutes.

Add tomatoes, sugar, rosemary or oregano, parsley, red wine and vinegar. Stir continuously for about 5 minutes until the mixture is thickened.

Cover and cook over low heat for about 1.5 hours (we did it for about half an hour only), until the sauce is thickened and the octopus is tender.

Garnish with fresh herbs and serve with couscous or rice or warm bread.

St Remy Tuna

After whining for close to two weeks about being sick, I'm finally well enough to do some bit of research and development in the kitchen. Before that, meals are almost about Chinese stirfrys and soup with rice. Very straightforward. And a lot of fish too, cooked mainly by steaming.

The fish department in Wellington supermarkets generally has quite limited variety. So when we saw tuna steaks for sale the night before, we couldn't resist trying something different. I do not like canned tuna, but love tuna sashimi. But we also make it a point not to eat tuna too often, as this is one fish that has suffered from overfishing.

Found this "St Remy Tuna" recipe from my ultimate fish cookbook. It's surprisingly fast and easy to cook. It was the side dishes of fried kumara (sweet potato) sticks and boiled french beans that took us longer to cook. St Rémy is a village in Provence, France, which has nothing to do with Rémi.

And dessert was Apple Yoghurt Cake. No doubt my appetite has come back.

St Rémy Tuna
Serves two

2 tuna steaks
about 1 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tablespoons white wine
1-2 ripe plum tomatoes, peeled, deseeded and chopped
dried herbs de provence, or Italian mixed herbs. Or just simply a mixture of thyme, rosemary, oregano etc.
salt and ground black pepper

Season the tuna steaks with salt and pepper.

Start cooking just before you are ready to serve, like get your side dishes ready first, as the tuna steak and sauce takes only about 10 minutes to cook.

Set a frying pan over high heat until very hot, add the oil and coat more or less evenly around the pan. Add the tuna steaks and press down gently. Reduce heat to medium and cook for about 6-8 minutes or less. Turn only once, until the centre is just slightly pink. Do not overcook.

Transfer tuna to a warm serving plate and cover to keep warm.

Then quickly add garlic to the pan and cook for a few seconds. Pour in the wine, bring to boil until it is reduced by half.

Add the chopped tomatoes and dried herbs. Cook for 2-3 minutes, season with pepper and pour over the fish steaks.

Serve with potatoes and french beans.

Fresh Pasta with Prawns and Scallops

So what do you think I would do with the leftover fancy ingredients from the fancy Pre-Christmas dinner. Well, cook up another fancy meal the next day.

With leftover scallops and fresh lasagna sheets, we made another buttery seafood pasta. We had reckoned that a tomato or cream base would be too overpowering and mask the taste of the fresh scallops. It's very simple and fast, and can be done with dried pasta. Recipe has been adapted from my ultimate fish cookbook.

The dish also gives us the pleasure of using our fresh parsley from the pot, which is growing very well. Growing our own herbs doesn't actually save us any money, as we end up spending on soil, fertiliser, pots, even organic pesticide...but it gives us much pleasure to pluck them whenever we need them.

Fresh Pasta with Prawns and Scallops
Serves two

Pasta (quantity left out, as I find that different people have different portion size)
handful of prawns
handful of scallops
50g unsalted butter
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
salt and ground black pepper

As we were using our lasagna sheets, we trim them into thin strips. Lasagna sheets give much flexibility, can try cutting heart shapes out of them for a valentine's dinner perhaps. :)

Cook pasta in large pan of lightly salted boiling water.

Melt butter in a large heavy pan with the garlic and parsley. Toss in the prawns and scallops and cook over medium heat for about 8 minutes, until the seafood are cooked.

Drain pasta thoroughly and rinse with boiling water to remove any starch.

Stir pasta into the prawn mixture. Season with salt and pepper and serve immediately.

Scallop Ceviche

The Ceviche is a popular appetiser in Latin American countries. Each country from Mexico down to Chile have their own touch of individuality.

The dish basically involves marinating and cooking fish or seafood in citrus such as lime or lemon. Traditionally, you have to marinate for about 4 hours for the seafood to be 'cooked', but we cheated a bit by blanching our scallops with boiling water to save us some time.

Our resulting ceviche is 'created' after looking at several recipes and adapting them to what we have and like.

Scallop Ceviche
Serves two

100g scallops
1 yellow peppers
1 clove garlic
1 thumb size red chili
2 lemons (limes work better, being more acidic, but they were sold out in the supermarket)
half a grapefruit
Olive oil
Coriander leaves


Slice scallops horizontally.

Squeeze enough lemon or lime juice to submerge the scallops entirely in the juice and leave in fridge for 4 hours. If you're short of time, like us, blanch the scallops with boiling water first before marinating them in the citrus juice.

Chopped garlic and chili. Slice the yellow pepper thinly and cut the grapefruit flesh. Mix everything and add a little olive oil.

When the seafood is ready, add into the mixed fruit/vegetables. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve within 2-3 hours.

Quick Sambal Ladies Fingers and Garlic Butter Prawns

My way of cooking the ladies fingers and prawns may not be the best in town, but it's my suggestion of what to do when short of time. Especially when I'm running late and have no time to defreeze meat (I don't believe in microwave oven).

I love ladies fingers. Strange name, isn't it? But the pods do look like it. I wonder if there's any plant name "men's toes". Must be round and very hairy.

Ladies fingers are also know as Okra. They are of African origins and well-loved in Singapore and Malaysian cooking (though I know of friends who would not eat them too). It's common in Yong Tau Foo soup noodles, and can be stuffed with fish paste, or just simply blanched in soup. It's also added into Assam Fish, together with brinjal (egg plant), tomatoes, pineapples...yummmmmy.

And ladies fingers are fantastic when cooked with sambal chilli, just like Kangkong (water spinach, it's another vegetable that deserves a separate entry).

If you go the traditional way of making the sambal chilli, you'll like have to take out the pestle and mortar and start pounding dried shrimps, belacan, shallots, chillies together (I remember using a blender during my school days, much quicker). But I'm suggesting my shortcut method here with ready made sambal chilli. And you can do the same for kangkong too.

Quick Sambal Ladies Fingers
Serves two

150g ladies fingers
1 big teaspoon of ready sambal chilli sauce, easily found in any Asian grocery store
1 shallot
1 garlic
1-2 teaspoons dried shrimps

Soak the dried shrimps in water to soften it. Use warm water if you're short of time.

Chopped shallot, garlic and dried shrimps. Mix with the sambal chilli sauce. You may like to squeeze a little lime juice into the paste if you have some.

Cut the ladies fingers diagonally.

Heat oil in frying pan. Add in the mixed sambal chilli paste and stir fry for a few minutes until fragrant, but without burning.

Add in the ladies fingers and mix well with the chilli paste. Add about half cup to a cup of water to prevent the chilli paste from burning. Fry for about 3-5 minutes and dish out.

Serve with rice.



Garlic Butter Prawns
Serves two, with the ladies fingers and rice

Prawns (number depending on how generous your portion is. I'm stingy, so have 4 small prawns per person, it's fair and equal and no one gets more)
Garlic (also according to taste, I love garlic, so use about 4-5 and still think not enough)
1 teaspoon butter (well, this would be according to your conscience too)
Sugar and salt
corn starch

Remove shells from prawns. If using frozen prawns like me, unfreeze under cold running water to save time. Coat with corn starch.

Chopped garlic.

Melt butter in frying pan, add garlic and fry for 1-2 minutes until lightly brown and fragrant. Add the prawns. Sprinkle sugar and a pinch of salt. Can consider garnishing with lemon slices too.

Serve with the above. Both dishes here are quick to prepare.

Clarifying differences between squids, cuttlefish, octopus, sotong, calamari, and how to stuff squid with vegetables

Am I getting more sotong? I find myself asking questions that should have already been addressed in primary school science, like what is lamb and how is it related to sheep, or how many tentacles does a cuttlefish have, as opposed to a squid and are we talking about the same sea creature?

According to my Ultimate Book of Fish and Shellfish, they are "cephalopods" (now, this word is definitely new to me), a type of mollusc which makes them a closer relative to snails than to fish.

Cuttlefish: Has a flattened oval head and eight stubby tentacles and two long tentacles for catching its prey.

Squid: Has elongated heads and slender torpedo-shaped bodies. Also ten tentacles, two of which are very long. In French, squid is calmar; in Italian, it is calamaro...so now I know why we also call squid calamari. And finding that I am still having trouble telling squid and cuttlefish apart, Remi explains that squid has longer tentacles than cuttlefish.

Octopus: This is easier to differentiate, as it has eight equal-size tentacles and a roundish head.

And yes, it's not exactly that common, but we've sighted cuttlefish while snorkelling/diving in Tioman and Tarutao, just like on the right.

Now the confusing part. Using an online English-Malay translator, I try to clarify what exactly does the Malay word sotong stand for - squid, cuttlefish or octopus (Grilled sambal sotong is one of the must-haves when you go for beach holidays in Malaysia). Cuttlefish is translated as "sotong", squid is also translated as "sotong", and octopus is translated as "sotong kurita ". >00< And different websites give different answers. Total confusion.

The confusion seems to clear up when it comes to the cephalopods' Chinese names:
Cuttlefish: 乌贼/墨鱼/花枝
Squid: 鱿鱼
Octopus: 章鱼/八爪鱼

Except that I realise that what I thought for years to mean cuttlefish in Chinese is actually squid.

And a few fun facts about squid and cuttlefish.
Sotong, in Singlish/Malay lingo, also mean dumb like squid (even though squids have proven to be smart creatures)...used with "blur" which is a mental state somewhere between spacey, oblivious.

And in Chinese, "fry squid" (抄魷魚) actually mean you're being fired by your boss.

And the Chinese word for cuttlefish, 乌贼, literally mean black thief, in reference to its ability to emit black ink.

Now to the main point on how to cook Vegetable-Stuffed Squid. Other than carrots, I've interchangeably used red peppers or leek (as suggested by original recipe). It's quite flexible in terms of what type of vegetables you can use to stuff the squid.

Vegetable-Stuffed Squid
Serves two

2 medium squid, skinned and cleaned
2 tbsp of butter (it is absolutely important to use butter for the taste)
2 tbsp fresh white breadcrumbs
1 shallot, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 peppers (red, yellow or green, you choose), finely diced
1 carrot, finely diced
1/2 cup chicken stock
olive oil
chopped parsley
salt and ground black pepper
2 tomatoes, sliced (optional)

Preheat oven to 220C. Cut off tentacles of squid and chop these finely. Set aside.

Melt half the butter in a large frying pan. Add fresh white breadcrumbs and cook until they are golden brown. Stir to prevent them from burning. Set aside.

Heat the remaining butter, add the chopped vegetables and cook until softened but not browned. Stir in the stock and cook until it has reduced and the vegetables are very soft. Season to taste with salt and pepper and transfer to bowl of breadcrumbs. Mix together.

Heat olive oil in frying pan, and add the chopped squid tentacles over high heat for 1 minute. Stir in the vegetable mixture, and then the parsley. Well, I used frozen squid, so I conveniently skipped this step.

Using a teaspoon or whatever, stuff the vegetable mixture into the squid tubes. Do not overfill them as the stuffing will swell during cooking. Secure with toothpicks.

Heat olive oil in pan and placed the stuffed squid in the pan and cook until they are sealed on all sides and lightly browned.

Transfer the pan to the oven (if it's oven proof, if it's not, to an oven proof dish, making sure you spoon out the leaked out juice into the dish) and roast the squid for 20 minutes.

For juicier results, lined the sides of the dish with sliced tomatoes, sprinkle some olive oil and herbs (like basil leaves, or oregano).

Serve with rice or cous cous.

Prawns in coconut sauce, Indonesian style

The past two weeks spent in Singapore has been very intense for the stomach, as I tried to enjoy as much good foods as I could everyday, to the extent of indigestion and puking. I didn't cook a single dish eventually, blissfully blaming the faulty oven. Actually, I was happy to relive all the foods I missed, especially hawker fare and Japanese foods, and of course, the home cooking of Enda who is from Indonesia. Inspired by her, I am richer by 2 new Indonesian cookbooks back here, among the 6 cookbooks I brought back.

Keen to start using new spices brought back from Singapore (which are all available in Wellington's Asian grocery stores, but 2-4 times more expensive than in Singapore, which are already costing more than in Indonesia), my Indonesian culinary experience began with prawns.

Prawns in Hot Coconut Sauce (Sambal Petai Udang)
200g medium prawns
2 pods stinkbeans (petai) (optional)
1 cup thin coconut milk
1 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced
1 small carrot, peeled and sliced
1 red chilli, deseeded and sliced (optional)
1 tbspoon tamarind juice
salt to taste
crispy fried shallots to garnish

Spice paste
1-2 red chillies, deseeded
2 shallots, peeled
1-2 cloves garlic, peeled
1/4 teaspoon dried shrimp paste (trasi), dry-roasted

I've given up on frying my own crispy fried shallots, opting instead to buy the ready made ones. But if you want to try it, peel shallots thinly, and pat dry with paper towels. Heat oil in wok over medium low heat and stir fry until golden brown or crispy for 3-5 minutes. I always tend to use too little oil and burn the shallots.

I didn't use the stinkbeans, so not sure how they taste.

In making the spice paste, grind all ingredients to a smooth paste in a mortar or blender, adding a little oil if necessary to keep the mixture turning. My alternative to the lack of shrimp paste and chillies is to use ready made sambal chilli sauce, and pound with the shallots and garlic.

Heat oil in wok over medium heat and fry the spice paste until fragrant, for 3-5 minutes. Add the stinkbeans if using, and coconut milk and bring to boil. A word on coconut milk, if using canned ones, dilute about 2 parts water to 1 part coconut cream.

Add sliced potatoes, carrots, chillies and tamarind juice and mix well. Bring ingredients to boil again and simmer until vegetables are cooked and the sauce has thickened. Add prawns and simmer until prawns are cooked. Season with sugar and salt. Serve hot with steamed rice.

I think my first attempt in making this dish leaves much room for improvement, but it tastes good nonetheless.

Recipe from Authentic Recipes from Indonesia by Heinz von Holzen and Lother Arsana.