Crabs

the season for mud crabs is here and we have been getting some crackers, although these ones were not the result of a few hours slogging thru the mangroves fighting off crocs, mozzies and sandflies – we actually bought a box of crabs from a local professional as VJ wanted to cook some to take to relatives.

I have been tempting him for some time with stories of my chilli mud crabs and he had cast doubt on my ability to prepare a  suitably impressive version of the classic dish – challenge ON!

i think i can safely say “achievement unlocked” on that score!

i had only cooked the claws in the chilli sauce so today I boiled up all the bodies and picked out all the meat, i decided to make a mudcrab and prawn ravioli, so i mixed up the crab, prawns, dill, parsley and sheeps cheese with an egg and then filled ravioli with the mix and cooked them.

as a sauce i just did a simple wine reduction with a few fresh herbs & shallots and then made it up with cream. crab ravioli a la ricky

there is just no bad way to have mud crab in my opinion, its hard to beat when its freshly caught and poked in the coals of the fire at the beach, it gets that lovely smokey flavour through it and seems the sweeter for being so fresh.

but there is nothing wrong with it boiled and slapped on hot white bread rolls with lashings of lime and chilli mayo – and not forgetting chilli mud crab, one of the all time classics and the specialty of ‘rick’s bar & grill’ – eggs arnhem land. (muffin, poached egg, mudcrab meat and hollandaise sauce.)

anyway, here are all the images from the two meals in a slideshow,