Who has the best neighbor !?!?!?!? ME !!!!

[shoneyboy]

As long as they are alive....I would eat them. If they are dead, I’m reluctant to eat them. My neighbor caught them and iced them down for transportation. It kind of keeps them fresh and slows their metabolic rate (their not eating so they are feeding on the meat in their body = not as full/meaty) and it keeps them from molting (sheading their shell= Soft shell crabs= fantastic meal!!) These are good, but I think the best crabs I ever ate were fresh out of the water. I took the kids fishing a couple years ago and the fish were not biting. So we bought a couple crab traps and some chicken legs (cheap). We turned them loose to catch some… The first day they had so many crabs we lost count. I was giving them away, but the 2[sup]nd[/sup] day I told them I would boil them some if they wanted. By the end of the day we had about 12 dozen that we cooked. We ate all we could, gave some away and still and some to take home the next day….man that was fun though!!!!

 

[moikel]

Moikel, I don’t mind you hijacking this thread, it is not mine it is ours. The only thing I ask for, is the recipe

, this sounds like something I would like to try

….Is it spicy? I know that I don't have to tell you this, but if you are

going to post something this intriguing on this thread I feel that I have to put it out there,

 ............

 

I will put the full recipe with it, & pics the Peter Evans version is the benchmark down here so I  will do it as per It can be as spicy as you want.There is a basic fishing camp version but I will do the full restaurant version. Give me a couple of days I want to buy crab as fresh as possible at the big fish market. I grabbed some ingredients today but the crabs I saw were not up to scratch.

I think it started as a dish from  Malaysia I cook a bit of that style of food from time to time its sort of a fusion of chinese ,malay & Indian. Pretty spicy but also distinctive in style. I posted a few dishes way back.

 

[shoneyboy]

Moikel, I didn't mean to put you out, I would have been satisified with just a recipe......but you know a picture is worth a 1000 words.....Thanks SB

 

[moikel]

Shoneyboy you are not putting me out.Not one little bit.Some of the most fun I  have with this forum is showing stuff thats way down here & feeding people. My friends & employees get bacon,cheese,fish roe etc. Its just what I  have done for many years thanks to what I  have learned on this forum I  now have a much bigger range of stuff. I think I  get it from my late mother. Pity I  didnt get some photography skills.

I also do contra with chefs,my butcher that sort of thing.

I am at the big fish market which services this city of 4 million on saturday ,its only 10 minutes from my house but thankfully out of smell range.Its mullet roe time & sardine season so I was already going.I can swap 2 jars of preserved sardines for 7kg leg of alpaca its just the work that goes into the salting ,pressing etc. 300gm preserved fish roe = bottle of wine from a gratefull chef.

Chilli crab the Aussie way is really something,I will knock it out saturday then take it over to feed 6 of us watching our football team play on TV.

Stay tuned,I will try to take some shots at the market if I see something that might be new to you.

 

[shoneyboy]

I look forward to seeing your pictures and "Thanks" ShoneyBoy

 

[rednecksmokin]

If I were to do a crawfish boil, and Im from WI so a Crayfish boil.   How long would it take to cook the little monsters?  

Also, what do I need to do to them before boiling?

 

[shoneyboy]

For every person you ask you will get a different answer, but here is what I do. I start the water off with the seasonings in it. Depending on how “HOT” and how much you are going to boil, I add the powder seasonings, now it can get salty, so I try not to use much. For the crabs I used about 3 heaping serving spoons full. Then I added some of the liquid crab boil which is just hot with no salt, then if I want them hotter, I will add a little cayenne powder. Now remember that this will transferee to your skin and some people are sensitive and all of this can and will make you fingers, lips and other body parts feel like they are on fire if they are too hot, so be careful with what body part you touch

….…. I bring the mixture to a boil adding my potatoes, onions and garlic. You can add anything that you like, I have put carrots, celery, artichokes, asparagus, yellow squash, corn, mushrooms and eggs just to name a few of the things we have tried. They is no limit to what you can put in it…. (FYI doesn’t put anything that is tender until the end. Like the artichokes, asparagus, yellow squash, corn, mushrooms and eggs until the end or they will over cook and fall apart. You want to just poach them in the liquid) I let the mixture boil until the potatoes are tender, not soft, poke them with a knife to see if they are hard the middle and soft on the outside. Once I get them were I want them I will add the Crawfish….as far as cleaning the crawfish I will wash them with clean water several times to make sure that there is no mud or dirt on them and get out anything I don’t want to eat out of them, like bait, grass or dead ones…. Now I will crank up my burner to get a good rolling boil…..then add the crawfish….I bring them back to a boil and time it….3 minutes then turn the burner off….At this time I will add the lemons( I always forget to do this), squeeze the juice out of them then throw them in the pot…..I will let them soak for about 10-15 minutes….then start to cool them off in an ice bath (I set the pot in a #2 wash tub filled with water and continue to run water in it and add a bag of ice….this will help stop the cook process and get them to start to soak up more of the seasonings….. at the 15-20 minute mark I start tasting them….Once they have the flavor I like we will either dump the liquid off or if we have more to boil, I will just take them out of pot with the basket and dump them in an ice chest ( keeps the bugs away) or on the table….# 1 rule when cooking crawfish, have plenty of cayenne pepper antidote on hand, you will need beer and not just any beer, but some of the coldest beer you can get

….….LOL jk….. Butter for the corn and potatoes and I don’t eat it, but cocktail sauce for the crawfish and crackers…. It is really up to your taste and what you want….. Hope this helps and Good Luck….If you have any other questions that I did not answer feel free to ask …..ShoneyBoy

 

[moikel]

I will just tidy up this end,these are mudcrab

sfrom our tropics. A big guy might 1.5 kgYes they can be found as far south as my weekender  at Greenwell Point but its our tropical north where they are in big numbers. Down south they cost stupid $ but getting mudcrabs from Darwin  to Sydney alive is the same as getting live seafood from Miami to Maine.If you live in the north its another matter.

The chilli crab I will do is an Aussie adaption of Malaysian food.It will work in principle for lobster,crab,shrimp. I will put the full restaurant version in & you can see where it takes you.

 

[tjohnson]

I need to move to your hood

Awesome!

Todd

 

[moikel]

I need to move to your hood

Awesome!

Todd

I want Shoneyboys neighbour .If he wont come to me I will have to come to him.

 

[moikel]

I am going to post the recipe & a few pix but not cook this now.If I  do it today I have to make it the transport it then reheat it.Not ideal, & not really  watching the game on TV sort of food.M

ud crabs are in the market in big numbers & AAA grade.Season in full swing as the "dry" season rolls on up north..

They were at $21 a kg which is really good will do this for the wife later in the week.

You can see why they tie them up!

 

[shoneyboy]

 Can't wait to see this one .....

 

[moikel]

These are nice too,Balmain Bugs ,from the slipper lobster family.

Anyway here is recipe that I will Qview later this week.

Enough crab for 4 people 4x mudcrab.6 tabs nut oil,8 cloves of garlic,4 sweet peppers 4 tabs finely chopped ginger ,1 cup tomato ketchup 1/2 cup sweet chilli sauce 11/2 cups chicken stock or water 6 tabs hoisin siace 1 cup chopped spring onions,1 cup mix Mint ,cilantro,Vietnamese mint 2 tabs chopped cilantro root 2 tabs fish sauce 1-2 teasp sugar 2 teas sea salt 30 cherry tomatoes cut in half.

How you kill live crab is up to you ,clean take out gills etc.Cut into  convenient size bits 

,crack claws so sauce can get in.

Heat oil in wok or similiar add garlic,ginger,cilantro root,chilli cook until fragrant .Add crabs cook a minute toss,add ketchup,chilli sauce,stock,hoi sin &fish sauce sugar & salt.Stir bring to boil cover cook 10 minutes.Then add green onions,tomatoes & herbs.Stir to combine .Thats it.

Pretty simple really but so much of the best cookery is. If you want it spicy just add the chilli sauce or product of your choice to bump the heat or a teaspoon of Malaysian curry powder at start.Or put fresh chilli in with the sweet peppers.

A little lime juice wouldnt hurt it. The sugar & salt amounts are up to you to change if thats your taste.I use palm sugar but white is fine.

This is the Peter Evans recipe,in a fishing camp it wouldnt have all the ingredients like cherry tomatoes . I just make this as per its just such a good recipe.

 

[moikel]

These guys are nice too but fiddley to eat ,Spanner crabs to us because of the claw shape

 

[moikel]

 

If I  have got this computer stuff right this should be a pretty good little clip of a guy from Darwin who knows how to crab. Check the tying style.

 

[rabbithutch]

Great video! Looks like that young man had a lot of fun and caught some good eating, too. Neat trick for tying up the crabs.

Thanks for posting the link.