It's Crayfish season!

Feeling a bit adventurous today, we walked by the aisles in Auchan supermarket this afternoon and passed by a bucketload of chinese crayfish on the fish section - apparently in season now. I have never cooked them before but their appearance is quite intriguing, surely challenging to cook. I wondered if the green curry sauce which I had in Auckland served with green lipped mussels can do. I decided to buy a handful to try. Upon a closer look, I noticed that these things didn't swim in water, instead they sort of walked on one another's back, had really really dark shells with tiny scorpion-like claws. Eeeekks!!! That put me off for a moment.....

All the 15 crawlers arrived safely at home. Mike helped to clean their guts simply by pulling their middle tail off - alive. Oef! Please, enough of this 'cruelty' - just dump them in the boiling water, will ya? After 5 minutes of steaming they looked almost edible enough ......

Freshly steamed chinese crayfish

Jiangsu province, where we live now, is quite famous for crayfish - which are also known as 'mini lobster' because of they're only as big as a thumb, with 3/4 of its length is the head. When in season, all local restaurants served them as a special offer - we just had the Hairy Crab season in last winter. Locals usually cooked them in light chili curry sauce.

It turned out that the green curry of our choice was a perfect one. I added a dash of coconut milk for the taste and sprinkled thinly sliced kaffir lime leaves. It tasted and smelled beautiful.

View Recipe Here

Green Fried Rice

Ide sebenernya terinspirasi dari masakan nyokap, ikan sepat cabai hijau. Kalo pas nyokap masak ini, kita jarang banget nggak nambah. Kombinasi bau gurih cabai hijau dan daun jeruknya itu loh. Jadilah, acara dinner tadi malem, nasi eksperimen ini jadi salah satu suguhan. Ternyata sukses!

Masaknya gampang banget kok, yang udah sering masak nasi goreng dan sukses, pasti bisa bikin sambil merem. Preparationnya sama dengan bikin nasi goreng, tapi bumbunya agak beda sedikit.... Sebenernya gw udah biasa masak tanpa resep, jadi rada susah kasi ukuran tepatnya. Dikira2 aja ya.

Porsi nasi untuk makan 2 orang

Bumbu halus:
* Cabai hijau besar 7-8 pcs
Cuci bersih & buang bijinya supaya nggak pedes. Kalau mau pedes bijinya jgn dibuang
* Bawang putih 4 siung besar
* Tomat 1 pcs
* Maggi rasa ayam 1 cube

1.) Bumbu dihaluskan lalu tumis dalam 2 sdm minyak sampai harum
2.) Masukkan nasi yang sudah matang
3.) Aduk rata, tambah garam, merica
4.) Terakhir banget masukkan daun jeruk yang diiris halus2 memanjang.
5.) Bisa dihidangkan pake ayam goreng atau kering kentang... lebih bagus sih pake piring