Whole cooked frozen Cray

waswoods, Jul 19, 4:00am
What can I do with it please? And no, I'm not sending it to anyone else! :-)

fisher, Jul 19, 5:58am
Crayfish Mornay and Thermidor...
Ingredients:
50g butter/margarine. . 1/2 cup flour. . 1/2 cup grated tasty cheese. . paprika and/or fresh parsley. . 2 cups milk. . 1 crayfish
Method:Defrost crayfish overnight in fridge... Lay on back and split evenly down the middle. . Remove meat from tail sections and chop up, keeping pink shell intact, to use for serving (de-vein cray). .
Clean up half shells and set aside with the legs... Melt some butter in saucepan and stir in flour... Slowly add milk, stirring all the time over heat making sure it does not become lumpy, until you obtain a smooth sauce... Add cheese and stir through. . Add cooked crayfish pieces and stir through this sauce. . (DONT do this for too long . . remember the cray is already cooked)
Spoon Crayfish and Sauce back in to Crayfish 1/2 shells.
Sprinkle paprika and/or freshly chopped parsley over top of sauce.
Now place under grill for 3 minutes or until nicely browned and heated through...
Crayfish Thermidor:simply add 1 tsp of dijon or wholegrain mustard to prepared sauce as above...
Serve with turmeric rice and peas and a nice green vege salad on the side. . with the legs on top...

waswoods, Jul 19, 8:24am
Yum! Thanks for that

susieq9, Jul 20, 1:32am
Wrap your frozen crayfish in newspaper before putting in the refridgerator to thaw. This keeps the moisture in. Then as fisher suggests. Yum.

fisher, Jul 20, 1:36am
True susie... stops them getting that whitish look about them as they dry out...

ferita, Jul 20, 4:07am
Dont throw the head away it can be used to make stock for seafood bisque or chowder.

fisher, Jul 20, 4:28am
. . and then use all the spent shells, old legs etc mixed into your berley for fishing... . :}

beaker59, Jul 20, 4:52am
Or crushed up and into the garden or compost for the lime.

buzzy110, Jul 20, 4:59am
Or pounded into a paste to make an unbelievably divine French Lobster Bisque.

waswoods, Jul 21, 8:54am
Thanks for all the tips. Looking foward to eating over the weekend

uli, May 31, 1:07am
I just discovered the same in my freezer - was given to me last year and I never went near it ... I know what to do with a nice fresh lobster - but this one is cooked and frozen .... as above.

Are there any other exciting ideas? The recipe above sounds nice, however crayfish and cheese doesn't appeal at present. Looking forward to lots of other good ideas :)

uli, May 31, 1:11am
Just found this posted by fifie from the long legged lady - however not sure if the anchovies and parmesan won't drown the nice taste of the lobster?

Annabels Crayfish Salad

Dressing:

2 cloves garlic crushed and chopped,
1 tablespoon oil,
4 Anchovies,
1 cup cream,
1 teaspoon mustard,
zest of 1 lemon,
1/2 cup finely grated parmesan cheese,
ground black pepper.

Put oil in frying pan sizzle garlic a few seconds, add anchovies and cook them down to a paste.
Add cream, mustard, lemon, cheese, pepper, bring up to boil till large bubbles form and it thickens. Remove from heat cool.
Put crayfish in freezer 30 mins, then into large pot with salted water boil ONLY 7 minutes, remove and prepare crayfish cutting meat into large generous servings.
Make croutons: butter bread both sides bake in a med oven about 15 minutes till golden and crunchy cut into pieces.
Put salad together just before serving,
Pull cos lettuces into pieces, put into a large bowl,
add crayfish pieces, 3 handfuls of croutons, 50 gr Parmesan cheese shaved, toss with dressing .
Using crayfish shells with a little meat in sit on top of your salad to garnish and serve.

fifie (210 )12:09 pm, Tue 5 Oct

fisher, May 31, 1:13am
Crayfish and garlic butter... with parsley and a pinch or two of periperi..
I use about 6 cloves of garic finely chopped (not crushed) :}

uli, May 31, 1:21am
Now that sounds good fisher - thanks.
That is what I would do with a fresh one - but not quite sure if I need to re-cook a cooked frozen one? Or just heat up quickly? Never done this before :)
Or even not reheat at all and just defrost and serve?

fisher, May 31, 9:35am
Carefully rip out the tail from the body...It looses some flavour being frozen as you can well understand and it should be thawed in the fridge for the first stage and then just on the bench just before using... now slice down the middle of the "inside" and remove the whole tail meat section...remove the gut tube that runs down the middle...Put the tail meat back into the tail shell.. Heat cast fry pan and add some butter , your chopped garlic and the periperi...and heat up... now place the shell into the butter and baste the meat with the "sauce" ... the pan should warm the meat up from the bottom and the hot sauce from the top.. add a pinch of "white" pepper over the top and some very very fine chopped parsley as garnish... remember its already cooked so its just really to heat it through,,, Not the best as freshand alive is best but beggas and all that.... still yummy...

horizons_, May 31, 9:44pm
Just eat it au naturelle. Yummy.

norse_westie, May 31, 10:00pm
What's your addy? I'll be around shortly.

uli, Oct 7, 5:49pm
Thanks all - I threw the thawed but cold whole item into boiling water for a minute - just in case it wasn't as "clean" as I wanted it to be. So it was all nice and hot outside - but still cold inside.

Then basically did what fisher suggested in post #15 - and it was very very nice!

Thanks again!:)