For 4 people
Ingredients
Southern rock lobster (crayfish)
1 live crayfish at around 1.2-1.5kg
Sea butter
4g dried sea lettuce
200g salted butter
Crustacean salt
400g roasted and dehydrated prawn heads
125g ground corn (made from masa or white corn flour at a ratio of 1 water:1.25 masa)
2.5g sea lettuce powder
Carrot juice and pieces
300g of large organic danvers carrots for juicing
1g xanthan gum
2 medium danvers or similar carrot for braising and slicing
Olives
8 pitted manzanilla olives pitted and diced
Leaves
16 golden purslane leaves with stem
24 olive plant leaves
Method
For the southern rock lobster
Place the crayfish into an ice slurry and put it to sleep. Once it’s unconscious take a large knife and cut through head between the eyes ensuring that it’s killed humanely and quickly. Remove the tail from the body and wrap both the tail and head in paper towel. Place the head and the tail in to separate vacuum bags taking care not to puncture the bags and seal with maximum pressure. At 61C, the tail of a 1kg lobster will take 23.5 minutes to cook while the head and body will need 27 minutes.When cooking crayfish or southern rock lobster the following weight to time ratio is used;1kg – 23.5 minutes for the tail and 27 minutes for the head. For every 100g over 1kg add 2.5 minutes.Once cooked remove the bags from the water and refresh them in a blast chiller or ice slurry leaving the crayfish for at least 45 mins and ensuring that the centre of the crayfish is completely cold. The shell of the tail should be cut open with scissors and the meat removed in one piece while for maximum yield the head and legs should be completely broken down and all meat removed. The tail meat can be chopped and added to the leg and head meat and together portioned into 25g portions. Reserve refrigerated.
For the sea butter
Let the butter soften to room temp and combine it with the sea lettuce powder in a food processor. Store refrigerated in a sealed container.
For the crustacean salt
Combine all ingredients after they are well dried and process in a food processor. Pass the resulting powder through a fine sieve sifting out any large pieces. Reserve in an airtight container
For the carrot
For the juice – Juice the carrots and then strain any fibre out so the juice is completely smooth. Combine the xanthan gum and season to taste. Reserve refrigerated.
For the carrot rounds – place the carrots, washed but unpeeled, in a pan with some butter and a little water and onto a low heat. Allow the butter to start to foam and then control the heat so that the water/ butter emulsion doesn’t reduce to quickly or start to brown. Baste the carrots until they are just cooked and then remove the pan from the heat. While the carrots are still warm rub off the skins and then slice them into even rounds allowing around 6 pieces per portion.
For the olives
Pit the olives and dice them into small pieces
For the olive plant and golden purslane
Wash the leaves in iced water, dry them on paper towel and refrigerate in a sealed container until needed.
To serve
Place a little of the sea butter to warm in a pan over a medium heat, add the olives and then the crayfish and carrots stirring gently so that everything is well coated in the sea butter. Distribute the cray and carrots evenly over 4 bowls and sprinkle a little of the crustacean salt over each. Spoon over some carrot juice and finish with the leaves.