Crayfish/Langoustine season is here

Posted by petra08 on September 1, 2012 · 2 Comments 

For those who don’t already know I am Swedish. I moved to London quite a few years ago and seem to have adapted to the UK way of living and I still love living here! There are still a few things I miss from Sweden, mainly friends and family but also a few things that are nothing but Swedish.

One of the super Swedish traditions begins every August when the crayfish season starts and this is celebrated with crayfish parties. It is usually outside of the city at a summer house or a friend who lives in the country. The menu is easy, large plates of crayfish, cheese, bread and if ambitious, a salad on the side. There is of course also something for the non crayfish lovers, usually cold sliced roast beef or meatballs.

Everything is washed down with beer, wine and schnapps. It is also not possible to drink schnapps without singing schnapps songs before a shot and as a general rule, the later it is in the evening the shorter the schnapps songs!

I come from the west coast of Sweden and here we eat langoustines, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephrops_norvegicus, rather than crayfish, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crayfish. I really wanted some langoustines and decided to cook them for dinner.

I wanted to have some salad to go with it and made some bulgur wheat salad with pepper, carrot, onion and tomato. To go with it I made a lemon and olive oil dressing that I added just before serving and whilst the bulgur wheat was still a little warm to really soak it up.

Langoustines are so delicious they only need to be gently boiled for 5 minutes in salted water. The water should be salty like seawater when you taste it, dill and bay leaves. I then leave the langoustines in the water for another 10 minutes and they are perfectly cooked.

I love garlic and herb flavoured, melted butter to go with the langoustines, peel and dip but I wanted something healthier. I used half fat sour cream and 3% fat yoghurt and flavoured half with crushed garlic and the other half with hot chilli sauce.

I like to eat langoustines, it is impossible to rush and it is a great time to eat together and catch up on everything that is going on. Perhaps even better with a bottle of cool Chablis!

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Filed under Allotment/Veg, Bulgur Wheat, Carrot, Celery, Fish & Seafood, Garlic, Langoustines, Onion, Pepper, Petit Chablis, Starch, White, Wine · Tagged with Langoustine