Crabbing

Fed up with a fairly constant diet of crayfish I went crabbing at Hayling Island a few days ago. The tide was in and I was facing stiff competition from the children but in the end managed to bag about thirty shore crabs. Now shore crabs are not usually eaten in the UK but I had a recipe for them so thought I would give it a try. At the end of the day the children let their crabs out of their buckets, taking great pleasure in watching them race back down the slope into the sea. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that mine were meeting a more prosaic fate. I am sure most shore crabs spend half their life in a bucket.

It wasnt a particularly hard soup to make although a little extravagant by my usual frugal standards. I left out the celery as I loathe it, but found it very pleasant. I managed to freeze some for later.

Crab bisque. (from Edible Seashore by John Wright.  UK measurements)

1 large fennel bulb, finely chopped                                                         1 tbsp lemon juice

1 Kg Shore crabs                                                                                             1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped

a knob of butter                                                                                              3 celery sticks, finely chopped

1 tbsp olive oil                                                                                                 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

1 bay leaf                                                                                                            1 tsp paprika

pinch of cayenne pepper                                                                             1/2 glass of white wine

250g of chopped skinned deseeded ripe tomatoes,                         small glass of cider brandy

or tinned chopped tomatoes                                                                      1.75 litres of fish stock

1 large sprig of tarragon                                                                                50 ml of double cream

sea salt and ground black pepper

NB PRIOR TO MAKING THIS SOUP THE CRABS SHOULD BE PURGED AND THEN KILLED HUMANELY. TO  KILL THEM PLACE THE CRABS IN A PLASTIC BAG IN A FREEZER FOR BETWEEN ONE TO ONE AND A HALF HOURS UNTIL THEY BECOME UNCONSCIOUS. PLEASE DO NOT PLACE THEM STRAIGHT IN BOILING WATER.

Bring a large pan of well salted water to the boil. Drop the torpid crabs into the boiling water, bring back to the boil and cook for two minutes. Remove the crabs and let them cool slightly then chop them roughly with a large heavy knife ( I found this easiest to do when still in the pan).

Melt the butter and olive oil in a large pan. Add the onion, fennel, celery, garlic and bay leaf. Saute gently, without browning for about five minutes until the vegetables are softened. Add the paprika and cayenne and cook for another minute.

Add the wine, tomatoes and crab, and give the mixture a good stir. Cook for a further five minutes, then pour in the brandy and bring to a simmer. Take off the heat and ignite the brandy ( the best of luck with this)! When the flame hopefully dies down ( that’s if it ever started or hasnt burnt your house down..I have never got the knack of setting fire to soup, which strikes me as a strange occupation ) then add the stock and tarragon. Return to the heat and cook gently for twenty-five – thirty minutes.

In small batches strain through a conical strainer into a bowl, pushing as much liquid and vegetables through as you can. Pass the soup through a fine strainer into a clean pan and return to the heat. Bring to a simmer and stir in the cream and lemon juice. Season to taste.

Voila! A very tasty bisque. Serves 8.

bucket of shore crabs

Elderflower Champagne Receipe ( low alcohol content)

In truth this is just a fizzy drink! I consider the Elderflower to be one of the most useful plants known to man. You can use the flowers to make drinks and cosmetics or fritters, the berries make a passable wine, cordial and can be used for natural dyeing. I am also informed the wood is pretty useful to but am not into woodwork so don’t know. I do know that Elder has a lot of mythology associated with it, and in the depths of my memory I have something bubbling about it being bad firewood. I will look it up. Naturally as it is such a useful plant the Council seems to take great pleasure in chopping it down. Every time I find a reliable source of flowers along comes the Council and next year I find it over- enthusiastically cut back! I have gone through ten sites so far. Fortunately its common, although it won’t be for long if the local Council have anything to do with it! Quite why they have this obsession with Elderflower I don’t know!
I have been making this for a few years now, with reliable results. I Googled ‘Elderflower Champagne’ on the net and came across discussions groups where people seem to have terrible problems with exploding bottles! I don’t know how they make it so difficult!
The moral of the story is that this is a fizzy drink so should be bottled in a suitable container. If you put it in a plastic lemonade bottle then it should be fine. (How some of these people managed to get these to explode is beyond me) If it looks as though too much pressure is building just open the top briefly to expel some gas. I have never had to do this yet! In the past I have bottled it in fizzy wine bottles. And survived!
I have been collecting a few flower heads for this recipe. Having read the problems some people have had I have this year, for the first time, put half in plastic containers and the rest in bottles!

2 heads of open elderflowers
1 lemon, juice and rind.
750 g or 1 and a half pounds white sugar
60 ml or 2 fluid ozs white wine vinegar
Water.

Rub bunches of elderflower heads together and place the florets in a bowl or bin, followed by the lemon juice, thinly peeled and cut up rind, sugar and vinegar.
Add cold water to make up the volume to 5 litres ( 1 gallon) and stir to dissolve the sugar. Leave covered for 24 hours.
Strain into strong screw top or heavy champagne bottles. Leave for two weeks at 20 degrees C when this drink should be semi sparkling and ready to drink.
If you are of a nervous disposition or of a dramatic nature you could wrap it in a duvet or whatever so if it does explode it contains any mess. I must admit as yet I have never found this necessary, but it seems some people out there are doomed to catastrophe.
Please note these are UK measurements.

Mums World Famous Lemon Curd!

Now my kids would die for this, they really LOVE my lemon curd. Why they like it so much more than any other I dont know, but the stuff you buy at the shops is foul, you just can’t beat the real thing made with good ingredients.

I have done my back in giving Boris his injection! My family came round today to help with some decorating but I couldn’t bend down so made them some lemon curd to take home instead. The fact I have my own chickens helps, but I am really irritated to see that rats have been burrowing into the coup to pinch the feed. This is despite having three cats…who are about to be sacked!

MWF Lemon curd

3 organic lemons

200g caster sugar (superfine)

115g unsalted butter (sweet)

2 large ( US extra large ) eggs

2 large ( US extra large) egg yolks.

Wash lemons, grate the skin and place in a heatproof bowl. Cut the lemons in half and squeeze the juice minus pips into the bowl.

Set over a bowl of simmering water and add the butter and sugar. Stir until sugar dissolved and butter melted.

Put the eggs and yolks into a bowl and beat together with a fork. Pour through a sieve into the lemon mixture and whisk well until thoroughly combined.

Stir the mixture constantly until it thckens and lightly coats the back of a wooden spoon.

Remove from the heat and pour into warm sterilized jars. Cover seal and label. Store in a cool dark place and use withing three months. Once open store in fridge.