Crayfish and Cockle Linguine
Crayfish - Heat your BBQ to a medium/high heat (away from the direct heat) Cover the cray flesh with the compound butter and place shell down on the BBQ. Using a digital thermometer cook until 60c in the thickest part and flip meat side down for a minute or so to get some grill marks on the meat and to finish the cooking. You need to get to a finishing temp of 63c. Take off the BBQ and set aside to cool enough to handle. Scoop the meat out and set aside. If the below sauce is ready, cut into chunks, stir through and serve. If not, place in the fridge until time to serve.
Compound Butter - Let 250gms of Lewis Road unsalted butter sit out on the bench at room temp for 2 hours to soften. In a medium bowl add the butter, 1 ½ tsp sea salt, ½ tsp finely chopped fresh thyme, stalks removed and finely chopped, ½ tsp finely chopped basil, ¼ tsp garlic powder and a good twist of black pepper. Mix together really well. Lay out a piece of glad wrap and spoon the compound butter into the middle. Fold over one edge and roll into a cylinder. Twist both edges tight and make a cylinder shape. Roll your hands over the butter to make a stubby cylinder around 100 mm long. Place in the freezer for half an hour to firm up.
Cockles - In a cast iron camp oven on medium heat add a good glug of olive oil and a large knob of Lewis Road unsalted butter. Once the butter melts add ½ cup of finely diced red onions. Give it a good stir to coat and cook for 5 minutes until they start to soften. Add 5 cloves of finely diced garlic, 2 bay leaves and ½ tsp finely chopped fresh thyme
Cook for another 5 minutes keeping a close eye on the pan as it can burn easily so keep stirring. Add 1 cup of a white wine and cook for 5 minutes to burn off the alcohol. You will know when it’s burnt off when you can smell the pan it it dosen’t burn your nostrils!
Add ½ kg of pre rinsed live cockles (discard any open shells) and close the lid. Check after 5 minutes and take out the cockles that have opened up and set aside in a bowl. Keep cooking another 5 minutes and put any open cockles into the bowl. Discard any that did not open. (If the next step is going to be delayed put the cockles on the fridge until ready to reheat)
Sauce - Add ½ cup of chicken stock to the cockle cooking liquid and reduce for 10 minutes over a medium heat. Remove the bay leaves. Reduce the heat to low and add 250mls of Lewis Road double cream, 2 tbsp of cream cheese and a pinch of sweet paprika. Reduce for 10 minutes whilst stiring. Add a twist of ground pepper to taste. You wont need to add salt as the cockle cooking liquid will add plenty of salt to the sauce. Use the last 50ml of Lewis Road double cream to thin sauce if needed.
Cook the pasta or konjac noodles following the cooking instructions, strain and set aside while the sauce is reducing. Cut the cooked crayfish into chunks and add to the sauce along with the cooked cockles on the top. Cover for 5 minutes to reheat the crayfish (if not just cooked) and cockles.
Remove the cockles and set aside. Stir the cooked pasta through the sauce and add to a serving plate. Place the cockles around the plate and serve with finely sliced chillis and chives along with a slice of lemon.
Crayfish:
2 Crayfish tails
Prepare your crayfish by cutting down the back of the tail and opening this up to expose the flesh. Remove any of the poo tube.
Compound Butter Ingredients:
250gm Lewis Road unsalted butter
Cracked pepper
1 ½ tsp sea salt
½ tsp finely chopped thyme
½ tsp finely chopped basil
¼ tsp garlic powder
Cockles and sauce
2 tbsp Lewis Road unsalted butter
300ml Lewis Road double cream
Sea salt
Cracked black pepper
Olive oil
½ cup onions finely diced
5 cloves finely diced
2 Bay leaves
½ tsp finely chopped thyme
1 cup good white wine
Pinch sweet paprika
½ kg bag of cockles
Slice of lemon
250 grams Linguine pasta or Konjac noodles if wanting a low carb option.