Munching on Marron - Marron Recipes
Every January and February, the lucky fishers of WA have the opportunity to capture a real delicacy - the native freshwater crayfish known as marron.
Other species such as yabbies, koonacs and gilgies can be caught all year round and substituted for one another in recipes.
Fisheries Western Australia aquaculture expert Dr Noel Morrissy offered the following tips with recipes from 'Australian Crustacean Cookery' by Lesley Morrissy.
The humane way to kill your crayfish is to chill them in the fridge for a few hours, then drop them headfirst into boiling water, or split them quickly with a cleaver or heavy knife from head to tail if your recipe needs raw marron meat.
If boiling, use enough salted water to cover the animals and don't put so many in the pot that the water goes off the boil for more than a moment.
Cook smaller species at the boil for about a minute (allow two minutes for legal-sized marron), then remove the pan from heat and allow to cool in the water to room temperature - during this time they will continue to cook gently.
If you want to eat them bankside as soon as you can handle them, cook them for about 5 minutes and add cloves, bay leaves, dill or brown sugar to the water for extra flavour.
Marron are delicious fried in this superb light crispy batter:
Fluffy Beer Batter
2 eggs
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 1/2 cups plain flour
pinch salt
1 stubby of beer
Method
Beat eggs, add butter, stir mixture into flour, add salt then gradually beat in enough beer to make a smooth, thin batter. Rest the batter for at least an hour.
Roll raw marron tails (halved lengthways) in flour, shake off excess, dip in batter and deep-fry.
Yabbie (or Marron) and Sour Cream Entree
(serves 4)
3-400g yabbie (or other freshwater cray) tail flesh, raw or cooked
3 tablespoons butter
1 diced medium onion
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup stock (prawn, fish or chicken)
1 cup sour cream
12 cup grated cheese (choose your favourite)
salt, pepper, cayenne
1/2 cup coarsely crumbled dry biscuits
1/4 cup melted butter extra
Method
Gently fry onion in 3 tbslpns butter and add yabbie flesh now if it is raw, cook 3 mins. Stir in flour, cook gently 2 mins, then pour in stock and stir constantly until mixture boils and thickens. Add sour cream and yabbies if they are pre-cooked. Add cheese and take off heat, season and pour into 4 individual ramekins.
Mix 1/4 cup melted butter with the crumbs, sprinkle over dishes and bake for 20-25 mins at 180 deg C.
Aromatic Marron
(serves 4)
500g cooked marron (or other freshwater cray) meat
1 tablespoon chopped chives
250g butter
4 tablespoons Pernod
pinch each of curry powder,
paprika, thyme and salt
1/4 teaspoon fennel, dill or crushed coriander seeds
juice of 1 lemon
300ml fish stock
2 tablespoons butter kneaded with 3 tablespoons flour
200ml stiffly whipped cream
cooked rice (jasmine rice has a good texture for this dish)
Method
Heat the stock and thicken by adding the butter/flour in small pieces.
Gently saute chives in butter for a minute, add sliced marron and stir. Warm the Pernod in a ladle, light it and pour flaming over the marron, stir until flames die out.
Mix the seasonings and sprinkle over, add lemon juice and mix well, then gently mix the stock into marron mixture. Fold in whipped cream and heat through, but don't boil.
Serve with rice.
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