Swedish crawfish / Svenska kräftor
The KING of crawfish on top of the rest
Using the crab fork to dig out some meat
Dear pulling out the meat slowly
Large it may seem.. but the meat is actualy quite small
The craw ha quite a bit of flesh u noe...
Kräftor or crawfish we call in english is definitely somethg which both Dear and I missed very much bout the Swedish food.
We 1st came across this right after we went over to Sweden. It happened to be we needed soemthg to celebrate our ROM ceremony back then. There is no caterer for such a small scale party of perhaps 10 pax. And So our wedding cekebration was purely pasta carbonara with loads of this kräftor. I tink 1 box have about 22 pcs of them depending on what brand u buy.. some even have more. and our housemate then got us like 1 dozen boxes of this as gifts.
Well that was how we got hooked. Anyway, this is only available between the season of Aug to october... and the kräftor sale is always accompanied by the sale of this cutie huge sun-like lantern.. Now u see.. not onli chinese have lantern festival.
While I have never really got my butts down to figuring out the custom behind eating this seafood. We already fell in love with it. I guess its gotto do w some autumn festivaltoo given its only available ard that time.
We missed this so much that we always wan to stock them up when we do go to Ikea. However like the seasons, its only available at same period as Sweden does. And to my disappointment I did not managed to get any at Ikea last year.
Couple of weeks ago, when we went Ikea Tampines to shop I was happily telling dear we must look out for this again since the season is near... when I saw the huge huge lanterns disaplying near the freezer... I knew the day have come... I grab 3 boxes of kräftor and happily paid for it.. no doubt its really expensive... about $20 per box, its still worth it... It reminds me of the very special ROM we had over thr in the cityhall.
This kräftor are soak in some salty brine, which after defrosting, u can eat it straight.. but being asian, we still heat it up together w the brine and eat the meat.
Found other ways of eating it too...
Anne have kindly posted this recipe from the ICA(ICA is one of the local supermarts) magazine
Crawfish Bulgur Salad
Serves 2 generously
200 ml bulgur wheat
400 ml water
1 leek, white part only and finely sliced
170 g crawfish tails, ready to eat
1 orange
1 avocado
pat of butter
salt black pepper
Yogurt dressing
100 ml thick greek yogurt
1 tbsp water
1 teaspoon french mustard
1/2 - 1 teaspoon sambal oelek
1 small garlic clove, crushed
Boil the bulgur - according to instructions on the package, or just use twice as much water as bulgur, put in a pot with the bulgur, bring to a boil, put on a lid, turn down heat, and let stand for about fifteen minutes. Start by mixing the dressing - very easy, just stir it all together. Thin with some more water if you need to. Fry the leek and the crawfish tails briefly in butter, add salt and pepper. Peel and dice the orange, dice the avocado. And then the magic happens. Take a big bowl. Add everything - the avocado and orange, the leeks and crawfish, the bulgur. That is it. Add the dressing. Enjoy.
U notice sambal olek is used in this recipe thou its swedish, This is because there are loads of asian over there and the supermart carry a huge range of such spices there.
This is from Anne too!
Crawfish Cous-Cous with Halloumi
Serves 3200 ml cous-cous (about 0,8 cups)
250 ml water (1 cup)olive oil
200 g crawfish tails or shrimp (cooked)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
250 g halloumi cheese
neutral oil for frying
a handful of fresh or frozen edamame (soy) beans, podded
1/2 cucumber, diced
pickled red onion (mix thinly sliced red onion with a pinch of sugar, some salt and white wine vinegar)
a tablespoon of vinegar from the onions
Put the cous-cous in a bowl. Bring the water to a boil, add a small splash of olive oil and pour this onto the cous-cous.
Cover with plastic foil and leave it for five minutes as you prepare everything else.
Cube the halloumi, and fry in the neutral oil on medium-high heat. As it colors, add the crawfish tails and the minced garlic, and fry for a minute or two.
Combine everything on a large plate or in a pretty bowl, and eat at room temperature, or cold. Leftovers make a great lunch.
As we alwasy eat the meat, the shell are always thrown out.. now I realise the shell have got its uses too.. anyone gamed to try yeah??
Crawfish Soup
Dry the shells in the oven at 400F.
Crush the shells by rolling a bottle over them.
Fry the crushed shells in 3 tablespoons of butter together with 4 sliced tomatoes, 4 garlic cloves and 1 dl tomato paste.
Pour in 3 dl white wine, 1 dl cognac and 6 dl fish bouillon.
Cook for 30 minutes.
Strain and add milk to make 1 liter.
Whip 2 dl cream with 0.6 dl flour and add to soup.
Boil slowly for 5 minutes.
Add cayenne pepper.
Will have the kräftor as supper tonite.. shall take pic then..
posted by karlsfoodie @ 2:22 PM
1001 Thoughts: 3
