Recipe Ali Irvine

Serving size: Serves 8
Cuisine type: Modern Australian
Cooking time: Less than 30 minutes
Course: Main
Favourite flavours: Easy recipes, Seafood

Real Living recipe for BBQ blue swimmer crabs with champagne and chervil sauce.

INGREDIENTS

8 x 400g blue swimmer crabs
Sea salt & cracked black pepper
Crusty bread, to serve

Champagne & chervil sauce
1¼ cups Champagne or sparkling wine
3 tsp Pernod
1 eschalot, chopped
4 strips lemon zest
Bunch chervil, stalks & leaves separated
40g cold butter, cubed

Equipment
Lidded barbecue
Tongs
Small saucepan
Sieve
Whisk
Chopping board
Large sharp knife
Large bowl or platter

METHOD

Cook crabs Preheat barbecue over high heat. Once well heated, reduce flame to medium-low. Place crabs shell-side down over grill part of barbecue. Close lid and cook for 10 mins. Turn crabs over, replace lid and continue to cook for 5 mins, or until crabs have completely changed colour and meat is cooked. Remove from heat and allow to rest.

Make sauce Meanwhile, place Champagne or sparkling wine, Pernod, eschalot, lemon zest and chervil stalks in saucepan on hottest part of barbecue (some barbecues have a burner on one side – if so, use that). Bring to boil and bubble rapidly for 8 to 10 mins or until reduced by half. Strain through sieve to remove eschalot, lemon zest and chervil stalks. Discard them. Return liquid to saucepan and return to heat.

Add a couple of cubes of butter at a time, whisking continuously, and only adding more cubes once the last have melted. Season with salt and pepper, but make sure you taste sauce before adding salt because butter may be salty enough.

Serve On chopping board, halve crabs with knife and remove dead man’s fingers (gills or spongy bits under the shell). Transfer crab halves to large bowl or platter. Drizzle with sauce, making sure
it gets into shells and flavours crab meat. Garnish with chervil leaves. Serve with crusty bread to mop up remaining sauce.

Tip Get to the fish market the day before Christmas, or order your crabs ahead of time from your fishmonger.