Yabbies with buckwheat pikelets

The best way to cook your yabby according to chef Peter Gilmore is boiled in salted water for three minutes. And this recipe sees after-school pikelets all grown-up. Food Safari Water

• serves

  24

• prep

  30 minutes

• cook

  15 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 12 live freshwater yabbies
• Sea salt
• extra virgin olive oil
• 120 g crème fraiche
• 120 g good quality lemon marmalade

Buckwheat pikelet 

• 62 g buckwheat flour
• 62 g self-raising flour
• 12 g caster sugar
• 1¼ tsp fine sea salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 400 ml full cream milk
• 30 g unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for frying
• 1 whole egg
• 1 egg white

Resting time: 1 hr

Instructions

To dispatch the yabbies humanely, place them in iced water to chill. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Once the yabbies are well chilled, place into the boiling water and cook for 3 minutes. Remove from the water and plunge the yabbies into a bowl of iced water to stop the cooking process. Allow to cool completely. Using a sharp knife, remove and discard the heads. Split the tails in halves lengthways and remove the digestive tract.

For the buckwheat pikelets, combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Combine the milk and melted butter in a jug, then whisk in the whole egg. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. In a clean bowl, whisk the egg white until soft peaks form. Fold the egg white into the batter until just combined, then set aside to rest for 1 hour before using.

To cook the pikelets, place a teaspoon of butter in a large non-stick frying pan over low-medium heat and allow to melt evenly. Cooking in batches, drop tablespoons of batter into the pan and cook until evenly coloured on both sides.

To serve, lightly season the yabbies with sea salt and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Place on a serving platter with accompanying bowls of lemon marmalade and crème fraiche. Serve with the warm buckwheat pikelets. Invite your guests to remove the yabby flesh from the shell with a fork, and roll in buckwheat pikelets with crème fraiche and lemon marmalade.

Note

• Peter serves the yabbies on a bowl of ice with blanched saltbush as a garnish underneath.

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.