Painted crayfish with coconut broth, sticky rice and pineapple

Eating this is so much fun – a real flavor and texture adventure! Sweet and nutty cray on top of sticky coconut rice, along with the, sweet, sour and salty flavours of the broth. The garnish brings it all together, with the crunchy texture of toasted coconut, little citrus pops of finger lime and the occasional flavour hits of chilli and makrut lime.

Painted crayfish with aromatic coconut broth, sticky rice and pineapple. Credit: Atlantis Wade Lewis / Taste of the Tropics

• serves

  4

• prep

  30 minutes

• cook

  50 minutes

• difficulty

  Mid

Ingredients

Poached crayfish

• 1 whole painted crayfish (see Note), medium-to-large, with head on
• 500 ml coconut water
• 1 tbsp ginger, thinly sliced
• 1 tsp salt flakes
• 1 tbsp coconut oil for glazing and barbequing

Aromatic coconut broth

• Head of the cray
• 2 roots of lemongrass, smashed
• 4 whole cloves garlic
• 20 g fresh ginger, sliced
• 1 whole cinnamon stick
• 1 whole long red chill, split
• 2 whole makrut lime leaves
• 2 tsp local honey
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• 1 whole lime, juiced by hand
• 800 ml coconut cream
• 100 ml of cray poaching liquid

Coconut and pandan rice

• 400 g short grain rice
• 400 g coconut milk
• 200 ml cray poaching liquid
• 60 g freshly grated or shaved coconut (substitute with desiccated if required)
• 1 whole pandan leaf, tied in a knot
• Pinch of salt flakes
• Pinch of ground white pepper

Garnish

• 4 slices de-hydrated pineapple (see Note)
• 2 whole makrut lime leaves, thinly sliced into threads
• 1 whole long red chilli, thinly sliced into threads
• 2 tsp red finger lime pearls
• 120 g toasted shaved coconut (see Note)

Dehydrating time: 3 hours (optional).

Instructions

1. Cook the crayfish: Remove the tail from the head. On the underside of the cray, cut along each side of the tail with kitchen scissors, then peel the tail out of its shell. Split the head of the cray in half lengthways, put aside to barbeque and add to the sauce.
2. To a medium-sized saucepan, add the coconut water, ginger, salt and the craytail. Adjust the coconut water to cover the cray tail if needed.
3. Place over a low heat, cooking at 55 degrees for 40 mins, ensuring not to boil. (Alternatively, use half the coconut water, add all ingredients to a vacuum bag and sous-vide for 40 mins at 55 degrees.) Note that you will use some of the poaching liquid to make the broth and cook the rice (see below).
4. Once gently poached, and just before serving, brush coconut oil over the cray tail, and barbeque for 3 - 4 minutes. Alternatively blowtorch it, Japanese-aburi-style, for 20 secs or so.
5. Meanwhile, for the aromatic coconut broth: With the cray head, cut the furry feather-like gills off with kitchen scissors and discard. Barbeque the cray head for 5 minutes, being careful not to lose the hepatopancreas (see Note). This will set the meat in the head and add some smokiness.
6. Into a saucepan large enough to fit the head of the cray, place the lemongrass, garlic, ginger, cinnamon, long red chilli, makrut lime, honey, fish sauce and lime juice. Add the coconut cream. Take a ladleful (about 100ml) of liquid from the crayfish poaching pan and add to the broth saucepan; this adds extra flavour.
7. Add the cray head to the saucepan and gently simmer for about 25 minutes.
8. Although serving this doesn't require the head, I usually crack it open and share it around right before serving the dish.
9. For the coconut and pandan rice: Place the rice and coconut milk in a medium-sized saucepan, or heavy camp oven if cooking over a fire, or a good rice cooker if at home. Add about 200 ml of coconut water from the poaching liquid, along with the coconut, pandan leaf, salt and white pepper. Cook until done.
10. Once cooked (about 15-20 minutes), stir it well and leave to rest for 5 minutes to enhance the stickiness.
11. For the garnishes: Cut dehydrated pineapple into bite-size pieces. Thinly slice the makrut lime and chilli into threads. Prepare the finger limes by slicing in half lengthways and scooping the pearls out with a teaspoon.
12. To serve: Add a large spoon of rice into a bowl, and then push the dehydrated pineapple into it, like petals of a flower.
13. Slice the cray tail fresh from the barbeque into 4 pieces and place on top of the rice.
14. Spoon a generous amount of the sauce around the rice, and add the toasted sliced coconut and finger lime pearls onto the sauce. Place the chilli and makrut lime threads on top.

Notes

• Crayfish has a delicate, sweet flavour, enhanced in this recipe by tropical aromatics and the flavour of a smokey fire. The intense flavour in cray is the orange part in the head of the cray – the hepatopancreas, often called “head fat” or “the roe”. Using this to flavor the coconut sauce is the best! Cooking crayfish can be tricky – it  has no fat, so easily toughens and becomes rubbery. With this recipe, the coconut water helps to gently tenderise the cray, whilst essentially sous-vide cooking at 55 degrees ensures it stays soft. I also love eating cray cooked like this with eggs Benedict!
• Painted crayfish are also known as painted spiny lobster (and sometimes ornate rock lobster or tropical rock lobster). They are more commonly found in north-eastern Australia and the Torres Straits.
• Dehydrated pineapple is sold at specialist retailers and wholefood grocers. Alternatively, dehydrate your own either in a dehydrator, or on a baking paper lined tray in an 80°C oven, with the door held ajar, for about 3 hours.
• For the toasted coconut used to garnish, if you can only find shaved raw coconut, toast in a 150°C oven, on a baking paper lined tray, for about 5 minutes or until golden.

See this recipe in Taste of The Tropics season 2 episode 1, Foodie Friends, on SBS Food and SBS on Demand from 30 April. See season 1 at SBS On Demand now.

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.