Crab Meat in Melbourne

[achookwoman]

Visited all fish stalls at the Vic Market on Tuesday.    No fresh Crab meat.   I located 1 frozen packet, $17 for 400g.  from Vietnam.
I was told that sometimes they have frozen Australian Crab Meat which is between $ 50 and $60 a Kilo.    The Vietnamese product looked grey and mushy.    I am going to have to use tinned Crab or shift interstate!

[Thermomixer]

Thanks for the reckie work - might have to go back to Sydney - expensive crab meat then.  Might forget that idea.

Hopefully it will come - a kilo is a LOT of crab meat though, so might not be too bad.  There's not much in a tin after all is said and done - and it;s not cheap.

[judydawn]

But what would you to with a kilo of frozen crab meat Thermomixer    It is far too much surely.  Why don't they make smaller packs of 250g or 500g, much easier to work with. 

[Thermomixer]

Think it comes in 50g bags - but you would need to get it unfrozen and freeze smaller amounts.

[Intrepidtrier]

You blokes should come and live in sunny QLD  at the moment we are getting sick of eating mud crab. Anyone got any recipes to use some up cause you can only eat so much on sandwiches. Wouldn`t mind making some crab cakes. Have already made black bean, sweet chilli,and lots of crab and corn soup, so any other suggestions would be nice. Thanks Sandy

[judydawn]

Half your luck Intrepidtrier, how I would love to get my hands on some of those crabs.  I'm down at DD's at the moment so have been going through her recipe books to see what I could come up with.  Here's one from a book called Cocktails and Finger food, is not converted of course but I'm sure you can work out what to do in the TMX yourself.
CRAB CAKES WITH HOT SALSA - serves 6
100g vermicelli, broken into 8cm lengths
600g crab meat
2 tblspns finely chopped parsley
1 sm red capsicum, finely chopped
1/4 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup plain flour
2 spring onions, finely chopped
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2-3 tblspns oil, for frying.

Cook vermicelli until just cooked. Drain well.  In a large bowl, combine noodles, crab meat, parsley, capsicum,  parmesan, flour, onions and pepper.  Add beaten eggs, mix well. Shape mixture into 12 flat patties, refrigerate 30 mins.  Heat oil in a large heavy-based pan.  Cook crab cakes a few at a time over medium-high heat until golden brown. Serve immediately with hot salsa.

Hot salsa - 2 large ripe tomatoes chopped, 1 med onion, finely chopped, 2 cloves garlic, crushed, 1 tsp dried oregano leaves, 2 tblspns sweet chilli sauce - combine all ingredients and let stand at room temperature for 1 hour.

Both items can be prepared up to 8 hours in advance and refrigerated until required.  Bring to room temp before serving.  It is possible to use both fresh or canned crab meat for this recipe.

[Thermomixer]

Thanks for bumping JD and the recipe

Chookie, the crab meat is from CEAS and is available at Conway's in Whitehall St Footscray at about $17 for 200g frozen.

Link to suppliers and links above it to recipes and ideas. http://www.ceascrabpak.com/page/retailers1.html

[achookwoman]

Thanks Thermomixer,  know Conways,  but a bit expensive.

Intrepidtrier.  have a look at my Creamy Crab Soup,  just replace the tinned crab with same amount, or more fresh crab.  Also isi's prawn soup would convert well, I suspect.

[Intrepidtrier]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Will be trying the crab cakes tomorrow JD and also the soup Chooky. The boys put some pots in yesterday and just bought home 3 beauties, and a mate up the road put 8 pots in the other day and got 18 nice big bucks out of them so it looks like it won`t be long before we get sick of eating them again for a while.

[judydawn]

Drool, drool, drool, it's not fair 

[Thermomixer]

Good work Sandy.  Life will be fun for a few days, really jealous.