Roast crayfish with truffle sauce crème

Truffle butter might seem like a fancy ingredient, but trust us, the aroma really lifts the flavours of shellfish and is completely worth it. Peter Kuruvita's Coastal Kitchen

• serves

  4

• prep

  50 minutes

• cook

  45 minutes

• difficulty

  Mid

Ingredients

• 1 x 1.5 kg live crayfish
• Micro cress, to serve 

Sauce crème

• 250 ml (1 cup) white wine
• 250 ml (1 cup) dry vermouth
• 5 golden shallots, finely diced 
• 5 white peppercorns 
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 litre fish stock 
• 1 litre pouring cream 

 Truffle butter

• 50 g salt bush, finely chopped 
• 150 g butter, softened
• 1 fresh black truffle,finely grated 
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped 

Chilling time: 45 min

Instructions

To kill the crayfish humanely, place in the freezer for about 45 minutes or until insensible. You are not trying to freeze it, just put it to sleep.

Meanwhile, for the sauce crème, place all the ingredients except the cream into a heavy-based saucepan and simmer over low-medium heat until reduced by three quarters. Add the cream and bring to the boil. Season to taste and remove from the heat. Strain through a fine sieve, discard the solids and set aside. This can be kept refrigerated for up to 1 week.

For the truffle butter, combine all the ingredients in a bowl until well combined. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a 2 cm nozzle.

Preheat the oven to 185˚C.

To make a cavity in the crayfish for the butter, push a sharpening steel or a metal utensil with a long thin handle into the head to make an entry point. Push the steel into the crayfish tail between the top shell and the meat. With the steel in place, pipe as much butter as you can into the crayfish and place on a baking tray. Reserve the remaining butter. Roast the crayfish for 15 minutes or until the butter starts seeping out.

Holding the tail with a kitchen cloth, carefully twist the tail off the head. Using kitchen scissors, cut down either side of the bottom side of the tail shell, then gently remove the crayfish meat in one piece. Thickly slice the meat on an angle and place back into the shell.

Reheat the sauce crème in a saucepan over low heat to just before boiling. Add the remaining truffle butter and using a stick blender, whizz the sauce until emulsified. Place the crayfish on a serving plate and pour over enough sauce crème to cover. Scatter with micro cress and serve immediately with the remaining sauce on the side.

Peter Kuruvita's Coastal Kitchen airs 8pm, Thursdays on SBS and then you can catch-up on SBS On Demand. Visit the program page for recipes, videos and more.

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.