My Aussie Christmas Seafood Extravaganza
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Ingredients
Roast Garlic Aioli
  • 6 garlic cloves
  • 1 cup olive oil
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 1T white vinegar
  • 1 tsp dijon mustard
  • ½ tsp white pepper
  • 1 tsp sea salt
Gremolata
  • ½ bunch Italian flat leaf parsley
  • 3 anchovy fillets
  • zest and juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • sea salt
  • olive oil
Cooking and Serving Seafood
Mussels
  • 1 kg mussels
  • Olive oil for frying
  • 2 french shallots, finely chopped
  • 2 clove garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 red chilli, finely chopped
  • 1 glass white wine ( remember, only use wine you would drink yourself)
  • 200g salted butter, cut into cubes
  • ½ jar capers
  • ¼ cup chopped flat leaf parsley
2. Clams
  • 1 kg baby clams
  • olive oil for frying
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
  • 1 french shallot
  • 1 glass white wine
  • ½ bunch of chives finely chopped
4. Mudcrab
  • Juice of ½ lemon
  • 5 peppercorns
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 3 T salt
Instructions
Roast Garlic Aioli
  1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
  2. Place the garlic cloves on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper, drizzle with olive oil.
  3. Place in the oven and roast for 12-15 minutes until tender then remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes.
  4. Remove the skins from the garlic cloves. Put the garlic in a food processor along with the egg yolks, white vinegar, dijon, salt and pepper and blitz until well combined.
  5. With the processor still running slowly pour in the olive oil in a steady stream until the mixture is thick and creamy.
  6. Serve right away or store in an airtight container in the fridge.
Gremolata
  1. Chop the parsley up finely then either using a mortar and pestle or a food processor, combine all the ingredients adding more olive oil as needed until it is your desired consistency.
Preparation of Seafood
1. Mussels
  1. Combine the butter, capers and parsley and 1 garlic clove and mix well.
  2. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan on medium heat. Add the rest of the garlic, shallots and chilli and saute for 1 -2 minutes. Turn the heat up high and deglaze the pan by adding the wine.
  3. Allow the wine to come to the boil for 30 seconds before adding the mussels.
  4. Put a lid on the pan and cook for 5-7 minutes until or until all the mussels open. Discard any that do not open.
  5. Add knobs of the butter to the hot mussels and serve right away with gremolata.
2 Clams
  1. Lightly saute the garlic, chilli and shallot in a large saucepan on medium heat.
  2. Turn the heat up high and deglaze the pan with the wine.
  3. Add the clams and cover with a lid.
  4. Cook for 4-5 minutes or until they have all opened. Discard any that do not open.
  5. Sprinkle some chopped chives over and serve right away.
3. Prawns
  1. Cooked prawns are readily available but if you want to cook your own I suggest leaving the shells on. Bring 2.5 L of water to the boil with 2 T sea salt. Add the prawns and cook for 4 minutes or until they float to the top then plunge into cold water to stop the cooking process.
4 Mudcrab
  1. Bring a large pot of water to the boil.
  2. Add the lemon juice, salt, bay leaves and peppercorns.
  3. Place the crab in the boiling water and cook for 12-15 minutes depending on the size.
  4. Once cooked, remove from the boiling water and plunge into a slurry of ice water.
  5. Serve warm or cold.
Recipe by The Luminous Kitchen at http://theluminouskitchen.com/aussie-christmas-seafood-extravaganza/