Resident Chef Peter Gorton is an award winning Master Chef of Great Britain and has been cooking since the age of 16. Here are Peter’s top 5 cooking tips that every home cook needs to know.
Crustaceans are the group of shellfish with shells and legs. They range from expensive lobsters for that special occasion, to value for money prawns that are good for everyday meals. My favourite of all has to be the crab.
Here are some tips and facts on crustaceans.
Crab
- To tell whether a crab is male or female look at the small flap on the underside of the crab known as the apron, if it’s thin and pointy the crab is male, a female crab has a rounded apron.
- To store live crabs keep them covered with a damp cloth and store in the refrigerator until ready to cook.
- To store leftover cooked crab meat, refrigerate the meat and keep it tightly covered, use within 2 days.
- Whole crabs should feel heavy for their size, weight indicates there is plenty of meat. A crab that weighs 1kg (2lbs) will feed 2-3 people.
Lobster
- To choose live lobsters look for a live, active lobster. Their tails should curl under when picked up.
- One whole lobster 1 to 1.5lbs (700g) yields about quarter of a pound of meat, enough for 1 serving.
To prepare
If you have bought a ready to eat halved lobster there should be nothing to do, unless the claws are still intact. If they are crack them open with lobster crackers or a hammer and extract the meat.
I use Asian ingredients with lobster, like ginger, coriander, chilli, garlic, spring onions and lime, they seem to just work so well with the lobster meat.
To boil lobster, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, plunge in one lobster at a time, cover and return to a boil for 8 minutes for the first 1lb then an additional 3 to 4 minutes per pound. A total of 10-12 minutes for an average 1.5lb (700g) lobster.
Prawns
There are a huge variety of prawns on offer, both raw and cooked, and cheap and expensive. All are quick and easy to prepare and cook in many ways.
- Dublin Bay prawn is a type of small lobster known as scampi
- Whether raw or already cooked and just being reheated, cooking times should be as brief as possible to prevent the prawns from becoming dry and chewy.
- To peel a prawn, twist off the head and pull off the ‘legs’ then remove the tail or body shell.
- Prawns are delicious dipped in tempura batter, then deep-fried in hot grapeseed oil for a few minutes.
Finally, crustaceans are good for you nutritionists recommend we eat fish, including shellfish two or three times a week. Low in fat shellfish provides us with protein and valuable vitamins and minerals especially potassium, iodine, iron and zinc.
Happy Cooking
Peter
For more information about Peter visit www.petergortonmasterchef.co.uk