For your enjoyment…

Do you feel the same as I do on weekends on or special holidays, or when you have guests over? I’d like to cook something very special, not the usual fare. Then I’m either spoiled for choice or I can’t think of anything at all. If even intensively searching the internet turns out to be fruitless or leafing through piles of cookbooks doesn’t turn up any solution, try our Recipe of the Month!

From the chefs of the Schick Restaurants in Vienna, every month there is a new, seasonal recipe from Austrian-Spanish or Viennese cuisine for you to prepare and enjoy at home! If you don’t want to have to prepare the recipe yourself, you can order the finished dish in comfort at the corresponding Schick Restaurant and indulge all around…

In March 2018 – recipe by Felix Albiez – chef of the decorated Restaurant “Das Schick”:

Crayfish with Mango and Peanut

Ingredients for 6 servings:

Crayfish:
24 crayfish
court-bouillon (strong vegetable stock with a bit of white wine)
50 g roasted and salted peanuts
50 g peanut butter

Mango salad:
2 mangos
1 shallot
1 red chili pepper
2 kaffir lime leaves
fresh coriander

Crayfish sauce:
crayfish carcasses
2 shallots
100 g carrots
1 celeriac
3 cloves of garlic
50 g butter (for browning)
some tomato paste
some cognac and Pernod for quenching
250 ml fish stock or vegetable stock
375 ml whipping cream
some butter (ice cold)

Preparation:

Place the crayfish in the boiling court-bouillon, allow them to absorb the flavor for three minutes, then separate the meat from the shells.

For the sauce, chop the crayfish carcasses into fairly large pieces. Dice shallots, carrots and celeriac and brown them in butter. Briefly brown the crayfish carcasses and crushed garlic cloves together with the shallots, carrots and celeriac, stir in a bit of tomato paste, then brown briefly once again. Next, quench with some cognac, pour in a bit of Pernod, then infuse with fish stock and cream (in a 1:2 proportion) until everything is covered. Allow to boil for approximately 20 minutes. Strain, boil down the sauce a bit, and add some ice cold butter to bind the mixture.

Dice the peeled mangos, shallots and kaffir lime leaves into small pieces. Chop the chili and coriander, then add all of these ingredients to the mixture.

Spread some peanut butter on a serving plate and arrange the mango salad. Warm up the crayfish tails in some butter, roll in chopped peanuts, and drape onto the mango salad. Froth up the sauce with a hand blender and pour around the crayfish (like in our photo, for instance).

Bon appétit!