Fine dining chez nous

What a great week it's been on the food front. My husband, studio manager by day spearfisherman the rest of the time, has come home with not one, not two, not three... but SIX eastern rock lobsters.

Six crays over six days...

Graeme has been walking on air all week. He says even though he goes out to work every day, it's nothing compared to the feeling of going out and bringing food home for the family. I guess it's that ancient hunter gatherer thing. Except instead of a groin cloth and a stick, it's a wetsuit and a speargun. Or in the case of lobsters, bare hands versus fancy dive gloves.

I want to make sure we cook them properly and we follow Hugh FW's method in the River Cottage Cookbook. Hugh points out there's plenty of other goodies aside from the rich white meat: "the creamy meat inside the head, the browny-green liver inside the body and the pink coral that often lines the shell of a female lobster".

I'm keen to try the lot, although Graeme grew up not enjoying the brown meat. It's nose to tail eating, or as I call it, feeler to tail eating.

I hope you don't think this is just showing off – I suppose it would be different if we went out and simply bought them, but...

OMG! What a treat. The meat was sweet and delicious, and Hugh's right, the brown stuff is yummy too. We whipped up a simple seafood sauce and ate them simply with some home-made chips.

Before someone writes in to point out you're only allowed to catch two lobsters at a time, this was actually over several dives. I'm relieved to say that Graeme takes very seriously the ethics side of fishing. No undersize specimens, no females with eggs (as of this week I can identify a female lobster) and no soft-shells (lobsters that have just shed their shell are very docile and weak, so it wouldn't be fair).

 

Someone won't stop getting them out of the fridge

As if that wasn't enough, he also bagged an octopus, a squid and a couple of fish.

He's on a roll. It's been a dream for a very long time to be able to do this. I just have to accept that my hunter is out on Sunday mornings now.

Vanessa