Crayfish lasagna with asparagus & garlic #163

This is barely a lasagna but since I used lasagna pasta and it is served in layers I still chose to call it a lasagna. You can of course serve it with regular pasta and you can of course make it bigger and serve it as a main course. I prepared all ingredients before cooking the pasta since the pasta is a central ingredient in the dish it would be ruined if it were to get overcooked. 

Crayfish lasagna with asparagus & garlic

cooked crayfish tails

asparagus

garlic

cream

milk

salt, pepper

olive oil

spinach and or other leaf vegetables

Parmesan cheese

lasagna pasta

Peel and slice garlic and saute in olive oil for a few minutes, add milk and cream and season with salt and pepper. Blend into a creamy garlic sauce, set aside. Rinse the spinach and drain the crayfish tails (if they were sold in liquid). Slice the asparagus and parboil in salted water. Boil the pasta until almost done (it will get done once everything is plated). 

Add one layer of pasta and then add the asparagus, crayfish and then repeat for as many layers as you like. Whisk the sauce and pour on top and add a little bit of salt, pepper and grated Parmesan, serve.

New years recipe ideas for seafood lovers

New Years Eve is coming up and if you haven´t decided on what to serve I have picked some of my own favorite recipes from Delicious Tapas and have some great suggestions for you!

This is part two in this series and for this post I will focus on seafood.

All recipes can be found in their original post that I have linked for each dish. I haven´t suggested any dessert but since I´m not that much into desserts. But if I have to recommend something I would go for any great ice cream, because who doesn´t love ice-cream?

Seafood New Years Menu

Appetizers - to start off a great night of loads of seafood I´m serving raw oysters with grapefruit, cooked crab claws with mayonnaise and crostinis with bleak roe. These are all served cold and will go great with some Champagne.

Oysters with grapefruit, onion, chili & chives
Crab claws with aioli & salt
Roe on toast with cress and lemon crème fraiché

Starter

After some great appetizers I´m serving a cod carpaccio with capers and red onion.

Cod carpaccio with capers and red onion

Main course

Cod with fennel, champagne sauce & fresh herbs

For the main course I´m serving another cod dish, this is a cod fillet with champagne sauce, since my original recipe is served small like a tapas you can make the main course bigger and add more vegetables if you feel your guests need some extra stuff to keep them full.

Lobster tail with caper aioli #131

When it comes to lobster there is no need to complicate things, you divide it in pieces and serve it with a good sauce. I bought my lobster cooked so all I did was to split it up, if you are serving it for a lot of people you can put some different part on each plate for example each claw on seperate plates and each tail split in four pieces, that way you can serve each lobster in tasty bites to six people and have a bunch of shells that you can use for soup some other time.

Lobster tail with caper aioli

cooked lobsters
eggs
oil (neutral tasting, I usually use rapeseed)
capers
lemon
chives
mustard
vinegar
garlic
salt, pepper

Split the lobsters in bite size pieces. Blend garlic, chives and capers into a fine paste and put in a bowl together with a little bit of mustard, egg yolks and a dash of vinegar. You´re basically making a mayonnaise with some extra flavors so use the same proportions. Whisk the mix and add a little bit of oil at the time until it thickens. When it´s thick enough adjust the flavors with more capers and chives if necessary. Season with salt and pepper and lemon juice.

When you are making a sauce with strong tasting flavors like capers and garlic then start by adding just a little bit, it´s much easier to add a little bit more than to end up with an overpowering sauce.

Mussels with Thai flavors #99

This is a great recipe when you want to spice up your basic Moules Marienere recipe, it´s more or less the same thing but I add some Thai flavors to the recipe to spice it up a bit. I have seen some recipes where the cream have been replaced with coconut milk but I think using cream with the Thai spices gives a much better result.

Mussels with Thai flavors

fresh mussels
dry white wine
cream
lemon grass
lime leafs
red chili
garlic
onion
fresh ginger
oil
salt, pepper

Clean the mussels and discard any broken ones, rinse under cold water. Roughly chop lemon grass, lime leafs, red chili, garlic, onion and ginger. In a big pot add oil and the chopped ingredients and let them cook for a few minutes in the oil on medium heat. Season with salt and pepper.

Add the mussels and white wine and turn the heat to max, put a lid on and let the mussels steam for a few minutes. When the mussels have opened the remove them and set aside. Add some cream and bring the sauce to a boil, adjust salt and pepper to taste. Pour the sauce over the mussels and serve immediately.

Crab claws with aioli & salt #89

Not much to it, if you can´t find raw crab claws then it´s fine to use cooked if you have a good place to buy shellfish, and if you´re feeling extra lazy go ahead and buy the aioli as well. If not the follow the recipe below.

Crab claws with aioli & salt

raw crab claws
salt
dill (optional)
water

People like to put beer, sugar and all sorts of things in the water when they cook shellfish, I prefer salt, water and dill. Bring water to the boil, salt it and if you´re using dill then add it. Taste the water, it should have about the same saltiness as sea water. When the water is boiling add the claws and bring the water to boil again. Then remove from heat and let cool in the water. You can serve them warm or cold.

Now time for aioli, you´ll need

egg yolk
Dijon mustard
garlic
vinegar
neutral oil for example grape seed or rapeseed oil
salt, pepper

I use half a teaspoon of mustard and a small clove of garlic for each egg yolk but adjust according to taste. Whisk the egg yolks with the mustard, vinegar and crushed garlic, add some salt and pepper right away. Add the oil slowly and whisk during the whole process, stop adding oil when the aioli is thick enough. Season with mustard, garlic, vinegar, salt and pepper according to taste. Good luck!