Sazzy's Degustation Diary: Sunday 5th December 2010

Today is the last day of the abalone season in Perth. I was one of the many keen people to get up early and flock to the Perth shores to spend an hour fishing for these little delicacies.

I didn't go into the water as I don't have a license to catch the abalone, but I watched from the shore as the guys braved the cold water between 7am to 8am. In this hour, each person is allowed to catch twenty abalones of legal size.

In the last few moments leading up to 8am, I went to dip my feet in the water and saw a fluoro green netting bag floating in the shallow water. I thought I had better fish it out to throw in the bin, but when I lifted it out of the water, I discovered there were several abalone in there! I looked around, expecting a frantic Asian rushing up to snatch their haul from me, but no one was paying the slightest bit of attention to me.

So, I did what any abalone loving person would do. I happily added the abalone I found to our haul. Yes, technically I didn't have a license, but one of the guys lost their haul so I suppose it's the ocean's way of give and take.

Back at Benoit's place, he and Ivy removed the abalone from the shells and then I cleaned them up with a toothbrush. I have never seen abalone in the shell before but have eaten plenty of it. Dad and my cousins go each year to catch these little creatures and either Mum or Dad clean them. So, while I've seen them standing over the kitchen sink scrubbing away at them, I haven't actually prepared them myself. There's always a first for everything!

I think we did a pretty good job at cleaning and preparing them!

We sliced a few and I cooked them in a stirfry with snow peas, carrots, shitake mushrooms, garlic, spring onions, soy sauce and oyster sauce.

Rehydrating the shitake mushrooms.

Benoit got busy preparing some pancakes to go with our Peking Duck. The pancakes are supposed to be steamed but we panfried them.

Benoit removed all the meat from the Duck.

I diced up all the ingredients for Benoit's san choy bow filling. Shitake mushrooms, waterchestnuts, bamboo shoots, carrots, coriander, spring onions and garlic.

In my haste, I put the san choy bow filling on the pancake
that's supposed to be for the Peking Duck!

Oops, forgot the piece of delicious Duck skin!

Mmmmm

There's no denying that food tastes better when you've gone to the trouble of catching, cleaning and preparing it. Sure, you might be exhausted by the time you flop into your chair, but it's all worth it.