Mar 14, 2011 Posted on Mar 14, 2011 in Food at Home | 1 comment

A Day in Yea and a Really Big Cray

When Mr suggested on Labour Day that we make a trip to Yea to catch yabbies, memories of my Dad’s family wading through the Swan River at midnight to catch prawns flashed through my mind. Thankfully this scenario wasn’t exactly what Mr had in mind for us and no gumboots or giant nets were required. All we packed in the car was this:

On the way to Yea we stopped in Healesville and had a delicious lunch at Giant Steps/Innocent Bystander. After stuffing ourselves with pizza we rolled out the door and drove to Yea River where we found a quiet little clearing just off the main road:

Mr did all the hard work tying the meat down with fishing wire and setting up the nets, while I sat and watched the cows who came down to the river for a drink:

Cute but stinky. I was afraid that they might stampede, but Mr made a very valid point that a herd of cows weren’t likely to cross a rapidly flowing river. After leaving the nets in the water for about 10 minutes we pulled up our first little critter! Here he is posing for the camera:

We were pretty chuffed with our first little guy, as we hadn’t really expected to catch anything. So, when we pulled up this big mamma:

We were damn excited. IT WAS HUGE! FREAKING HUGE! Look at the difference in size between the two:

He was a feisty one too. I definitely did not hold a twig into the bucket for him to grab, then run away screaming when he snatched it out of my hands. Definitely did not.

In total we caught four critters before we decided to call it a day. On the way home we stopped and picked some delicious blackberries:

Then crawled home through long weekend traffic. When we finally arrived home we kept our loot in the sink while we decided what to do with them:

James kitteh was equally fascinated and terrified. Seeing as neither Mr or I had cooked live seafood before, we decided to keep it simple; straight into a pot of boiling water. We tackled the little guys first:

They were done in no time. Then we couldn’t put it off any longer. It was time to dunk this one:

I kindly allowed Mr to do the honours. In he went:

Voila!

It was at this point that Mr and I realised that we didn’t own any utensils suitable for consuming crustaceans. A pair of poultry shears, plastic corn holders and an hour of shell crunching later we were done. There was shell on the wall, guts on the floor and poo chutes all over the table but it was totally worth it. The meat was sweet, so tender and of course incredibly fresh.

Once we had cleaned up our mess we ended the day by feasting on these:

A wonderful day out and a wonderfully messy meal. Bliss.

One Response to “A Day in Yea and a Really Big Cray”

1. Michelle says:

   April 2, 2011 at 11:57 am

   Looks like a great day out!

   x
   Michelle
   http://www.michellesstylefile.blogspot.com

   Reply