Chilli Crayfish Sambal Recipe by Mark Labrooy

Serving up a plate of freshly caught Crayfish is a guaranteed crowd pleaser, but why not spice it up a little more with this Chilli Sambal Recipe by Mark Labrooy. It's so simple and delicious you can even cook it on the boat fresh from the Reef!

Chilli Cray method

Firstly, we need to make the chilli mix, this is what we will cook the painted cray in.

Take a large saucepan on high heat and add the oil and lemongrass. Add the chilli, ginger, garlic, shallots and coriander root to the the saucepan stirring constantly. The ingredients should start to caramelise quite quickly. Add the palm sugar and keep cooking until the chilies become soft. Then add the fish sauce and the cherry tomatoes, break the tomatoes down using the back of your wooden spoon. Keep stirring the mix until all the ingredients are soft, and then blend the entire mix into a rough paste. Set aside.

Take a heavyset frying pan on high heat, add the olive oil, chilli paste and the Crays. Fry the Crays off in the pan for a minute, making sure to stir constantly. Add the coconut milk and put the lid on for a minute or so to help steam the cray meat. Cook for 5mins, then serve.

Divide plenty of cray and sauce into four bowls with handful of Sambal over the top. 

Coconut sambal 

Ingredients

• 2 cups of desiccated coconut
• 3 Lemons, squeezed
• ½ bunch Coriander, roughly chopped
• ½ Red onion finely sliced
• ½ punnet Cherry tomato, cut in quarters
• 1 tsp Chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp Salt fakes
• ½ tsp Maldivian fish finely chopped
• 1/4 Spring onion rough chop

Method 

In a bowl, mix the desiccated coconut, the lemon juice, coriander, red onion, cherry tomatoes, chilli powder and salt. Using your hands, work the mixture until it is well combined into a Sambal.

Ive added a rice as this is delicious with rice!

Coconut rice 

Ingredients

• 4 cups of long grain rice
• 6 cups of water
• Pinch of Salt Flakes
• 400ml of Coconut milk
• ¼ bunch of Shallots finely sliced

Coconut rice method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C fan forced. Wash the rice in a strainer and add it to a deep baking dish. Add the water and salt and cover with aluminium foil and bake in the oven for 45mins. When you take it out, fork the rice to aerate it and evenly distribute the coconut milk over the top. Sprinkle with the shallots and serve.

Tip: be sure not to overcook the lobster, otherwise they will start to breakdown and turn into mush.