Foraging

With recent trends pushing towards sustainability, food miles and the upsurge of foraged foods being served in restaurants & bistros.I thought I'd give it a go; so last weekend I headed off to a stretch of the River Lea near Stanstead Abbots with my son (10 going on 18) and my dad (64 going 16) and we attempted to catch a foreign invader to our waters; the American Signal Crayfish. Since being introduced in the 70's they have set up homes in the lakes and waterways at a devastating cost to the native White Clawed Crayfish, reducing their numbers to a point where they are now a protected species. 

Anyway back to the river bank. With our sophisticated fishing equipment; a bike wheel with spokes removed and netting tied in place and primed with our most tempting bait (streaky bacon), we threw the wheel into the water and pulled it up after a few minutes to great success, 15 in the first haul. We repeated the process for about an hour (until the 10 year old got bored) and we had caught around 180 cray fish to take home.

You MUST purge the crayfish in clean water overnight before cooking them, or hope you have an understanding boss when you ring in with food poisoning. But the next evening we sat down to platefuls of delicious crayfish, cooked simply by quickly boiling them in slightly salted water and then lightly sautéing in butter and garlic served with thickly cut crusty bread (and some homemade chilli sauce, but that's another blog, maybe). These mini lobsters were a real treat and tasted even better because we'd caught them.

A great way to spend a couple of hours with a delicious outcome in the end. Although don't catch more than you can eat as there's a £1,000 fine per crayfish you put back.

Steve Humber