This website uses cookies to improve your experience navigating our site. By continuing to browse, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
OK, I understand
Australian houses, from architectural masterpieces to suburban family homes, Victorian terraces, mid-century marvels, coastal shacks, city apartments, and everything in between.
Award-winning Australian architecture, inspiring homes, and interviews with Australia’s top architects.
Award-winning Australian interior design, inspiring homes, and interviews with Australia’s top designers.
In depth features on Australia’s most beautiful gardens and landscape design.
Studio visits with Australia’s most talented creatives, from artists to architects, ceramicists to stylists, furniture makers to lighting designers.
Studio visits with Australia’s top artists, and unmissable art exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and beyond.
Weekly recipes and meal ideas from our favourite cooks, authors and foodies.
Unique travel destinations, design-led accomodation and day trip ideas in Australia and New Zealand.
Australian houses, from architectural masterpieces to suburban family homes, Victorian terraces, mid-century marvels, coastal shacks, city apartments, and everything in between.
Award-winning Australian architecture, inspiring homes, and interviews with Australia’s top architects.
Award-winning Australian interior design, inspiring homes, and interviews with Australia’s top designers.
In depth features on Australia’s most beautiful gardens and landscape design.
Studio visits with Australia’s most talented creatives, from artists to architects, ceramicists to stylists, furniture makers to lighting designers.
Studio visits with Australia’s top artists, and unmissable art exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and beyond.
Weekly recipes and meal ideas from our favourite cooks, authors and foodies.
Unique travel destinations, design-led accomodation and day trip ideas in Australia and New Zealand.
The thing about yabbies is that they are really, really Australian. They are a fresh water crustacean comfortable lolling around the muddy waters of the Murray–Darling Basin and the like. They are readily available within their season and aside from the guy at the market that does yabby burgers on the second Sunday of the month, they are not all that common in our restaurants when you compare them to prawns or crays. I’m not sure if it’s because we consider them too 'Australiana', and therefore throw them into the same net as a cork hat and beer in a tin can, but I like them, and when cooked they come up a real beauty.
This is a recipe we came up with by tipping our hat to the terribly outdated seafood cocktail, while gently bastardising Damian Pignolet’s Marie Rose Sauce recipe. It doesn’t need to go in a champagne saucer or be served icy cold like a just-out-of-the-fridge aeroplane meal - it simply needs the best ingredients available.
For the yabby cocktail
4 fresh yabbies
1 iceberg lettuce
1 bunch of chervil (little leaves picked off)
2 sprigs of tarragon leaves (de-sprigged)
A pinch of salt
A pinch of pepper
Juice of ½ a lemon
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 lemon cheeks
1 bottle of Sparkling white (obviously an Australian choice!)
1 leek
Small handful of peppercorns
For the Marie Rose Sauce
1 clove garlic
1 tsp Dijon
2 egg yolks
190ml extra virgin olive oil
Juice of ½ small lemon
1 tsp bush tomato chutney
1 tbsp cognac
1 knife tip of cayenne pepper
1 sprig of tarragon leaves (de-sprigged)
Serves 4
Let’s begin with the Marie Rose sauce, because it’s something you could make the day before, saving you some time when you're ready to dish up the cocktail.
In a Magimix, or for those of you channeling Julia Child, grab a whisk and a bowl, combine the garlic, Dijon, yolks, lemon juice, chutney, cognac, cayenne pepper and tarragon. Once these ingredients are combined, in a slow gentle stream add the olive oil, slowly mixing in between pours. When the ingredients have emulsified and are starting to look like a delicious rose-coloured sauce, give it a little seasoning with a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Make sure you taste it, and add a little further seasoning if need be. Then pop it straight in the fridge where you can keep it for up to five days.
The best way to enjoy a yabby is to buy them ALIVE! Now let's not get all sentimental about that because you're more than comfortable buying them when they’re already dead. It's better to end their lives humanely yourself. They will be moving around a lot when you buy them, so 30 or so minutes prior to you cooking them pop them in the fridge. This will make them very drowsy – until finally they will be asleep.
While they're slumbering, place the champagne, the leek (cut in large batons) and the peppercorns in a pot and bring to a vigorous boil. Place the yabbies in, ensuring they are submerged before popping on a lid and setting a timer for seven minutes. Remove the yabbies and set aside. You could cool them if you wanted to use them later but if you’re ready to go leave them room temperature.
To serve, thinly slice or mandolin the washed iceberg lettuce. Place in a bowl with the carefully picked chervil, tarragon, lemon juice, olive oil and salt and pepper. This is a key step many miss but it’s essential to bringing all the flavours together.
Place salad in a bowl, plate or champagne saucer, pop the yabby meat on top and dress with about a tablespoon of the Marie Rose sauce.
Serve with the lemon cheeks.
For more foodie inspiration, we highly recommend checking out the Cookes Food event portfolio - these lovely ladies and their talented team create the tastiest morsels for their magical events in and around Melbourne!
The Design Files acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we work, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to Elders past and present.
First Nations artists, designers, makers, and creative business owners are encouraged to submit their projects for coverage on The Design Files. Please email bea@thedesignfiles.net
The Design Files’ original content and photos are copyright protected. Please email us before reposting our content on other publications, personal websites, or Instagram. Feel free to share our images on Pinterest using the credit ‘via thedesignfiles.net’. Thank you!