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| Bright blue Narran River Yabbies, caught near Angledoool NSW |
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| Rather large Blue Yabby! |
I have so many happy memories of childhood whiled away waiting for the tug, on the end of a piece of bailing twine with a piece of meat wrapped strategically around an ample sized rock, which meant there was a yabby! Then ever so slowly pulling the beast to the surface, so as not to shake it from its grip on the bait and finally, when it's head feelers broke the surface of the creek, a final and mighty scoop with whatever catching device we had (Dad once made us a yabby scoop out of an old saucepan which he had drilled a heap of holes in - had pretty poor resistance in the water rendering it almost impossible (and never successful!) to use!). There was much joy if the yabby was caught and much laughter and taunting when the beast was picked up carefully and used as a weapon for scaring unsuspecting watchers on resulting in high pitched girly screaming! Of course, the real treat was in the eating! In our house it was always yabby boiled in large pot of water until they turn lobster red! Then, in a very messy occasion, they were devoured, accompanied by bread and Dad's famous homemade seafood sauce (mayonnaise, tomato sauce and a bit of worscherire!).
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| Verjuice Yabbies |
These days our cooked yabbies get additional sophistication!
This week I quickly stirfried them with the freshest parsley from the garden, salt, white pepper and a good slug of Maggie Beer's verjuice! Served neat, they were sweet, meaty and completely divine! Please sir, can I have some more :)
Ah yes! Those were the days... Someone once told us that if the meat was going rotten it was even better to use as a lure. I recall one of my brothers girlfriend's mum would dangle her legs in the water and when a yabbie grabbed on to one of her toes she would lift her foot out of the water and grab it. True dinks!
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