We’re out of here
Amelia and I are going to my parent’s house in the country for a week. We have no plans but Amelia is intrigued by the idea of catching a yabby in the back dam. I have warned her that in my 33 years on this planet, I have never managed to see a yabby in the back dam let alone get one to hang on to my sophisticated lump-of-meat-on-a-long-bit-of-string apparatus. She doesn’t seem to care but tells me that Pappous might cook it on the barbeque. I looked up Yabby in Stephanie Alexander’s tome of wisdom and yabby cooking seems to be possibly as traumatic (for chef and animal) as lobster cooking with the added factor that yabbies will taste like mud if not prepared properly. And really… (did you click on the link back there?)… as if Amelia is going to respond favourably if we do manage to haul something like this out of the dam. My girl freaks out when she sees a fly buzzing against the front door.
Photo courtesy of my brother – thanks Andrew!
these things really exist? and you can eat them? this is all very scary. maybe even more so than the pick axe man!
Hope you have fun in the country! On the yabby catching thing…try putting old meat into a stocking rather than on a bit of string. And even better than that (I was shown by a lonely 8 year old girl on an opal mining plot in Lightening Ridge), use a chunk of old laundry soap…like wondersoap or something – it works a treat!
That, is my idea of an Australian Country Home {brown grass and all}. It looks beautiful.You must love visiting there.
I never saw one in our dam either but we still managed to catch them! My mum could make the best honeyed yabbies…we´d all sit around and eat them straight out of the pot..mmmmmmmm.
I’ve never successfully caught a yabby in my life, but just TRYING to catch one is so much fun! (I know, i know, I’m half mad) And I must say, I never did give the thought of prepping them for the grill much thought – too grotesque. I’ve kept them as pets, though. 🙂
Looks gorgeous- Ahhhh open spaces. Yabbies or no yabbies, it sounds much safer than the local park!I hope you have fun.
Claire, the best way to cook them is to boil them in salted water, dont’ need much. Or, chop up some fennel, heat that in the pot with a table spoon Olive oil, throw the yabbies in, close the lid, shake the pot while they squarm, when they are turning red, add one glass of white wine and salt.That’s if u catch any.
XOX C.cheng
yabbying is FUN! My last experience involved a friend’s parents’ winery and an unsuspecting scotsman. We spent all day at it and wound up with somewhere in the vicinity of 120 of the little buggers. Hefting them back into the boot with wet hessian between the layers, we drove back from heathcote to preston and unloaded them into the bathtub. Mrs Joebob had been out all day with the girls, and having never seen yabbies before, she got a bit of a shock when she got home!
So here’s the lowdown. As usual, Stephanie’s right. Put them in fresh, clean water for at least 24 hours prior to eating, then treat them prezackly like tiny lobsters, i.e. put them into a plastic container and put them in the freezer for about 15 minutes to put them to sleep, then drop them into a large pot at a rolling boil until they’re red. Serve them with the thai dipping sauce in Stephanie and cold lager. Taste like large prawns, but are sweeter and not briny. Good luck!
Can you see my face turning green? Not at the thought of cooking yabby’s but green with envy at the thought of a week away in the country… have a relaxing time and enjoy this beautiful spring weather…. and two little side notes 1. love logging on in the morning to see what fun you are up to2. heat up a bottle of white wine in a pot (works best on a camp fire…the atmosphere.. but the stove will do) and chuck a block of yummy cheese all cut up …and then dip your yabby in… you won’t taste any dirt that way!
Beautiful place. I have always wanted to escape from our busy lifestyle in Singapore and just chill in country side for weeks. By the way, my colleague show your hand made dolls, lovely : )
Have fun! What I’d give for a country escape…My best friends father is into yabbys and even breeds them to sell as pets and to resturants too. When she is baby- sitting them ( yabby-sitting?) I can’t bear to look at them in thr tank. I am with Amelia with the freaking out over yucky animals!
ooh have a great time. that house is so totally oz!
Yikes! That yabby looks positively bug-like. Not that lobsters don’t, but…
Wow, that brings back the memories:) We once caught a whole bunch of yabbies when I lived in the county (Katanning ‚Äì W.A.) I remember that we used some kind of PVC piping trap and put chunks on meat in there and left it over night ‚Äì kinda like cray catching. It was many years ago but I remember that it was pretty successful cause we had a bath tub (literally ‚Äì we kept them alive in there) full of them at the end of the days haul! Thanks for the flash back, I am feeling homesick in a good way 🙂
My hubby works in the office of a Lobster processing plant here in Atlantic Canada, and he is going to have some fun getting his co-workers to guess what a yabby is. I showed him a picture and he said they look a lot like our Atlantic cold water lobsters. Although, I can’t imagine bbq’d or honey’s lobster. Is the meat like lobter? Is it a fresh water animal? Do tell!
My husband occaisionally goes yabbying. About 10 years ago he brought an unusually huge one home. Out came the unused fish tank and our new pet was named Henry (he was green and so is Henry the engine from Thomas the Tank Engine) by my 7 year old son. Strangely enough Henry gradually became blue so should have been Gordon or something! But Henry he remained, and we enjoyed his company for quite a few years.
What a funny name, I expected to see something small and fluffy. Uneducated yank 🙂
I was shocked to see what a yabby looked like. It’s a land lobster!
Just a quick tip on the yabbies – I hear a piece of smelly cheese in the foot of an old stocking works a treat! Happy fishing and enjoy the break.
The yabby doesn’t look like something I’d like to catch!
Have a great time in the country with your daughter.I have tasted yabbies, they are yummy. However i know the dilema one gets from trying to eat animals that are so cute. I also know someone who has a yabbie as a pet.
I caught thousands of yabbies with a piece of lamb dangling from a piece of string in the lake at Caulfield Park. Every summer we planned extravagant yabbie-farm operations and every February the barrels of dead yabbies in the back yard under the walnut tree were testament to our fickle short attention spans. In Tangambalanga we caught yabbies with our granddad with a cage aparatus dragged through the mud of the dam. Oh, yabby-catching! Can’t wait to introduce my son Jacob to the joys!