Love catching yabbies? Here’s what you can do next!

Whilst camped at the Muddy Duck Tourist Park on the banks of the Thomson River in Longreach, we just had to have a go at yabby fishing. Using provided yabby pots, we were lucky enough to actually catch some yabbies! As I’ve never tried freshwater yabbies before, I decided to whip up a quick curry recipe which is my go-to for other crustaceans I usually cook.

In the past I’ve used this recipe to cook prawns, lobsters, crayfish, crabs and even Marron and it’s always a winner with the kids!

 

Ingredients:

 

• Fresh Yabbies. We had 6 in total
• 2 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil
• One onion, finely diced
• ½ teaspoon of cumin seeds
• 1 tablespoon of crushed garlic
• Crushed chilli to taste
• 1 teaspoon of garam masala powder
• 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder.
• 1 large tomato crushed
• 2 cups of hot water or to suit desired level of soupiness.

 

Yabby Prep

To prepare the freshly caught yabbies for cooking, first put them in the freezer for a couple of hours to humanely kill them. Once done, clean the outside of the whole yabbies removing any mud or algae. A brush makes easy work of this.

Halve the yabbies lengthways and remove the guts and unwanted parts from inside, giving them a quick rinse too.

 

Method

1. Using a medium to large pot on medium heat, drizzle in the cooking oil of your choice, adding in a sprinkling of cumin seeds and finely chopped onion.
2. Once the onions start browning, add in approximately a tablespoon of crushed garlic and chilli or to suit your taste and a teaspoon each of garam masala and turmeric. Stir-fry them briefly to release the natural oils and aromatics then add the crushed tomatoes. Let it blend in and simmer for a couple of minutes.
3. Then add the halved yabbies and stir through to coat the yabbies with the curry base. Once coated, add hot water to suit desired level of soupiness. Add salt to taste, cover the pot and let it simmer for 5-10 mins.
4. Serve hot with rice, noodles or bread for dipping in the soup. Enjoy!

 

This dish turned out great and the meat had a sweet taste to it, similar to crayfish. We look forward to catching more in the future and cooking them in different ways.

 

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