Abalone...Oh, Joy

[sarafina]

Oh yes, there is a god. Just got a bag of abalone from a friend. 5 luscious ovals of pale sea flesh.

Now I am pondering how to prepare. This maybe should go under provisioning... but since I am cooking it in the kitchen on land, no...

I am thinking grilling. or maybe traditional panko crumbs and butter oil frying...

How would you handle these beauties?

[Cheechako]

Panko, butter in the pan. beat hell out of 'em first... gawd it's been way too long...... you lucky girl (and Himself too I imagine)

[Bash]

the thinner you slice them, the less you have to pound them.

I'm voting for grilling. It's best not to heed Cheechako unless he's talking engines.

[barnakiel]

Raw! With garlic ... Yummie!

b.

[sarafina]

these are about 5" x 2" and 1/4" to 3/8" thick... and there are SIX of em... oh I may do both ; -)

Marinade perhaps....

and yes I do have to share them...

[sarafina]

raw? really?

not even ceviche style?

[Randy]

Yea, slice thin & hammer with a tenderizer. You are lucky, it's been years since they've been plentiful in SoCal.

[sarafina]

I have the meat pounder out already... but I don't know that I could very successfully slice them in half.

[Randy]

They're already sliced, just pound away!

[sarafina]

aye aye captain!

[Weyalan]

Dont need to hit them with hammers.

If you want them super tender, slive them very thinly, then marinate them in mashed kiwifuit for about 20 minutes (but wash all the kiwifruit off afterwards).

Me, I like a little bit of texture, so I don't even marnate them. The secret with abalone, for me, is thin slices and short cook time. I will pan fry them in a hot pan for about 1 minute, tops.

Get the pan sizzling hot, the throw in butter, abalone and any combination of: salt, pepper, finely chopped garlic, finely chopped ginger, finely chopped chilli, soy sauce, dry white wine, etc. Not too much of any of the above, because you don't want to overpower the relatively delicate flavour of the abalone.

Do the abalone in small batches, becauseif you put too much in the pan in one go, you will reduce the temperature in the pan and poach the abalone instead of frying

P.S. I probably shouldn't be saying this, but around here abalone is still relatively plentiful, even in shallow water. I often find my bag limit (10) in less than 6' of water.

[sarafina]

oh oh, controversy. we thrive on controversy around here... to pound or not to pound..

Frankly the idea of not pounding is contrary to everything I have heard, but I have only cooked abs one other time. usually the rare chance I get to have it someone else (typically a chef) has had his way with it before it hits my plate.

Garlic is a given. Salt and pepper. I think I may be experimental here and do one pounded and one not pounded in the first batch and see how we like it best.

I may cut the steaks in half so I can do a piece of each in panko and lemon butter and in ginger soy.

Then we can pick how we best like it and I'll do the other four pieces!

[sww914]

Use the hammer to tenderize the otters, they're eating all the abalone.

[sarafina]

eww aren't otters sort of water based mink? That would be some pretty gamey eating!

[Weyalan]

Seriously, I slice them super thin - about 1-2mm thick and pan fry them super-fast in small batches. You can really experiment with the flavours that accompany them. I tend to do a batch of, say, chilli, garlic, ginger then a batch of just salt & pepper, then a batch of white wine and garlic, then maybe a batch with worcestershire sauce, etc. Of course, seeing as tehy are not so rare here, it doesn't matter if you waste a bit with a so-so combo.

I did a really nice noodle stir fry with some recently... so nice that I wrote it down:

Weyalan’s Abalone & noodle stir fry

Ingredients

4 or 5 abalone, in the shell, preferably alive, prepared as per instructions below
5 garlic cloves, chopped
1” ginger, finely chopped
1-2 large green chillis, chopped
1 bunch fresh coriander (separate the chopped stalks from the leafy part)
2 carrots, sliced into juliennes
1 bunch spring onions, chopped (separate the white parts from the green)
6 mushrooms, chopped
1/2 a red capsicum, finely chopped
2 limes, juiced
2-3 tblspoons fish sauce
1 tblspoon soy sauce
1 tblspoon palm sugar
800g “fresh” Hokkien noodles
1/2 a glass of white wine
4-5 tblspoons sesame oil


Preparing the abalone

Put the abalone, in the shell, in the freezer for a couple of hours, then shuck, clean and lip them. Slice the abalone thinly (1-2mm) and place in a bowl with the juice of 1 lime

Method

Combine the coriander stalk, ½ the garlic and ginger in mortar and pestle and pound to a pulp. Heat 3 tablesppons of sesame oil in a wok on a high heat. Add the white parts of the spring onion (retain green parts), carrots, mushroom, chilli and capsicum and stir fry for about 1 minute. Add the coriander / ginger / garlic pulp and continue to stir and fry stirring continuously.

In a separate large pan, warm the wine to almost boiling. Add the palm sugar. When stir fry is almost cooked, add the noodles to the wine. Transfer the stir fry into the noodle pan. Pour in the fish sauce, soy sauce and remaining lime juice Add the remaining oil to the wok and fry the abalone with the remaining garlic. It is best to fry the abalone in 2 or 3 batches so that you keep the wok good and hot… if you do fry in batches, you will need to split your oil so that you can add some more for each batch). The abalone will only need about 30-60 seconds per batch and can then be combined into the noodle pan. Add the chopped coriander leaves, stir well and serve.