What a great, quick, impressive dish! It takes no time to put together, and would be lovely served with a small side salad. It’s quite rich, so the amount you make would easily be a main course for 4 people – even more if you served a starter.
I had my parents over for dinner the other night – and I didn’t want anything too fussy to serve them. I was on my own – with a toddler, which meant feeding, bathing, pyjama-ing, and putting to bed as well as getting a half decent meal on the table. This recipe looked as easy as pie – and really, it is – so simple, so quick, and really, really delicious.
I was a bit lazy and bought the crab meat already shelled and picked. In an ideal world, I would have liked to have cooked the crab myself, but I just didn’t have time that day. I’ve never cooked crabs or lobster, and I’m going to have to remedy that – soon!
Believe it or not, I had to search high and low for the quick cook polenta. I couldn’t find it ANYWHERE! I had some slow cooking polenta in the cupboard, but the quick cook stuff was somewhat elusive. I ended up getting it at Leo’s Supermarket, even though Woolworths said they stocked it – I couldn’t find it anywhere, and I couldn’t find anyone to help me look for it. What’s more, they put the slow cooking polenta and the quick cooking polenta in completely different areas of the supermarket, as I discovered when I actually found the quick cook stuff at Woolworths today on my weekly shopping venture.
Anyway, the crab and the prawns were easy to get. The other challenge ingredient was chervil. I’ve never cooked with chervil before and couldn’t find anywhere that stocked it – even dried :-(. So while I was at my third greengrocer, I googled it and found a site that recommended using 1 teaspoon of dried parsley flakes, plus one eighth of a teaspoon of rubbed, dried sage. So that I did. I’m not sure exactly what chervil is supposed to taste like, but the parsley and sage tasted pretty good to us.
I used the Simon Johnson truffle oil, which was lovely. I also use that for some of my mushroom risottos, one of the Thermomix staples! It really lifts the dish from good to great.
The polenta is lovely and soupy and is very rich and satisfying. I loved it, but couldn’t contemplate seconds. What I did not use, I put into tupperware and had for my dinner the next night, reheated in a steam microwave with the lid on the tupperware.
My tips for this recipe:
Even if the crab meat says it’s picked and cleaned, do have a look through and give it a bit of a rinse. I discovered a few gritty bits in mine.
The recipe also calls for the prawns to be cut into 2 or 3 pieces. Next time, I’d actually leave them whole (deheaded, tailed and de-veined) as the prawns I bought were on the small side. If you are using King Prawns, you could cut them into two or three, but small prawns cut into two were too small for me, and I like seeing chunks of prawn rather than tiny little bits.
Always use great parmesan and grate it yourself!
Approximate cost of non pantry ingredients for this recipe was:
Ocean Blue Brand Crab Claw – 140g x 2 – total $15.98
Prawns: $5.00
Creme Fraiche: $5.48
In the Mix Tricks 
