Anyone ever cooked with Langoustines?
 

Unless they are called something else in the States I have never had them but they were on sale at the supermarket today and they looked a bit crayfishes so I picked them up. Now I have no idea what to do with them. I did the google thing but still unsure about them.

no idea what that is.

Isnt that just french for prawns?

So basicly use them as you would large shrimp or prawns. Scampi is always a good bet.

This is what they look like. Much bigger than a shrimp/prawn:

I checked my main cook book. They are still prawns though. Handle and cook accordingly.

I was guessing they could more or less be treated as a prawn or a crayfish but a lot of recipes have them being roasted, etc.

To be honest I never heard of them until today. That is what I get for growing up in a house where nearly everyone but me was allergic to shellfish.

Thank you muchly. I just asked wikipedia.

"The Norway lobster, Nephrops norvegicus (also called Dublin Bay Prawn or Langoustine), is a slim orange-pink lobster found in the north-eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The tail is muscular, and is frequently eaten, often under the name "scampi"."

I will get a lot more UK recipes by putting in scampi.

Poached langoustines with aioli

Ingredients
For the court bouillon:
2 carrots
1 bulb fennel
2 cloves garlic
1.4L/2½pt water
290ml/½ pint white wine
a few fresh parsley and chervil stalks
3 white peppercorns, crushed
3 pimento seeds, crushed

For the aioli:
1 sweet potato (orange flesh)
3 tbsp mayonnaise
2 pinches saffron strands, soaked in a little water
3 eggs, boiled and yolks removed and reserved
2.5ml/½ tsp crushed garlic
a little olive oil
juice of half a lemon
salt and pepper

500g/1lb2oz langoustines



Method
1. To make the court bouillon, place vegetables in pan and cover with water. Gently bring to the boil and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Add white wine, parsley, chervil stalks and crushed peppercorns and pimento seeds. Cook for a further 10 minutes then leave to stand until cool. Strain out the vegetables and chill the liquid.
2. To make the aioli, preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Bake the sweet potato for about 35-45 minutes or until tender. Peel off the skin and gently crush the flesh.
3. Place sweet potato flesh in a liquidizer, add the mayonnaise, saffron, egg yolks and garlic and blend. Add olive oil to moisten, season and finish with a squeeze of lemon juice.
4. Remove entrails from langoustines by taking the middle segment or tail shell between thumb and forefinger then twist it and pull.
5. Plunge langoustines into simmering court bouillon for 30-40 seconds. Remove and leave to cool naturally. Serve with aioli.

I roast shrimp/prawns a lot as well though. Always leave them in shells and roast/broil them on rock salt.

Odds are they would be treated as 3/4 count prawns (king, large, jumbo etc).

garlic and butter. simple and great.

Langoustines -mmm yummy heheheh
We just prepare them like this -
Cut off head,
Cut tail in half but not all the way through- on other words, split open but not all the way through (clean the vein or any black stuff)
Lay them straight in a pan/oven tray - add seasonings in the tail + if you like a crunch, bread crumbs
If you like garlic & butter - we heat garlic butter and pour it in the split langoustines.

Let bake - then MMMMMMMMMmm DE-licious

when I did some (actually shitload) of waitering while doing my studies I used to work at a restaurant that served Langoustines, they were bigger than prawns and smaller than the lobsters we used to serve

if I remember correctly the chefs used to butterfly-grill them (on a flat-surface grill) and serve them with lemon-butter or garlic-butter sauce, basically the same as the prawns ;)

sounds like tomorrows menu is going to be yummy

Langouste ( the big langoustine ... ) is a bit like a lobster, but I believe it lives in WARM waters , where lobsters are in COLD water.

Lagoustine ( .. ine is a diminutive ) is a small langouste.

Again, I could be wrong being a " roastbeef man " myself :disgust

nah its bad for you :)

Jeez, thanks Laurie :) Those were good though. Florida here we come right!

~Alli

Exactly how I wanted it cooked! :thumbsup

You can cook them like a lobster - ie steamed, grilled, boiled, broiled, baked, or you can cook them like a prawn, ie steamed, grilled, boiled, broiled, baked or you can cook them like a U6 shrimp, ie steamed, grilled, boiled, broiled, baked, scampi.

:)

Have fun cooking it sarah. :winkwink: