I cooked up
these suckers on summer solstice this weekend, and what's great was there was
still a lot of light to photograph these before they were immediately devoured.
I don't know how, but the sweet langoustine always seems to be the shy
wallflower of the crustaceans. Constantly overshadowed and out-trendied by it's
siblings like lobster (beefy royalty of the sea), crayfish (punchy vibrant
minions) and crabs (even those soft shell suckers have more prominence than
little lango). Perhaps it has been forgotten and cast aside due to our
malpractice of dousing them in batter and calling it scampi. This breaded ill
fate has meant we've actually forgotten that langoustines, served as they are
(i.e. not battered and deep fried to a crisp), are deliciously plump, sweet,
delicate and succulent. There seems to be a large gap between the top
restaurants cooking langoustine for a delectable (and most probably expensive)
dish and the keen amateur chef or dinner party menu appearance...when in fact
these cute little guys are so simple to cook. To eat, if their shells are on,
can be seen as rather daunting (and with about a 25% yield of pure meat it's
hard to overcome), however once you know...it's so simple. Twist the head, turn
the tail on its side and press down till you hear a crunch. From there, it'll
be easy to pull away the meat and peel the shell off.
This recipe normally calls for shelled jumbo prawns, but the sweet
little langoes were calling for me - and it's the type of dish where you sort
of have to give in to the mess and accept the glorious, sweet and spicy sauce
drape over your fingers. If this isn't finger licking good, I don't know what
is. You can, of course, take these out their shell before serving for a more
"polite" way of eating, but I like the fun of just getting stuck in
in a sort of animalistic way. Egg noodles are a great accompaniment to this -
it laps up and takes the sauce wonderfully. Langoustines are a truly British
produce, but we associate it with holidays in Spain and France. Having recently
been to Salcome and experienced some sea-side delights, it's time that we
embrace langoustines with open arms (and mouths). The best of a lobster and a
prawn put together - who could say no to that?
