Salad of Yabbies, Fennel, Celery & Avocado with Hazelnut Vinaigrette

Name: Salad of Yabbies, Fennel, Celery & Avocado with Hazelnut Vinaigrette
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: Australian
Ingredients: freshly ground white pepper; tiniest pinch cayenne pepper; 20 ml lime juice, or to taste; 30 ml hazelnut oil; 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard; 1 head red witlof; 2 heads baby fennel, outer ribs discarded, halved lengthwise; juice of ½ lemon; 1-2 pale inner stalks celery, cut into 3mm-thick slices; 1 small head white witlof; 1 small onion, sliced; 250 ml dry white wine; 24-30 live yabbies, placed in the freezer for about 20 minutes; 1½ tablespoons sea salt, or to taste; 1.75 litres cold water; bouquet garni [a few sprigs fresh thyme, 1 bay leaf and strips lemon zest all wrapped in a muslin cloth and tied with kitchen twine]; ½ small carrot, sliced; ½ stalk celery, washed and sliced; 1 egg, at fridge temperature; 1 small handful chives, cut into 2cm lengths; ¼ teaspoon sea salt; 80 ml grapeseed oil; 2 large avocados, peeled and cut lengthwise into 6 segments

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Salades

By Damien Pignolet

Published 2010

About

A yabby feast may still be a tradition for Australian farmers with a dam on their properties. An old farmer told me a story about the days when bags of yabbies were taken to a picnic site and cooked in a forty-four gallon drum over an open fire and served with a slab of canned beer for each bloke. This was followed by pavlova. Certainly not the sort of picnic one might imagine for city folk!

Yabbies have a deliciously sweet, slightly muddy flavour that blends well with the freshness