Pauline's Mock Crayfish

Ingredients

• 1.1 kilogram kingklip fillets, filleted and skinned; monkfish is an acceptable substitute
• 2.5 millilitre salt, for poaching water
• 3.1 onion, sliced; for poaching water
• 4.bay leaves and black peppercorns, for poaching water
• 5.50 millilitre tomato sauce (ketchup)
• 6.10 millilitre Worcestershire sauce
• 7.125 millilitre cream
• 8.250 millilitre mayonnaise, Crosse and Blackwell brand preferred
• 9.1 pickled cucumber, diced
• 10.5 millilitre brandy
• 11.Tabasco sauce or cayenne pepper, a few drops Tabasco or a sprinkling of cayenne

Method

1. 1.Place the fish in a pot of boiling water to which you have added the salt, the onion, the bayleaves and peppercorns. Boil for 7 minutes.
2. 2.Drain and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. The fish must be firm and cold.
3. 3.Flake into largish chunks.
4. 4.Make a sauce with the tomato sauce, the worcestershire sauce, the cream, the mayonnaise, the pickled cucumber, the brandy and the tobasco.
5. 5.Gently fold the flaked fish through the sauce.

Notes

• To serve as a snack: cut rounds of hot toast with a glass or a cookie cutter. Butter the rounds and let cool. Heap mock crayfish onto the rounds. Decorate and serve.
• Gertrude says try Miracle Whip instead of the Crosse and Blackwell mayonnaise.
• Gertrude also says use ¾ sweet cream and ¼ sour cream.
• Kingklip (Genypterus capensis) is a prized South African eel-like fish with firm, white, meaty flesh — an ideal substitute for the texture of crayfish.