Sweden is well-known for being surrounding by 1000’s of small islands (or archipelagoes). These archipelagos start in the far north within the Swedish Lapland, wrap across the shoreline of the deep south and stretch up the west coast.
About an hour west of Gothenburg, you’ll attain the attractive west coast Swedish archipelago identified for fishing villages, seashores and bathing spots. I’ve been staying on the small island of Lilla Kornö the place largely Swedish households come to spend their summer time.
One morning, I used to be invited out for a correct Swedish crayfishing expertise.
To be sincere, I had no thought what I used to be in retailer for. Again residence, I’d heard the argument over whether or not they’re referred to as crayfish or crawfish, however I’ve by no means really seen or eaten crayfish in Southern California.
I’ve lengthy recognized these tasty little crustaceans with cookouts within the South of the US, however didn’t know they may very well be discovered within the ocean! Within the US, they’re a freshwater creature however, right here on the west coast of Sweden, we needed to sail out to sea.
I used to be excited for a brand new foodie expertise!
We stocked the boat with frozen fish bits (yum!) and set off to reap our catch-of-the-day from crayfish traps (or pots as they name them) that had been resting over 100 toes under the floor.
Giant orange balloon-type buoys marked the ends of the rope that we must pull as much as get the pots.
Fortunately, a motorized contraption did a lot of the work and, quickly sufficient, we had the primary crayfish pot above deck. I may see crabs and crayfish wiggling about contained in the pot. The crayfish had been tossed right into a bucket and the crabs had been despatched again to sea.
After pulling up all of the pots, we had 19 of the little cray crays in our bucket!
We re-baited the pots with the frozen fish bits and despatched them again to the underside of the ocean. In a couple of days, we may return to see if we had caught extra.
A number of issues I realized about crayfishing:
- You don’t need crabs within the pots as a result of they’ll eat the crayfish.
- Crayfish wish to stay in the chilly, muddy components of the ocean ground.
- Crayfish and crabs WILL pinch you. And it hurts. So transfer quick!
- You WILL get moist and almost certainly muddy.[/li_item]
I feel I acquired in the best way greater than I really helped, however it was enjoyable to see a long-time Swedish custom. We introduced the crayfish again residence and went straight to work within the kitchen. Identical to with lobster, they’re boiled, however we completed them off within the oven with butter in garlic.
