CAMPSITE # 143 - Oz360's favourite seafood recipes

Thumbs up for Freshwater Prawns!! On our way into our Mataranka campsite, the boys set the Opera House shaped prawn net in a little creek. The next morning, as we drove off from camp we collected the net and found four rather friendly surprises...

We cooked them up on the side of the road so that they'd be good and ready for us come lunchtime. To cook prawns or crabs, we've found that you're best off doing so when they're fresh. We'll generally boil water in the deepest & widest billy we have, that way it'll fit your entire catch in comfortably without any claws hanging out the edge. We drop them straight into the water live. I know, not the nicest way to go but is there any nice way to die? I don't time how long it takes to cook, generally just go by their colour. Once they turn lobster red you're good to go... remembering that the hot shell will continue to cook the meat a bit after you've removed it from the water.

My favourite way to have prawns is making them into a Prawn Cocktail...

• A decent amount of shredded iceberg lettuce
• Generous amount of prawn meat
• Good squeeze of lemon juice
• Bit of Salt & Pepper
• Drizzled with some homemade Seafood Sauce - mayo, tomato sauce, Worcestershire & lemon juice. 

For crab meat, Taryn knocked up a killer Crab Dip for us all when we were in Katherine. It was an absolute winner & one I'll continue to make in the future...

• Meat of one crab torn into small pieces
• 2 cloves of finely diced garlic
• Seasoned with Salt & Pepper
• A slurp of sweet chilli
• Squeeze of lemon juice
• Small handful of spring onions
• Served with a packet of yummy crackers & they'll absolute treat!

Our favourite way to have calamari was good old Salt & Pepper Calamari. It tastes amazing when it's cooked right but I found out (the hard way) that they're really easy to bugger up. 

• Pan needs to be super hot.
• Lightly smear a small amount of butter and throw the calamari rings on right away without letter the butter burn.
• Grind a decent amount of Salt & Pepper & a good squeeze of lemon juice all over pan. 
• Providing all rings are flat on the pan, leave them alone to sit for about 20 seconds. Once you see the bottom half of the ring's colour turn from a clear flesh to a bright white, flip them over.
• Move them around the pan a bit to grab any excess S&P for 5 - 10 seconds then take them off the pan and place them onto some paper towel to drain out the oil.

Cooking calamari is always a very quick process as they shouldn't need to be on the pan for longer than 30 seconds so having everything ready to go before you begin cooking will make life a lot easier.

This is Borroloola, NT. Located off the beaten track about 250kms west of the NT / QLD border, this town features red dirt, empty cans of XXXX littered everywhere and dozens of stray dogs having brawls in the middle of the main strip. It's not exactly the type of place you would take your family on a holiday to but the caravan park had everything we needed, followed by an early morning departure the next day for the big drive back to home soil... back to the Sunshine State!!

Site : Borroloola Tourist Park

Rating : 7 / 20

Facilities : Basic Caravan Park. Good shady sites. $22 unpowered.