This system also ensures that the rock lobsters have not been held in tanks for months on end. Holding tanks are excellent for short-term storage but considerable skill is required to manage them perfectly and they are not ideal for long-term holding.

My association with the Australian rock lobster stems from my childhood and magical summer school holidays at Queenscliff in Victoria. My grandmother would make rock lobster curry, with Clive of India curry powder, for breakfast. For lunch there would be rock lobster sandwiches with fresh white bread from the bakery at the corner slathered in butter, loads of the leg meat she had so carefully picked rolled through feisty mayonnaise made with condensed milk and Keens hot dry English mustard powder, and white wine vinegar and crunchy iceberg lettuce.

Although my cooking is hugely distanced from those days, the thought of them still makes me salivate and it seems hard to believe now, but after about four weeks of a diet of lobster and fresh fish we were looking for other things to eat.

In 2007, a chance remark from Jordan Theodoros (Aquacaf) led to the development of an easy-to-execute green meat extraction method and a significantly improved yield, but best of all it prompted the creation of a raft of fabulous dishes including the exquisite rock lobster sashimi. From a 1kg rock lobster, we have been able to achieve 10 sashimi entrée portions and still have the head, tomalley and shell for a consommé, rock lobster jelly or cold roll wrapper.

Last year we published a list of Adelaide restaurants serving Australian southern rock lobster and I hope that this year those handful of chefs will be enlarged. None of these chefs reported any difficulty in selling rock lobster.

Australian southern rock lobster is not to be confused with the smaller, cheap (and inferior) Western Australian rock lobster, which can be found in many supermarkets, or the tropical rock lobster from Queensland and further north. Neither of the latter species have the same superb texture and taste of the south rock lobster. In fact, the small rock lobsters one sometimes sees in Adelaide restaurants are most likely not Jasus edwardsii!

Before you start this dish, read the clear instructions about the salt and ice slurry green meat extraction cooking technique (www.southernrocklobster.com). There are also heaps of great recipe ideas in the website’s recipe section for the rest of your lobster.

THAI SALAD OF SOUTHERN ROCK LOBSTER WITH PINEAPPLE, GREEN RADISH AND CHOKO

Makes 4 entrée salads

160g cooked southern rock lobster leg and knuckle meat

1 choko, peeled and julienned with a Chinese grater

½ very ripe pineapple, cleaned, cored and finely sliced

1 green radish (about the size of a small apple), peeled and julienned with a Chinese grater (if you can’t find green radish, use 4 conventional red radishes)

8 lime leaves, very finely shredded

drained glacé chilli strands — recipe follows

½ bunch each coriander, mint, Thai basil and laksa mint, washed and leafed

freshly and finely grated galangal (approx 4g)

100g shallots, finely sliced and crisped in hot oil

80g roasted crushed peanuts or walnuts (optional)

1 butter lettuce or similar soft curly lettuce leaves, washed and dried

DRESSING (Mix everything together keep refrigerated)

65g fresh strained lemon or lime juice?

17g rock lobster oil?

25g shaved palm sugar?

17g lemongrass – very soft inner part, very finely chopped?

17g fish sauce – if using a very concentrated fish sauce, use half water and half fish sauce?

17g garlic, peeled weight, very finely grated?

3 Thai chillies with seeds, very finely chopped

Method

Gently mix everything except the lettuce together. Place the largest leaves at the bottom of the plate; add about one third of the salad and repeat the process. Pull some of the herbs to the top and serve immediately.

FOR THE GLACÉ CHILLI

12 large red chillies

250ml Vine Valley white wine vinegar or similar high-quality white wine vinegar

250g caster sugar

Method

Cut the stalk ends from the chillies, split them in half and then use a small knife to remove the seeds and julienne them. Rinse them in a wide colander to remove any odd seeds. Put the sugar and vinegar in to a saucepan and place it on low heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, then add the chilli. Cook on the lowest possible heat until the chilli is shiny and translucent. Drain the syrup into a jar – we use it as a base for dipping sauces, but it is not used in this dish.