Thai Abalone

Super simple campfire recipe that tastes gourmet, but uses only a handful of ingredients

Ingredients:
One Abalone
One can of Coconut Milk
1-3 tsp red thai curry paste
2 cloves Garlic
2-3 Shallots
A handful of chopped cilantro
Salt to taste
Olive Oil

The trick with the recipe is my method for tenderizing abalone.  The abs need to still be alive, so don't ice them too much or store them in fresh water.  I usually go abs on the bottom, a layer of kelp, and ice in bags over that.  Other people have good methods that work, so feel free to do it how you like, just don't kill those snails!  The trick to ending up with nice, soft ab meat is to cleanly and quickly pop them out of their shells, immediately put the ab meat and intact guts in the leg of an old pair of jeans with one end tied up or a thick sack of some sort, and whack the ab hard on flat pavement.  Do it about five times and feel it to see if it is soft.  Keep going until it starts to feel softer.  If you got the ab in the bag quickly enough, the pounding you give it should relax the muscle before it seizes up hard.  Don't pound too much, or some of the meat will start to get almost runny.  Take the ab out, wash it, and trim the guts and accessory parts as you usually would, so that you are left with a clean, soft muscle. Take the clean ab and score it with cuts that are approx. 1/2 the thickness of the ab steak and 1 inch apart.  Score on both sides of the ab. Try to vary the location and direction of the cuts so that you on don't cut the steak in half.  On a grill and under direct but not crazy-hot heat (think hamburger tempurature), put one relatively clean ab shell algae side down and and lay two sheets of aluminum foil over it with plenty room on all sides to create an essentially leak-proof packet of foil.  Push the foil down in the countours of the shell to create a "bowl".   Spray or pour a Tbsp or so of olive oil in the shell and put the garlic and shallots in the oil.  A couple sips of beer later, lay the ab over the garlic and shallots and pour a well blended mixture of the coconut milk and curry paste.  To test hotness, try the mixture before you pour and add more paste to make it stupid hot if you like.  Wrap the ab with foil that hangs over the edges and cook about 8-10 minutes after you first start to see steam coming out of the foil, which will probably be 15-20 minutes total.  If your fire is very hot, monitor every 4 mins or so to make sure you don't boil off all of your delicious liquid.  Remove right away if it starts drying up.  This dish is hard to under cook, but can get overcooked if you construct a leaky foil package or cook it too hot.  When it looks done, pop open the foil and sprinkle the cilantro over the top.  Enjoy!

sounds good

"put the ab meat and intact guts in the leg of an old pair of jeans with one end tied up or a thick sack of some sort, and whack the ab hard on flat pavement"

Isn't it will be messy with the guts intact?  I BBQ whole Ab using this method but without the guts and it came out just fine!  Can you tell me the reason of leaving the guts intact?

great sounding recipe. So, you score the ab steaks then, or the whole foot? I like the in-the-shell cooking method!

"put the ab meat and intact guts in the leg of an old pair of jeans with one end tied up or a thick sack of some sort, and whack the ab hard on flat pavement"

Isn't it will be messy with the guts intact?  I BBQ whole Ab using this method but without the guts and it came out just fine!  Can you tell me the reason of leaving the guts intact?

Yeah, that part sounds strange to me. I would remove the guts, first, but that's just me.

Sounds easy and tasty, by the way great idea on how to pound an abalone .

Yes, leaving the guts in is messy, but it all washes off just fine.  The reason I do it is that as soon as you gut the guts off, the meat hardening really accelerates dramatically.  I have found that the less you disturb the ab, the less it will harden.  If you to it right, the ab steak will be as soft as a big slab of ham.  It's heavenly. . .

I cook the whole foot whole, and that's what I score.  Good luck and good eating.