Some people seem to have an overly morbid fear of being eating alive by crocodiles. Well; this recipe is for them. You won’t be eaten by a crocodile if you get in first and turn the tables on the crocodile by having it for lunch or dinner first.

Ingredients

• 500 Gram of Lean Crocodile Tail
• 2 Limes
• 1 Cup each of Soda Water and Self Raising Flour
• ½ Cup of Corn Flour
• 3 Teaspoons of Lemon Myrtle
• Freshly Ground Sea Salt and Black Pepper

Method

Thinly slice the crocodile tail meat and cut the limes into halves

Preparing the Tempura Batter:

Whenever making a tempura batter it is always best to thoroughly sift and combine the dry ingredients (lemon myrtle, corn flour and self raising flour in this recipe) prior to adding the liquid ingredients. So it is that we will follow this advice and do so by:

1. Add the lemon myrtle, corn flour and self raising flour to sifter and then sifting them thoroughly into a glass mixing bowl or even into a stainless steel mixing bowl
2. After the first sifting pass return the dry ingredients to the sifter and resift them. Continue repeating this procedure until there are no longer any lumps in the mix and the ingredients are thoroughly combined.
3. The next step is to combine the wet and the dry ingredients. Do this by gradually whisking the soda water into the dry ingredients. Note that it is critical that you gradually add the soda water to the dry ingredients and not vice versa.
4. Once these ingredients are combined; season the mixture with freshly ground sea salt and black pepper. Do remember to keep stirring as you do so.
5. Continue stirring until you are satisfied that all of these ingredients are thoroughly combined and evenly dispersed throughout the mixture

Cooking

1. Preheat Wok and Cooking Oil – Add enough oil to the wok so that all of the battered crocodile pieces will be covered by the oil when they get added to the wok. Bring the wok up to frying temperature.
2. Battering the Crocodile Pieces – Once the wok and oil are ready to go dunk your thinly sliced crocodile tail strips into the batter. Turn the pieces over a few times to ensure that all pieces are evenly coated in batter.
3. Frying the Battered Crocodile Pieces – Transfer battered crocodile meat strips to a large wok and fry until golden brown. This usually takes around 2½ minutes. You may need to extend this frying time depending upon the thickness of the crocodile strips and the thickness of their batter coating as well as the temperature at which you are frying them and the size of your wok.
4. Draining – Once done remove the crocodile pieces and place onto a cover rack standing over a drip tray (to collect the oil that runs off the crocodile pieces). Once oil is no longer dripping off of the crocodile pieces you might want to consider transferring them to absorbent paper towels to remove the very last traces of oil.

Serving

Whenever serving tempura crocodile as an appetizer or entrée it is a good idea for it to be accompanied by aioli; which is a mayonnaise flavored with garlic, also used to garnish fish and vegetables.

Making Aioli:

Aioli Ingredients – The ingredients required to make Aioli are: 200 Milliliters of Roasted Garlic Oil, 2 Egg Yolks, 1 Tablespoon of Tarragon Vinegar and 2 Teaspoons of Freshly Squeezed Lime Juice

The most commonly used method for making aioli is as follows:

1. Start by selecting a medium sized mixing bowl. Add in the egg yolks and tarragon vinegar. Then whisk until the egg yolks and tarragon vinegar are well and truly combined
2. Now gradually add the garlic oil to the egg yolk tarragon vinegar mixture in a slow but steady stream whisking all the while
3. Once all of the garlic oil has been added do not stop whisking. You must continue with the whisking until the mixture takes on a thick consistency.
4. With the aioli now at the right consistency gently stir in the lime juice