The Signature Abalone Kilpatrick

The Abalone Kilpatrick came about after a little picnic with a good mate of mine. We had rescued a dog the night before (long story) and the dog just happened to belong to the owners of an oyster farm on the East coast of Tasmania. We were given a couple of dozen oysters as a thank you for returning the dog safely, and decided on a little brunch date by the beach. I’d been for an early morning dive that same day and caught a few abalone. We made up the mix for some oysters kilpatrick and had a tonne of leftover sauce, so the idea of turning the abalone into kilpatrick just fell into place. Quite often, abalone can take a bit of preparation to make it tender and delicious—this recipe simply requires the abalone to be shucked, gutted, sliced, and sauced. No bashing, tenderising, long cooking times or crumbing.
The result? Thin slices of abalone in a rich smoky sauce and crispy bits of bacon to finish it all off.

Give it a go!

Take one fresh abalone:
Carefully shuck the abalone, then remove the guts, mouth, and skirt if you so wish. Thinly slice the abalone while keeping the slices together to keep the shape of the ab.

The sauce (for 1 ab):
60g fatty bacon, finely diced
2tbsp hoisin sauce
2tbsp smokey bbq sauce
2tbsp dijon mustard

Spoon the sauce over the abalone and put it into a grill (or better yet, a pizza oven at a high temp!)
At the five minute mark, check your ab, and once the sauce and bacon on top are caramelised and getting crispy, you’re good to go.
Serve it with some toasted sourdough and fresh lemon. This makes a great share dish for people you really love—because you’ll find it hard to share with anyone else!