I finally got round to getting myself some crocodile fillet at Borough last weekend. My crazy diet is going to bankrupt me soon!

I had tried this meat once before at Archipelago, a great restaurant near Tottenham Court Road. I think they'd served it with some yellow bean dressing and called it “Cayman Islands.” It tasted good, despite the daft name.

That happened about 2 years ago so I couldn't quite remember what the meat was like. Most internet sites describe it as a cross between chicken and fish. I guess that makes sense since crocs eat fish and are closely related to birds. Since I had more of that fantastic Brindisa chorizo in my fridge, I thought that a variation on the ever popular chicken and chorizo skewers would work well.

Some people say crocodile has a delicate flavour. Others call it bland. I thought the latter was a more accurate description. It's not as bad as chicken and there is a slight hint of fishiness to it but I wouldn't buy it for its flavour alone. The texture, on the other hand, was great. It's a bit like monkfish, but more meaty. I suppose it's similar to lobster too.

Some of my crocodile chunks picked up the chorizo oils and tasted like that. The others just tasted subtley of the paprika I'd dusted them with. Either way, the skewers were good and went well with the roasted red pepper sauce I made.

I served them with a pearl barley salad, an idea I shamelessly nicked from What We’re Eating (link on the sidebar). I also had courgette, panfried in a mint butter.

This was the first time I tried pearl barley outside of soup. It took ages to cook but was very nice. I don't think it's really a carbohydrate but it's a good enough substitute! I mixed it up with some olives, mushrooms and sundried tomatoes and made a lemon and basil oil dressing. I managed to over-lemon the salad slightly but it was balanced well by the red pepper sauce, so it was ok.

Here is the recipe for crocodile and chorizo skewers with red pepper dipping sauce.