For ten people cook thirty crayfish as for potage Bisque. This done, remove the tails, and reserve a dozen fine carapaces. Finely pound the remainder, together with the [mirepoix] in which the crayfish have cooked, and add thereto one-half oz. of butter, one oz. of red butter (No. [142]), one-quarter pint of cold fish velouté, and six tablespoonfuls of melted fish jelly. Rub through tammy, and put the resulting purée in a saucepan; stir it over ice for two or three minutes; add three-quarters pint of half-beaten cream, and the crayfish tails cut into dice or finely sliced.
Before beginning to prepare the [mousse], line the bottom and side of a Charlotte-mould with paper, that the [mousse] may be moulded as soon as ready.
Pour the preparation into the mould, taking care to reserve enough for the twelve carapaces already put aside, and put the [mousse] on ice or in a refrigerator until dishing it. Fill the twelve trimmed carapaces with the reserved [mousse], and decorate each with a round slice of truffle. When about to serve, turn out the [mousse] on a small, round cushion of semolina or rice, one-half inch thick, lying on a dish. Remove all the paper, and decorate the top of the [mousse] with a crown of fine slices of truffle dipped in melted jelly, that they may be glossy.
Surround the semolina or rice cushion with a border of chopped jelly, and arrange the garnished carapaces upon this jelly, setting them almost upright.
N.B.—(1) Instead of being served on a cushion, the crayfish [mousse] may be sent to the table in a deep silver dish with a border of chopped jelly, and surrounded by the garnished carapaces. The utensil is then laid on a flat dish in a bed of broken ice, or it is incrusted direct in a block of carved ice.
(2) For the moulding of crayfish [mousse], the mould may be “[clothed]” with fish jelly and decorated with slices of truffle, as directed under “Mousse de Homard moulée” (No. [957]).
A [mousse] prepared in this way may be either dished on a semolina or rice cushion, or in a deep silver entrée dish, as described above.
[332]
][976a—SUPRÊMES D’ÉCREVISSES AU CHAMPAGNE]
Select forty medium-sized crayfish that seem full of life; cook them quickly in a highly-seasoned [mirepoix], moistened with one half-bottle of dry champagne. This done, shell them; trim their tails, and keep them in the cool in a small bowl. Pound their shells as finely as possible with one-quarter lb. of fresh butter, and put the resulting purée in a saucepan, together with one-half pint of boiling velouté containing four or five leaves of gelatine, and the cooking-liquor of the crayfish passed through a fine strainer.
Set to boil for a few minutes, that the remains may exude all their flavour; rub through tammy over a basin lying on ice, and whisk the preparation in order to accelerate its cooling. As soon as it begins to thicken, add one pint of half-whipped cream to it. Then pour the whole into a silver or porcelain timbale, taking care that the utensil be not more than three-quarters full.