Pawaru-Grahmata

№ 52III. nodaļa

Storu ikrus ar vēžu sulu

Poached fish roe with crayfish butter

  • Serves 4 as a starter
  • about 1½ hours, plus chilling
  • Melnraksts · vēl nav izmēģināts

1796Stohru ikrus ar wehschu sullu.

Modernizētslpp. 162–163 · PDF 176–177
4 porcijas

The book gives no quantities; the amounts below are ours.

Method

8 soļi
  1. Crayfish: if they are live, chill them in the freezer for 20 minutes, then drop them head first, a few at a time, into a large pan of fast-boiling salted water and cook for 4–5 minutes. Drain and leave until cool enough to handle.
  2. Twist off the tails, peel them and pull out the dark thread. Keep the tails covered in the fridge.
  3. Remove the small stomach sac behind the eyes (our addition). Pound the heads, shells and claws in a mortar, or chop them in a sturdy food processor.
  4. Melt the butter in a pan and fry the pounded shells over medium-low heat for 10 minutes, stirring, until the butter is orange-red. Tip into a sieve lined with muslin, squeeze out as much butter as you can, and chill it until firm, about 30 minutes. This is the crayfish butter.
  5. Roe: rinse the roe sacs and wrap each loosely in muslin or baking parchment so that it holds together. Put it into a pan of salted water (10 g per litre) and heat until the water barely trembles. Poach for 20–25 minutes, until firm and pale all the way through (63 °C in the centre). Drain in a colander.
  6. When the roe has cooled a little, peel off the membrane and cut or break it into bite-sized pieces.
  7. Bring the broth to a simmer in a wide pan, add the roe and simmer gently for 5 minutes. Add about 60 g of the crayfish butter and the crayfish tails, and swirl until the butter has melted and the tails are hot. Season.
  8. Lift into a warm dish with the sauce, put the tails on top, squeeze the lemon juice over and lay the lemon peel around the edge.

Notes

What the book says vs. what we added

the half-hour boil of the roe in salted water, the crayfish butter made from the pounded shells, the second boil in meat broth with that butter, and the tails, lemon juice and lemon peel on top are all the book's. Killing the crayfish first, the muslin, the amounts and the second, shorter boil time are ours.

The roe

sturgeon roe was a common food in 18th-century Courland; today it is caviar, sold salted and far too precious to boil. Fresh roe in the sac from other fish is the practical substitute: cod roe is sold in Nordic and Baltic markets in late winter, and carp and pike roe are sometimes found in spring. Boiled, it has a grainy texture like a firm pâté. If you can get unsalted roe from a sturgeon farm, use it the same way.

Crayfish

see 01-035 for handling live crayfish. Freshwater crayfish should be killed quickly in boiling water, not pounded alive.

Leftover crayfish butter keeps for a week in the fridge and can be frozen; it is good stirred into fish soups and sauces.

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