Pawaru-Grahmata

№ 102III. nodaļa

Vēžu ķīsels

Crayfish jelly

  • Serves 6 as a cold first course
  • about 4½ hours, plus setting overnight
  • Melnraksts · vēl nav izmēģināts

1796Wehschu kihsels.

Modernizētslpp. 190–191 · PDF 204–205
6 porcijas

The book gives 30 crayfish, 2 calf's feet and 1 kortelis of water, which converts to 30, 2 and about 320 ml. We keep the crayfish and feet but use far more water (see Notes).

Method

8 soļi
  1. Put the feet in a pan of cold water, bring to the boil, boil for 5 minutes, drain and rinse (our addition, for a cleaner jelly).
  2. Chill the live crayfish 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 5 minutes, as for eating. Drain. Remove the stomach sac from behind the eyes (our addition).
  3. Crush the crayfish, shells and all, in a mortar or a sturdy food processor.
  4. Melt the butter in a large pot and fry the crushed crayfish for 5 minutes. Add the feet and the 2 l water, bring to the boil and skim. Simmer gently, partly covered, for 3–4 hours, until the liquid has reduced by half and the feet are falling apart.
  5. Add the mace and chervil and simmer for 2 minutes more.
  6. Strain through a sieve lined with damp muslin or a clean cloth, pressing lightly; pressing hard makes it cloudy. Season with salt.
  7. Put a spoonful on a cold plate in the fridge for 10 minutes. If it doesn't set, reduce the liquid further, or soak 2 gelatine leaves per 500 ml in cold water, squeeze and stir them into the warm liquid.
  8. Pour into a dish or small moulds, cool quickly and refrigerate overnight to set. Turn out to serve.

Notes

What the book says vs. what we added

the book boils 30 crayfish "as for eating", pounds them fine, puts them on the fire with a little butter and 2 cleaned and chopped calf's feet, adds 1 kortelis of well water and boils it until half the water has gone, then adds ground mace and a handful of chervil, boils it up again, presses it through a firm cloth and sets it to cool in the cellar. Blanching the feet, removing the stomach sacs, the salt, the extra water and the gelatine are ours.

The water

1 kortelis (about 320 ml) won't cover two calf's feet, and half of it would boil away long before the feet give up their gelatine. The book prints it like that; perhaps it meant more, or a very small, stiff jelly. We use 2 l reduced to about 1 l.

Ķīsels here means a jelly set with the gelatine from the calf's feet, not the sweet thickened fruit drink.

Calf's feet can be ordered from a butcher; pig's trotters give a similar set.

Crayfish

buy them live and cook them the same day, discarding any that are dead. Frozen whole cooked crayfish work too: thaw them and start at step 3.

Safety

a meat jelly spoils easily. Cool it within 2 hours, keep it in the fridge and eat it within 2 days.

Serving

the book doesn't say how. Setting a few crayfish tails in the jelly would be our addition.

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