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Crayfish tart

  • Serves 6
  • about 2½ hours
  • Melnraksts · vēl nav izmēģināts

1796Wehschu karrascha.

Modernizētslpp. 334 · PDF 348
6 porcijas

The book gives 120 crayfish, 12 eggs and the crumb of 2 white loaves; it gives no amounts for the crayfish butter or the pastry. We've used a quarter.

Method

9 soļi
  1. If the crayfish are live, put them in the freezer for 20 minutes, until sluggish, then drop them head first, a few at a time, into a large pan of fast-boiling, lightly salted water. Cook for 4–5 minutes, lift out and leave to cool. Skip this step for cooked crayfish.
  2. Twist off the tails, peel them and pull out the dark intestinal thread. Crack the claws and pick out the meat. Keep the 8 best tails whole for the top and chop the rest of the meat coarsely. Keep the shells; remove the small stomach sac behind the eyes and throw it away.
  3. Make the crayfish butter as in 03-094: pound the shells in a mortar or chop them in a sturdy food processor, then cook them very gently in the 120 g butter for 15–20 minutes, stirring now and then, until the butter turns red. Don't let it brown. Strain through a muslin-lined sieve, pressing hard on the shells. Chill for 30–45 minutes, until it is soft-set like softened butter.
  4. Meanwhile, make the pastry: rub the butter into the flour and salt, add the yolk and enough water to bring it together, flatten into a disc and chill for 30 minutes. Roll it out 3 mm thick and line a 24 cm loose-bottomed tart tin; pinch or flute the rim. Chill for 20 minutes.
  5. Heat the oven to 190 °C (170 °C fan). Blind-bake the case with paper and baking beans for 15 minutes, then 5 minutes without. Turn the oven down to 175 °C (155 °C fan).
  6. Soak the bread in the milk for 10 minutes, squeeze it dry and crumble it finely.
  7. Beat the crayfish butter until creamy, then beat in the yolks one at a time. Add the bread, lemon zest, mace and salt and beat for 3–4 minutes. Stir in the chopped crayfish meat.
  8. Whisk the whites until stiff and fold them in. Pour the filling into the case and arrange the 8 whole tails on top.
  9. Bake for 30–35 minutes, until risen, golden and set; the centre should reach 72 °C. Serve warm.

Notes

What the book says vs. what we added

the book boils 120 crayfish, not too salty, shells the tails and claws, makes crayfish butter "as taught on page 185" (03-094), beats it soft as cream, adds 12 yolks four at a time, the soaked and crumbled crumb of 2 white loaves, chopped lemon zest, mace and a little salt, beats it for an hour, then adds the crayfish meat and the 12 whites beaten stiff. It is baked very slowly over coals in a decorated case of butter pastry, topped with the best tails. Killing the crayfish first, the pastry recipe, blind-baking, the oven temperature and the times are ours. An hour's beating by hand is a few minutes with a mixer.

Crayfish

for welfare and sourcing, see the notes to 04-021. If you can only get peeled tails (about 200 g), you lose the shells for the crayfish butter; use plain butter, and the tart will be paler and milder.

Scaling

120 crayfish made a large tart for a manor table. A quarter fills a 24 cm tin.

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