Timbale de Queues d’Écrevisses à la Nantua

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •18 cm (7-inch) springform pan or shallow straight-sided timbale mold
• •Baking sheet, parchment, and pastry weights
• •Wide lidded sauté pan
• •Sturdy food processor
• •Fine-mesh sieve and small ladle
• •Two teaspoons for shaping quenelles
• •Instant-read thermometer

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the pastry

   Work the cold butter into the flour and salt until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with a few pea-sized pieces remaining. Beat the whole egg with 2 tablespoons of ice water, add it to the flour, and bring the dough together with your fingertips. If dry flour remains, add the extra water a teaspoon at a time; stop as soon as the dough holds when squeezed. Divide it into two pieces, two-thirds for the shell and one-third for the lid, flatten both, wrap, and chill for 45 minutes.

   This pastry must support a hot sauce, so tenderness and strength need to meet. Knead only two or three times to close the dough; prolonged working makes it tough, while too little water leaves cracks.
2. 2

   Bake the timbale

   Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Roll the larger dough piece to about ⅛ inch (3 mm) thick and line an 18 cm (7-inch) springform pan, carrying the pastry about 1¾ inches (4.5 cm) up the side. Chill for 10 minutes, line with parchment and weights, then bake for 20 minutes. Remove the weights and parchment, brush the interior lightly with some of the egg yolk beaten with the teaspoon of water, and bake for 7 to 9 minutes more, until dry and butter-gold. Roll the remaining dough into an 18 cm round, decorate it with simple pastry leaves cut from the scraps, brush with egg wash, and bake separately on a lined sheet for 16 to 20 minutes. If the shell develops a crack, press a thin scrap of raw dough over it with egg wash and bake for another 4 minutes. Ça se rattrape.

3. 3

   Cook the crayfish

   Melt 2 tablespoons of the unsalted butter in a wide lidded sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the Mirepoix (No. 228), then the whole crayfish, and toss until every shell has turned a distinct, brilliant red. Pull the pan away from the burner and any hood flame, add the Cognac, return the pan to the heat, and ignite it with a long match while keeping the lid beside you. Never pour brandy from its bottle near a flame. When the flame dies, add the white wine, ½ teaspoon of the salt, and the cayenne. Cover, lower the heat, and cook for 10 minutes, shaking the pan two or three times, until the tail meat is opaque.

4. 4

   Build crayfish butter

   Lift the crayfish from the pan, keeping every drop of cooking liquor and mirepoix. Twist off and peel the tails, remove the dark intestinal threads, and keep the tail meat covered. Put the heads, claws, shells, and other remains into a sturdy food processor and pulse them into a coarse paste, working in batches if necessary. Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in the sauté pan, add about one-third of the shell paste, and cook gently for 5 minutes, stirring until the butter turns deep coral. Press it through a fine-mesh sieve into a small bowl. Reserve 1 tablespoon of this crayfish butter for the quenelles, then keep the rest for finishing the sauce. Return the pressed shell material to the pan with the remaining shell paste and reserved cooking liquor. Wash and sanitize the processor bowl and blade thoroughly, then chill them before making the forcemeat.

5. 5

   Poach the quenelles

   Bring 5 cups of water to a bare tremble in a broad saucepan. In the cold processor, pulse the whiting with ¼ teaspoon of salt until smooth, then add the egg white and pulse just until absorbed. With the motor running briefly, add 3 tablespoons of cold cream, followed by the reserved tablespoon of crayfish butter. The forcemeat should be glossy, cold, and firm enough to hold on a spoon; reserve another tablespoon of cream for adjustment. Poach a teaspoonful as a test. If it spreads or turns coarse, stop and chill the forcemeat over ice for 10 minutes before pulsing it once more. If it is rubbery, pulse in the reserved cream a teaspoon at a time. Shape 8 small quenelles between two wet teaspoons and poach them without boiling for 6 to 8 minutes, turning once, until puffed, opaque, and 145°F (63°C) at the center. Drain and cover.

6. 6

   Prepare the garnish

   Put the grooved mushrooms into a small saucepan with 1 tablespoon of butter, ⅓ cup of water, the lemon juice, and a pinch of salt. Cover and simmer gently for 5 to 7 minutes, until tender but still very white. Lift them out and reserve the cooking liquor. Set aside roughly one-third of the black truffle slices for the final crown; the remaining slices belong inside the timbale.

7. 7

   Finish sauce Nantua

   Melt the final tablespoon of plain butter in a saucepan, stir in the tablespoon of flour, and cook this roux gently for 2 minutes without letting it colour. Whisk in the milk, then ¼ cup of the cold cream, and simmer for 5 minutes until smooth and thick enough to coat a spoon. Add this cream sauce to the crushed crayfish shells and their liquor, cover, and hold at the gentlest simmer for 8 minutes. Work the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve in small batches, pressing hard with a ladle until the shells are nearly dry, then discard them. Reduce the strained sauce if it runs thin; if it is too tight, loosen it with the reserved mushroom liquor a teaspoon at a time. Whisk in the remaining crayfish butter off the heat. If the sauce looks oily or split, whisk in the final tablespoon of cold cream, little by little, until the gloss returns. Taste and correct the salt.

8. 8

   Warm the filling

   Lower the oven to 325°F (165°C) and warm the empty pastry shell and its lid for 6 to 8 minutes. Meanwhile, combine the crayfish tails, quenelles, mushrooms, inner truffle slices, and 2 teaspoons of the mushroom cooking liquor in a small saucepan. Warm them gently, turning with a spoon so nothing catches, then fold in enough sauce Nantua to coat everything generously. Do not boil once the tails and quenelles are in the sauce; hard heat toughens both and can throw the butter out of the emulsion.

9. 9

   Fill and serve

   Release the hot timbale shell from its pan and set it on a warm serving plate. Spoon in the garnish and sauce, letting the surface sit generously full rather than packed tight. Arrange the reserved black truffle slices in a crown, place the pastry lid on top, and carry it straight to the table. The formal napkin underneath served the dining room, not the flavor, so leave it behind and cut the timbale while the pastry is crisp. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Whole crayfish are not negotiable here because the shells build Nantua. Peeled tails give you the garnish and steal the sauce. If raw whole crayfish cannot be sourced, use unsalted whole frozen cooked crayfish: thaw them in the cold, shell them without reheating, cook their shells with the mirepoix, wine, and Cognac, and add the tails only at the final warming. The flavor will be gentler, but the structure remains honest.
• •Whiting gives the quenelles their light, delicate body. Ask for very fresh skinless fillet and keep it, the processor bowl, the egg white, and the cream properly cold. Warm forcemeat turns greasy and loose before the poaching water can set it.
• •Fresh black truffle is magnificent only when it smells magnificent. Out of season, a good whole preserved black truffle is the classical pantry's honest answer; drain it, use the same weight, and add a teaspoon of its liquor to the garnish.
• •Serve a dry white from Bugey, preferably Chardonnay or Altesse, cool but not numbing. It belongs near Nantua and has enough freshness to meet the cream without trampling the crayfish.
• •A filled timbale waits badly. Moisture migrates into the pastry almost at once, so keep shell, garnish, and sauce separate until the guests are seated.

Advance Preparation

• •The pastry shell and decorated lid can be baked up to 8 hours ahead. Cool them completely, keep them uncovered at room temperature, and rewarm at 325°F (165°C) for 6 to 8 minutes before filling.
• •The quenelles and white mushrooms can be cooked up to 6 hours ahead, chilled promptly, and held separately. Bring them back to temperature gently in the finished sauce.
• •The sauce Nantua can be strained up to 4 hours ahead. Press parchment directly against its surface, chill it, and reheat over low heat before whisking in the final crayfish butter.
• •Do not assemble the timbale in advance. Fill it only when the sauce, garnish, and pastry shell are all hot and the table is ready.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 320g)