Nantua Sauce
Ingredients
- First you have to make a flavoured butter: Take 250g (8oz) of butter
- and soften it to room temperature, or beat it to make it pliable.
- Using a wooden spoon or pestle work it inot the prepared flavouring
- of your choice. Using a flexible scraper press the butter through
- a very fine meshed drum sieve. Use the butter immediately of cover
- and refrigerate. For Crayfish butter: Poach 250g (8oz) of live
- crayfish in a court bouillon for 5 to 10 minutes, then let them
- cool in their cooking liquid. Pull of the tail of each crayfish,
- shell it and reserve the tail meat for a garnish or main dish.
- Place the shells and heads in a mortar and pound them to a creamy
- paste. Pass this paste through the medium or coarse disc of a food
- mill to remove fragments of shell, then pass this puree through a
- fine sieve. Work in the softened butter. Sieve the butter again if
- necessary.
Instructions
Make 30cl (0.5pint) of white sauce and stir in 10cl (3.5 fl oz) of cream. Off the heat stir in 40g (1.5oz) of crayfish butter and if you like a garnish of crayfish tails. Serve with poached white fish or use the sauce to make a gratin of crayfish tails. (or lobster of course).