Homard Cardinal

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large stockpot required by Homard Bouilli à la Hollandaise (No. 941)
• •Heavy chef's knife
• •Sturdy kitchen shears or lobster crackers
• •Digital kitchen scale
• •Two small saucepans
• •Shallow pan and saucepan for a warm water bath
• •Large oval broiler-safe porcelain or metal serving dish

Instructions

1. 1

   Ready the components

   Prepare the two Homard Bouilli à la Hollandaise (No. 941) according to its own entry, timing them to remain hot for assembly. Bring the Sauce Cardinal and lobster sauce to serving heat over gentle water baths, never a boil. Set an oven rack about 6 inches (15 cm) beneath the broiler, place a large broiler-safe oval dish nearby, and heat the broiler to its fiercest setting.

   The broiler will glaze the dish, not warm its cold center. Keep the lobster and both sauces hot, but never simmer the meat in sauce or it will tighten.
2. 2

   Open the lobsters

   As soon as each Homard Bouilli à la Hollandaise (No. 941) is cooked, cut it cleanly in half lengthwise. Remove each tail in one piece and slice it crosswise into even medallions about 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) thick. Disconnect the claws, open their inner sides with sturdy shears, and withdraw the meat without breaking the claw shells. Keep all four half-carapaces and the four opened claws intact.

3. 3

   Hold the tail

   Spread about 3/4 cup (180 ml / 190 g) of the hot Sauce Cardinal in a shallow warm pan and lay in the tail slices, turning them once so every surface receives a thin coating. Cover and hold the pan over barely warm water, off direct heat. If the sauce tightens around the lobster, loosen it with a spoonful of hot water; the slices should remain lacquered, not buried in paste.

4. 4

   Build the salpicon

   Dice the claw meat and any creamy parts from the carapaces that are safe to use under local seafood guidance, then weigh them together. Add exactly the same weight of diced cooked mushrooms and half that weight of diced truffle. This is the salpicon, a finely diced mixture cohered with sauce. Fold in the hot lobster sauce a tablespoon at a time, using only enough to bind the dice into a moist mixture that holds on a spoon. If it becomes loose, ça se rattrape: drain away the excess sauce through a fine sieve, return the solids to the pan, and bind them with a little less sauce.

5. 5

   Fill the shells

   Set the four half-carapaces in the broiler-safe dish. Spread the salpicon evenly across their bottoms, reserving 1/4 cup (60 ml / about 60 g) for the emptied claws. Pack that reserve into the four claw shells. Arrange the coated tail medallions over the salpicon, alternating them with the fine truffle slices so the tail still reads as a continuous lobster.

6. 6

   Reconstruct the dish

   Stand the shell halves at a slight upright angle, using the filled claws as wedges, just as the original service requires. Spoon the remaining hot Sauce Cardinal over the exposed tail slices and filled claws in an even veil. Sprinkle with the grated Gruyère, then trickle the melted butter across the surface. We don't apologize for butter; here it helps the fierce heat produce the fast, glossy glaze the dish needs.

7. 7

   Glaze under fire

   Slide the dish beneath the fully heated broiler and watch without turning away. Glaze for 1 to 3 minutes, only until the cheese takes small golden freckles, the sauce bubbles at the edges, and the butter shines across the surface. If the sauce begins to look oily or dull, remove it at once. Ça se rattrape: blot away any separated fat, veil the spot with a spoonful of reserved hot Sauce Cardinal, and return it beneath the broiler for no more than 15 seconds.

8. 8

   Serve at once

   Carry the Homard Cardinal directly to the table in its oval dish. Give each diner one filled half-shell and one claw, making certain the truffled salpicon beneath the tail comes with it. This dish waits for nobody, and happily nobody waits once it appears. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Ask the fishmonger for hard-shell lobsters of equal size so they cook at the same rate and yield firm, full claws. Uneven specimens turn the final assembly into a small arithmetic problem when you have quite enough to do.
• •The salpicon ratio belongs to the source and must be weighed after the lobsters are opened: mushrooms equal the combined claw meat and usable creamy parts, diced truffle half that weight. The scale matters more than an approximate cup measure.
• •Fresh black truffle is magnificent when its season and your purse agree. A good whole preserved truffle, drained and dried before dicing, is the classical pantry's honest answer at other times; truffle oil cannot provide the required pieces or texture.
• •Lobster tomalley can concentrate marine contaminants. Use the creamy parts only when local seafood guidance approves lobster viscera from that harvest area; otherwise omit them and calculate the mushroom and truffle weights from the claw meat alone.
• •Serve a dry white Burgundy or brut Champagne. The wine needs freshness for the cream and butter, but enough body to remain present beside lobster and truffle.

Advance Preparation

• •The Sauce Cardinal and lobster sauce may be made earlier in the day, covered closely, and reheated over gentle water baths. Do not boil either sauce, or its cream and butter may separate.
• •Cook and dice the mushrooms and prepare the diced and sliced truffles several hours ahead. Keep each covered separately in the cold, then let them lose their chill while the lobsters cook.
• •Prepare the Homard Bouilli à la Hollandaise (No. 941) as close to assembly as possible. Once the lobster is sliced and sauced, prolonged holding only toughens it; complete the salpicon and broiler setup first.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 345g)