Côtelettes de Homard Arkangel

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Digital kitchen scale
• •Eight shallow 3-tablespoon (45 mL) cutlet or oval silicone moulds
• •Kitchen shears
• •Small heavy saucepan
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Wire rack and rimmed tray
• •Soft pastry brush
• •Chilled round serving platter

Instructions

1. 1

   Make lobster butter

   Cut the reserved lobster shell into small pieces with kitchen shears. Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter over the lowest heat, add the shell and any coral, and cook gently for 8 minutes, stirring, until the butter turns rosy and smells distinctly of lobster. Keep it below browning; if the foam races, pull the pan off the heat until it settles. Strain through a fine sieve, pressing lightly, and reserve 1 tablespoon of this lobster butter for finishing the sauce.

2. 2

   Fold and mould

   Pat the lobster dice dry and weigh them against the caviare: each must be exactly 80 g. Fold them together gently to make the salpicon, keeping the caviare intact. Add the 160 g of chilled Mousse de Homard (No. 956), exactly equal to the combined weight of lobster and caviare, and fold just until evenly distributed. Brush eight shallow cutlet or oval moulds with an even film of oil, leaving no pools, then pack in the mixture without air pockets and level the tops. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours, until completely firm.

   Use a scale. Caviare is half the salpicon by weight, not a decorative spoonful, and the mousse must equal the combined weight of both principal ingredients.

   Without cutlet moulds, press the mixture about ¾ inch (2 cm) deep in a small plastic-lined tray. Chill it firm, then cut eight tapered ovals with a paper template and a thin knife.
3. 3

   Set the aspic

   Sprinkle 2 teaspoons of the gelatin over 2 tablespoons of the cold water and leave it for 5 minutes. Warm 1¼ cups of the fish stock until hot but not boiling, remove it from the heat, and stir in the swollen gelatin until perfectly clear. Strain it. Pour ¾ cup into a shallow dish for the chopped white jelly and ½ cup into a small bowl for glazing. Chill both until firmly set, about 2 hours.

4. 4

   Build the chaud-froid

   Bloom the remaining 1 teaspoon gelatin in the remaining 1 tablespoon cold water. Melt the remaining 1 tablespoon plain butter in a small saucepan, stir in the flour, and cook gently for 2 minutes without colouring. Add the remaining ¾ cup fish stock in several additions, whisking each one smooth before the next, then simmer gently for 5 minutes until the sauce nappes, or coats, the back of a spoon. Stir in the cream and cook for 2 minutes more. Off the heat, dissolve in the bloomed gelatin, then whisk in the reserved lobster butter as the final addition. Season cautiously with white pepper and only enough salt to make the sauce distinct once cold, remembering that the caviare is already well salted. Strain into a bowl and cool, stirring often, until it falls from the spoon in a slow, opaque ribbon. If it runs like milk, chill it briefly; if it begins setting in the bowl, warm it for a few seconds over barely warm water. Ça se rattrape.

5. 5

   Coat the côtelettes

   Set a wire rack over a rimmed tray. Unmould the thoroughly chilled côtelettes and place them on the rack with space between them. Spoon the thickened chaud-froid over each one from the centre outward, letting it flow down the sides in one smooth layer. Cover any bare spot immediately with another spoonful, but don't keep working the surface once it begins to set. Chill for 20 to 30 minutes, until the coating is firm and dry enough to touch lightly.

6. 6

   Decorate and glaze

   Lay one fine grooved truffle slice on each coated côtelettes. Melt the reserved bowl of aspic over barely warm water, then cool it until liquid but beginning to gain body. Brush a thin, even coat over the cutlets and truffle. The aspic should cling without forming puddles; if it runs straight off, cool it a little longer, and if it sets on the brush, warm it by a few degrees. Chill the glazed côtelettes for at least 30 minutes.

7. 7

   Arrange and serve

   Chop the aspic from the shallow dish into fine, irregular crystals. Arrange the eight côtelettes in a circle on a chilled round platter, with their tapered ends pointing outward, and mound the chopped white jelly in the centre. Carry the Russian salad to the table in a separate bowl, as the original service requires. Keep everything properly cold until the moment of serving. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Farmed sturgeon caviare gives the proper fine bead and saline depth. Salmon roe is larger, softer, and sweeter; it changes both the texture and the identity of the salpicon.
• •Choose a clean, pale fish stock without tomato or strongly browned shells. The chaud-froid should remain ivory with a rosy cast from the lobster butter, not turn beige or muddy.
• •Oil the moulds evenly, then inspect them under the light. A dry patch catches the mousse, while a pool leaves a greasy crater in the finished surface.
• •The coating consistency matters more than a thermometer. It should leave the spoon in a broad ribbon and cover its back opaquely; thin sauce exposes the cutlet, while half-set sauce forms ridges.
• •Serve with a dry brut Champagne. Its acidity clears the butter, cream, and caviare without competing with the lobster.

Advance Preparation

• •Prepare and chill the Mousse de Homard (No. 956) according to its own entry before beginning; its preparation time is separate from the times listed here.
• •The fish aspic can be made and set a day ahead. Keep it covered so it doesn't absorb refrigerator aromas.
• •The moulded salpicon can be prepared up to a day ahead. Coat and glaze the côtelettes on the morning of service, then keep them covered and refrigerated at 40°F (4°C) or colder.
• •Prepare the Russian salad a day ahead so it is completely cold and settled before serving. Do not freeze the côtelettes, as freezing damages the mousse and makes the aspic weep.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 285g)