Aspic de Queues d'Écrevisses à la Moderne (Modern Aspic of Crayfish Tails)

Ingredients

• 36 fine crayfish
• 4 décilitres jelly
• 2 décilitres cream
• truffle
• 1 small round truffle
• jelly

Instructions

1. Cook 36 fine crayfish by the method à la Bordelaise, replacing the white wine with Champagne.
2. Remove and shell the tails, trim them, split them lengthwise in two and keep them cool.
3. Take the creamy parts from the shells and add the trimmings of the tails, the flesh of the claws and the Mirepoix from the cooking.
4. Pound the whole finely and pass through a fine sieve.
5. Add 4 décilitres of melted, cold jelly and 2 décilitres of half-whipped cream to the purée, and let the composition firm up.
6. Trim the crayfish shells, fill them with a little of the Mousse and set a small round of truffle in the middle of each.
7. Build the rest of the Mousse into a cone in the centre of a small crystal bowl, narrow at the base and as high as possible.
8. Range the filled shells around the base of the cone, back down on the Mousse.
9. Build the half tails up along the cone in superimposed rows, dipping each in half-set jelly so it adheres at once.
10. Set 1 small round truffle on the summit of the cone.
11. Coat the whole several times with a spoon with limpid, half-set jelly.
12. At serving, embed the bowl in a block of ice, or set it on a dish with snow ice around it.