Eggs Nantua

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon salpicon (finely diced mixture) of crayfish tails
• 3 whole crayfish tails, beautiful specimens
• 1 thin slice truffle
• as needed Nantua sauce (crayfish-based béchamel)
• 2 whole small crayfish shells, stuffed

Instructions

1. BAKED IN THE SHELL (Sur le plat):
2. Line the bottom of the serving dish with a tablespoon of salpicon of crayfish tails. Break the eggs directly onto this base and cook until set. Once cooked, surround each yolk with 3 beautiful crayfish tails and top with a thin slice of truffle. Border the entire dish with a ribbon of Nantua sauce (crayfish-based béchamel). Optionally, add 2 small stuffed crayfish shells as additional garnish.
3. POACHED OR SOFT-BOILED (Pochés ou Mollets):
4. Line tartlet shells with salpicon of crayfish tails bound with Nantua sauce. Coat the poached or soft-boiled eggs with Nantua sauce, decorate each with a cross made from 2 crayfish tails sliced lengthwise, and arrange on the filled tartlet shells.
5. COLD PREPARATION (Froids):
6. Prepare eggs in barrel shape, as for Eggs Moscovite, and hollow them the same way. Fill with salpicon of crayfish tails bound with Mayonnaise enriched with a purée made from the crayfish carcasses and trimmings (strained through fine cloth), piling the mixture in a dome above the egg-white rim. Decorate each egg with four half crayfish tails and 4 truffle diamonds, then coat with aspic jelly several times in succession. Arrange the filled eggs on artichoke bottoms, garnished with the same crayfish purée Mayonnaise.