Salmon Darne Nesselrode

Ingredients

• 1 salmon darne (thick cross-section steak)
• raw lobster mousse (Mousse crue de homard)
• hot-water pastry dough (pâte à l'eau chaude)
• thin sheets of lard (bardes de lard)
• American sauce (sauce à l'Américaine)
• fine oysters (huîtres fines)
• butter

Instructions

1. Remove the central bone and all interior bones from the salmon darne. Stuff it with raw lobster mousse (Mousse crue de homard) reinforced with a little pike forcemeat (farce de brochet).
2. Line a round, smooth pâté mold well buttered with a thin sheet of hot-water pastry dough (pâte à l'eau chaude), prepared in advance and kept very firm. Line the interior of the mold with thin sheets of lard (bardes). Place the stuffed darne upright inside. Seal the mold with a matching sheet of pastry dough, make an opening for steam, and bake in a very hot oven.
3. When the pâté emerges from the oven, turn it upside down to allow the melted lard and internal juices to drain out, but do not unmold. Then slide it onto the serving plate and remove the mold. The crust is broken only at the table.
4. Serve separately an American sauce (sauce à l'Américaine) made from the trimmings of the lobster whose meat was used for the mousse, finished with cream and garnished with fine oysters (huîtres fines) whose beards have been removed and which are poached at the last moment.