Mousse Froide d'Écrevisses (Cold Crayfish Mousse)

Ingredients

• 36 medium crayfish
• 45 grammes ordinary butter
• 30 grammes Beurre rouge
• 1 and a half décilitres cold fish Velouté
• 1 décilitre melted jelly
• 4 décilitres cream
• truffle
• semolina or rice
• chopped jelly
• white paper

Instructions

1. Cook 36 medium crayfish as for bisque.
2. As soon as they are cooked, remove and shell the tails, and set aside 12 of the finest shells.
3. Pound finely everything that remains, including the Mirepoix from the cooking.
4. Add 45 grammes of ordinary butter, 30 grammes of Beurre rouge, 1 and a half décilitres of cold fish Velouté and 1 décilitre of melted jelly, and pass through the tammy.
5. Turn the composition into a saucepan, work it on ice for a few minutes, then incorporate 4 décilitres of half-whipped cream and the crayfish tails cut in dice or finely escaloped.
6. Set aside enough of the composition to garnish the crayfish shells.
7. Pour the rest into a Charlotte mould lined with white paper and keep it in the ice chest or a cool place until dressing.
8. Garnish the well-trimmed crayfish shells with the reserved composition and decorate each with a round of truffle.
9. At serving, turn the Mousse out onto a low pad of semolina or rice set on the serving dish and remove the lining paper.
10. Decorate the top with a crown of truffle slices dipped in melted jelly.
11. Surround the pad with a band of chopped jelly and range the crayfish shells along it, almost upright.
12. Alternatively, mould the Mousse in the false bottom of a soufflé timbale to within a centimetre of the edges; when set, decorate with crayfish tails and truffle slices, cover with limpid, barely set jelly, fill the space between timbale and false bottom with crushed ice at the last moment, and serve on a dish covered with a folded napkin.