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Lobster Croustades (to Serve Hot)
Mix 1 cupful of very finely minced lobster-meat with a tablespoonful of lemon juice, a dash of cayenne, and a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce. Mash well together with a fork. Add 1/2 cupful of rich cream sauce and 2 or 3 truffles sliced or cut fine. Mix well. Prepare croustades by cutting slices of bread rather thick; then, with a cutter, cut into squares, rounds, or heart shapes without any of the crust. Scoop out the centres, leaving the bottom and sides at least a quarter of an inch thick. Brush these over or dip them in melted butter, and brown quickly in the oven. Put the mixture for filling in a saucepan and heat thoroughly and fill the cases. Have the coral of the lobster mashed fine and seasoned with lemon juice and paprika, and sprinkle over the tops.
A hot canapé from the era when entrées meant small savoury dishes served between courses. Nothing here is difficult, but several of the components assume a kitchen that broke down whole lobsters daily.
- Start with cooked lobsterThe recipe assumes cooked meat picked from the shell, as does the coral. A 1-1/4 lb lobster yields roughly a cup of picked meat; two 4 oz tails will do if you are not after the coral.
- Coral, and what to do without itCoral is the roe of a female lobster, black-green when raw and turning coral red once cooked. It is rarely available at a fish counter. Without it, a dusting of paprika over the filling gives the colour the garnish was there for.
- Rich cream sauceA thick béchamel or velouté enriched with cream, made stiff enough to mound. Roughly one tablespoon each butter and flour to a half cup of liquid. A thin sauce will soak the croustades from the inside.
- TrufflesTwo or three truffles is an extravagance by modern standards. A teaspoon of good truffle paste, or finely chopped brown mushrooms cooked dry, keeps the dish in proportion.
- Oven for the casesThe recipe says only 'brown quickly'; a hot oven, around 425F, answers that. Watch them; buttered bread walls a quarter inch thick colour in five to eight minutes and burn shortly after.
- Cut the bread the day beforeSlightly stale bread, cut on the thick side as the recipe asks, holds its shape under the cutter. Fresh bread tears when you scoop the centres.
- Heat the filling gentlyReheat to steaming only. Lobster that is boiled in the sauce goes firm and stringy, and the shellfish flavour flattens.
- Assemble at the last momentFill the cases as they go to the table, or the crisp interior softens within a few minutes.
- YieldA cup of lobster with the sauce fills about twelve two-inch cases, enough for six as a first course.