Small Spiny Lobster Tails a la Monte Carlo (queues de Petites Langoustes a la Monte Carlo

Cut a few fresh mushrooms into large dice, and cook them with butter and lemon-juice; poach a few dozen large oysters, cut them up into three-eighths of an inch squares, and strain their broth. Cook twelve ounces of picked rice in some fish stock (No. 195), mixed with the oyster and mushroom broths, and a coffeespoonful of red pepper (No. 168); have it when done, the consistence of a Creole rice. Keep in boiling water seven or eight small spiny lobsters, each one weighing ten ounces; drain, and detach the tails from the bodies; put the latter back into the water to cook for ten minutes longer, then drain and pick out all the creamy parts. Split each tail in two lengthwise, both meat and shells, keep all the water running off from the meat, and fry these halved tails in a sautoire for five or six minutes with some oil and chopped shallots; season, and dredge over a little red pepper; moisten them to their height with good court bouillon (No. 38) and white wine, add some mushroom peelings, a garnished bunch of parsley, a lemon pulp, and two chopped tomatoes, and allow the liquid to boil rapidly for five or six minutes, then drain off the halved tails, so as to take out the meats and keep them warm. Strain the lobster broth, stir into it the water reserved from the meats, and reduce it to a half-glaze, then thicken it, first with a little veloute sauce (No. 415), and afterward with a thickening of egg-yolks, cream, and two or three spoonfuls of the creamy parts; butter the sauce off the fire without ceasing to stir. After the rice is done to perfection, pour over it a few spoonfuls of hazelnut butter (No. 567), and let it smother for five or six minutes; stir in the oysters and mushrooms; dress this rice into a vegetable dish, smooth the surface dome-shaped, and in the center stick standing three or four large crawfish; around these dress the half tails almost upright, and cover over with a little of the sauce, serving the surplus in a sauce-boat. Should the spiny lobsters have to be replaced by small ordinary lobsters, then the lobster claws must be substituted for the crawfish and be stuck into the summit of the dome.