Patés with crayfish and remoulade
Se dice que a Adina Mandlová le gustaba servir patés en sus fiestas. Decidimos añadir cangrejos de río, que aún abundaban en los libros de cocina y en las aguas de la Primera República, y una remoulade basada en la cocina clásica de pescado de Jindřich Vaňha.
- 2 packs of puff pastry
- 1 egg
- 1 kg of crayfish
- 3 g capary
- 1 pc pickled cucumber
- 2 pcs anchovies (canned)
- 75 ml mayonnaise
- kerb pink
- 2 sprigs tarragon
- parsley
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- Preheat the oven to 220 °C. Roll out the puff pastry and cut out 27 circles with a diameter of 6–7 cm and arrange them on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Cut out the centers of two thirds (i.e. 18) of the circles with a cookie cutter so that the circles have an approx. 1 cm edge. Brush the full circles with beaten egg, place 2 circles (on top of each other) with the center cut out to create a bowl and brush with egg as well. Bake until golden brown, this takes about 10–15 minutes. Let cool and carefully flatten the center slightly if necessary.
- Meanwhile, prepare the remoulade. Finely chop the capers and cucumbers, squeeze out the liquid. Add to the mayonnaise along with the chopped anchovy slices. Stir in the herbs and mustard.
- Place the baked puff pastry bowls on a plate and divide the remoulade and peeled crayfish between them. Garnish with herbs and lemon, or other ingredients used in the remoulade. SOMETHING EXTRA You can get meat from the tails of crayfish, which can be peeled in a similar way to shrimp. For larger pieces, you can use a nutcracker to extract meat from the claws, but there is not much of it and it has a flat, hard bone in the middle.
It is said that Adina Mandlová liked to serve pâtés at her parties. We decided to add crayfish, which were still abundant in the cookbooks and waters of the First Republic, and a remoulade based on the classic fish cuisine by Jindřich Vaňha. Since stone crayfish have since become a rarity and a protected species, you don't have to worry about cooking them. Red crayfish or others that are available frozen in our country are usually already pre-cooked and you just have to 'shell' them. However, expect that from 1 kilogram of small crayfish you will get just enough meat for these appetizers and a little extra for dessert. But the taste experience is worth it!