Quenelles de Brochet Sauce Nantua: The Lyonnaise Dumpling Art

Ingredients

• For the pike forcemeat
• 500 g pike fillet, all skin, bone, and sinew removed
• 125 g choux paste or bread panade, cooled completely before use
• 2 eggs, whole, cold
• 100 g unsalted butter, cold, cut into small pieces
• 100 ml double cream, cold
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• 1 tsp white pepper, freshly ground
• For poaching
• 1.5 litres fish stock or court-bouillon, lightly salted, kept at a bare simmer
• For sauce Nantua — béchamel base
• 40 g unsalted butter
• 40 g plain flour
• 500 ml whole milk, warm
• 100 ml double cream, for finishing
• For sauce Nantua — crayfish butter
• 200 g live or freshly cooked crayfish, shells reserved after removing tail meat; tail meat reserved for garnish
• 150 g unsalted butter, softened, for pounding with shells

Method

1. 1
   Make the crayfish butter first. Pound the reserved crayfish shells in a mortar — or pulse in a food processor — with the softened butter until the mixture is a uniform, deeply coloured paste and the butter has turned salmon-pink, carrying the full carotenoid pigment from the chitin. Pass through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing firmly. Refrigerate until set. The butter is ready when it is firm, evenly pink throughout, and smells of concentrated crustacean.
2. 2
   Set a bowl over ice. Pound the pike fillet — traditionally in a mortar, now in a food processor — with the cooled panade until a cohesive paste begins to form. Add the eggs one at a time, then work in the cold butter piece by piece. Pass the entire mixture through a fine tamis (drum sieve) into the chilled bowl. Any grain, any fibre, any lump remaining in the sieve must be discarded. The forcemeat is ready when it is absolutely smooth, holds a soft peak when lifted on a spatula, and shows no trace of texture.
3. 3
   With the bowl still on ice, fold the cold double cream into the forcemeat in a thin, steady stream, working quickly so the mixture never warms. Season with salt and white pepper. To test the seasoning and consistency, poach a small spoonful in simmering salted water: it should rise to the surface, hold its oval shape, and taste fully seasoned. Adjust and retest before shaping the full batch.
4. 4
   Shape the quenelles using two large wet spoons, forming smooth ovals of even size. Lower them gently into lightly simmering fish stock or court-bouillon — never a rolling boil. Poach until they have swelled noticeably and roll freely in the liquid, firm to a very gentle press. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on a clean cloth.
5. 5
   Make the béchamel: melt the butter in a heavy saucepan, stir in the flour, and cook over moderate heat until the roux smells faintly biscuity but shows no colour. Add the warm milk in stages, whisking constantly, and cook until the sauce coats the back of a spoon thickly and no floury taste remains.
6. 6
   Off the heat, whisk the crayfish butter into the béchamel in pieces until fully incorporated and the sauce turns an even salmon-pink. Stir in the double cream. Return briefly to a low heat and adjust seasoning. The sauce is ready when it is glossy, uniformly coloured, and the crustacean flavour is present in every mouthful without the sauce being heavy.
7. 7
   Arrange the poached quenelles in a warmed gratin dish or individual dishes. Nap generously with sauce Nantua and scatter the reserved crayfish tail meat over the top. Serve immediately: the dish is ready when the sauce is steaming, the quenelles are just trembling beneath their coating, and the salmon-pink gloss shows no separation.