Recipe and instructions
Home Discover Gastronomy and skills Quenelle in Nantua sauce Recipe & instructions for making quenelle in Nantua sauce. Veritable Nantua quenelles are made from durum wheat semolina paste with the addition of pike fillets, beef fat and fresh eggs (no colourings or preservatives). To receive the “quenelle de brochet” (“pike quenelle”) appellation, the quenelle must be at least 22% pike. If it contains any less pike, it is called “quenelle à base de brochet” (“pike-based quenelle”).
ingredients
- Carrots, onions and celery
- Crayfish cooked in broth
- Butter
- Hazelnut oil
- Water
Recipe
The crayfish are what give the Nantua sauce all its flavour.
Heat the hazelnut oil in a pan.
Add the carrots, onions and celery, cut into pieces.
Brown while stirring regularly.
Add the crayfish carcasses after separating the tails, which can be used for another dish.
Stir well.
Leave to cook for 30 minutes, stirring from time to time.
Add butter.
Mix well and leave to simmer.
The flavour of the crayfish mingles with the melted butter.
After cooking for 2 or 3 hours, the carcasses are broken down.
Pour water into the pan.
Strain this preparation, pressing all the ingredients well.
The juices gathered in this way are put in the refrigerator; the butter stays on the surface and solidifies.
This makes crayfish butter with a totally natural orange colour.
Using the crayfish butter
- Either spread thinly on warm toast, as is, or with the addition of trout, salmon or lumpfish roe
- Or when cooking fish fillets: melt the butter on a low heat, add the fish (monkfish, fera, cod, white fish) and brown under supervision, then add seasoning to finish (not suitable for sole, turbot or salmon)
ingredients
- Durum wheat semolina, which gives the Nolo quenelle its lightness and honeycombed appearance (as opposed to a quenelle made from flour)
- Animal fat (beef fat: healthier than vegetable fat as far smaller amounts are required)
- Eggs
- Paste left to mature for around 72 hours
- Add to the paste: pike fillets, fat, UHT milk, eggs
Recipe :
For a more pronounced taste, add pike meat and mix well.
Soften the butter in a bain-marie and mix into an even paste.
This butter en pommade is added to the pike paste.
Add the eggs to the above mixture.
Mix in the blender to obtain an even paste.
Place this quenelle paste onto a large dish.
Smooth the paste and leave in the fridge for one or two days so it can harden.
Weigh out and prepare small piles of quenelle paste.
Hand-roll these small piles into balls on a flour-covered work surface.
Flatten the ball by hand while rolling it.
Put water to heat in a large saucepan.
Dip the quenelles into the simmering water and leave to poach for 20 minutes.
Drain the quenelles and place them in a baking dish.
Cover with Nantua sauce and bake for 5 min at 200° for a crispy top.
Can equivalents
- ¼ can for 2 people,
- ½ can for 4 people
- 1/1 can for 8 people
recipe
Minimum proportion of 7% crayfish butter in relation to the milk, i.e. 70g butter for 1 litre of milk.
Make a béchamel base with as little flour as possible and with whole milk, add the crayfish butter and whip into an emulsion.
You can add a little crayfish butter to enhance the taste and colour, while continuing to whip the mixture.
For a thicker sauce, add a little corn starch mixed in a little milk beforehand.
It can be thickened (especially in the case of a ½ can) with whole cream and crayfish butter sold in 40 g verrines, while keeping the ratio of 7% crayfish butter.
did you know ?
Nantua sauce also goes very well with all white fish.
Informations
Office de Tourisme Haut-Bugey
Espace Trois Lacs 14 rue du docteur Mercier – 01130 NANTUA
Tél. +33 (0)4 74 12 11 57