THE SOUFFLES
1 boiled crab, -or- prepared crabmeat
6 oz prepared laverbread or- nori or spi, nach
2 oz butter
2 oz flour
3/4 pt milk
3 eggs
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
1 salt & pepper
COCKLE SAUCE
1/4 pt white sauce from souffle mix
1/4 pt whipping cream
4 oz cockles or clams (shelled)
2 oz prepared laverbread **
Directions
If the crab is whole, pull the body apart and pick out all the meat -
discarding only the mouthpiece and the grey "dead man's fingers" that
fringe the inside carapace. For extra flavour, make a stock with crab
shell, flavoured with a piece of carrot and a quarter of onion, and
boil down to a couple of well-flavoured tablespoons which can replace
the equivalent milk in the basic white sauce given above.
Prepare the white sauce; melt the butter in a small pan. Stir in the
flour and fry gently until the mixture is still pale but sandy. Whisk
in the milk slowly, beating till you have a thick sauce. Simmer for 5
minutes. Preheat the oven to 400 F (200 C) gas mark 6. Stir the
crabmeat and prepared laverbread into the sauce. Season with salt,
pepper and nutmeg. Separate the eggs. Beat the whites until quite
stiff. By now the sauce will be cool enough to stir in the yolks.
Fold in the whites, turning well to "tire" the mixture. Taste and
adjust the seasoning. Butter eight small souffle dishes and spoon in
the mixture, leaving a finger's worth for expansion. Bake for 10-12
minutes until puffed up and golden.
Meanwhile make the cockle sauce. Heat up the reserved white sauce
with the cream. Stir in the cockles and laverbread. Season with the
salt and freshly milled pepper. Serve with the souffles as soon as
they are ready.
Source: Elisabeth Luard in "Country Living" (British), April 1989.
Typed for you by Karen Mintzias
Servings: 8 servings
Laverbread & Crab Souffles With Cockle Sauce Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Bread; Breads; Casserole; Crab; Egg
The History of Recipes
Experts have found proof that recipes existed way back into ancient history, certainly as far back into recorded history as ancient Egypt, and maybe further still. In practice though, in the main part, these ancient cookbooks were just simple pictorial instructions for preparing food.
Interestingly, the oldest recipe in existence, according to academics is a collection of ancient tablets in ancient Sumerian which recount the baking of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made anyone who drank it feel `blissful`. Closer to modern times, we have a couple of cookery books which date from the 14th Century - a cookery book entitled `Forme of Cury`, and another, similary entitled `Curye on Inglish`. The titles are a little misleading though, they are nothing to do with the curry that is popular today, but rather accounts of the types of meals on the tables of the nobility of those days. During the succeeding few centuries, the wealthy families of Europe competed to lay on the most exotic meals, and as a consequence, the best cooks and their recipes were much in demand. Notwithstanding that, it was during the 1800s that cooking and recipe collections rose to prominence. The Famous Mrs Isabella Beeton in the UK, and the equally famous Fannie Farmer in the US, dedicated the best years of their lives to collating, testing, and writing down recipes to allow everyone to enjoy them. Like it or not, the introduction of television brought us TV cooks and the recipe books that accompanied them. And that pretty much brings us to the present day and the invention of the internet, allowing everyone to search through massive numbers of recipes like those on this site. |
We hope you enjoy this Laverbread & Crab Souffles With Cockle Sauce recipe.
