Mousseline of Frog Legs with Fresh Pasta
Pale and elegant, Roberto Gerometta’s appetizer combines delicate frog leg mousseline with buttery pasta and a crayfish garnish. Frog leg cream sauce is used to nap the mousseline molds and pool the plates.
Ingredients
- Sauce and Mousseline
- Unsalted Butter - 7 tablespoons
- Shallots - 2, chopped
- Frog Legs - 3 pounds
- Dry white wine - 1/2 bottle
- Salt and freshly ground white pepper
- Heavy (whipping) cream - 1 pint
- Sole Fillet
- Egg - 1
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- Pasta
- Olive Oil - 1 tablespoon
- Fresh Pasta - 1/2 pound, such as fettuccine or angel hair
- Unsalted Butter - 3 tablespoons
- Salt and freshly ground white pepper
- Crayfish - 4, boiled
- Veal Demi-Glace - 1/2 cup, warmed
- Chives - 4, chopped
Instructions
To prepare the sauce and mousseline molds: In a saute pan, heat 2 tablespoons of the butter. Saute the shallots until golden brown. Add half of the frog legs, wine, salt, and pepper. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Strain, debone, and reserve the leg meat. Put the strained stock back in the pan with 1/4 cup of the cream, and simmer until reduced by half. Set aside; keep warm.
Debone the remaining frog legs. Place in a meat grinder or food processor with the sole and grind thoroughly. Add the egg, and 1 cup of the cream; adjust seasoning to taste. Puree the mixture until smooth; set aside in the refrigerator.
Preheat the oven to 400 F. Butter four 3-inch molds. Put the mousseline in a pastry bag fitted with a large smooth tip and fill the molds, leaving a hollow in the center. Fill the centers with the reserved frog leg meat. Top with more mousseline. Tamp gently to remove trapped air bubbles. Place in a roasting pan and add 1 inch of hot water. Place a piece of buttered parchment paper on top of each mold. Bake 15 minutes, until set.
Bring the reserved sauce to a boil. Add the remaining cream to adjust consistency (if the sauce is too thick, thin with white wine). Whisk in the remaining butter, a few pieces at a time, and the lemon juice. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Keep warm over tepid water.
To prepare the pasta: Bring a pan of salted water to a boil and add the tablespoon of olive oil. Add the pasta and cook al dente, about 1-1/2 minutes. Drain and cool under running water. Set aside.
To serve: Saute the pasta in 3 tablespoons of butter and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. Unmold a mousseline in the center of each warmed serving plate. Spoon sauce over and around the mousseline molds. Put the warmed veal demi-glace in a squeeze bottle and draw a spiral in the sauce at the three o’clock and nine o’clock positions on each plate. Using a toothpick or the point of a sharp knife, pull from the centers of the spirals outward around each spiral to create radial patterns. Make a small mound of pasta at the twelve o’clock position on each plate; put a crawfish at six o’clock. Sprinkle the tops of the molds with a few chives.
