Recipe - Laverbread And Crab Souffles With Cockle Sauce

THE SOUFFLES
1 Boiled crab; OR
6 ounce Prepared Crabmeat
6 ounce Prepared laverbread
OR nori or spinach
2 ounce Butter
2 ounce Flour
Three fourths pt Milk
3 Eggs
One half teaspoon Grated nutmeg
Salt & pepper

COCKLE SAUCE
One fourth pt White sauce from souffle mix
One fourth pt Whipping cream
4 ounce Cockles or clams (shelled)
2 ounce Prepared laverbread **

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 wellflavoured 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
1012 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

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini