Ingredients (recipe for 4 servings)

For the sole

• 1.8kg sole (900g/ piece)
• 10g black truffles
• Pinch of French sea salt “Fleur de sel”
• 40g slightly-salted butter
• 40g truffle perfume crust

For the truffle crouton (100g)

• 45g butter
• 40g bread crumbs
• 16g minced truffle
• 10g puree of truffles (below)
• 2g garlic

For the truffle puree (150g)

• 150g truffle
• 0.5cl truffle oil

For the truffle-scented spinach (220g)

• 180g spinach
• 30g truffles diced small
• 50g cream
• 10g butter
• 10g truffle oil
• 45g shallots, chopped
• Salt and pepper

For the champagne sauce (1.3 litres)

• 110g butter
• 200g mushroom of Paris, sliced
• 5g course-ground pepper
• 100g shallots, sliced
• 50g celery
• 10g lovage, sliced
• 75dl champagne
• 200g lobster claws
• 2dl shellfish jus
• 5dl cream
• 40g lemon

For the clarified consommé (600ml)

• 50g green part of leek
• 150g sole trimmings
• 1 very matured tomato, about 60g
• 80g egg white
• French sea salt "Fleur de sel"

For the consommé of sole (1 litre)

• Sole bones
• 40g butter
• 50g shallots
• 50g onions
• 100g mushrooms
• 1 pc tip of thyme
• ½ pc laurel leaf
• 60cl water
• 40cl Champagne
• ¼ cac chilli
• Parsley stems
• French sea salt “Fleur de sel”

For the crawfish (1.5kg)

• 5kg big ‘red-legged’ crawfish
• 500g concentrated fumet of crawfish (below)
• 5l court bouillon (nage écrevisse, below)
• 1g ascorbic acid

For the nage ecrevisse (5 litres)

• 5cl white vinegar
• 100g coarse grained salt
• 5g white pepper in grain
• 5g coriander in grain
• 15g dry fennel
• 75g lemon
• 8g garlic

For the fumet of crawfish (700g)

• 8 pc big ‘red-legged’ crawfish
• 40 pcs crawfish heads
• 6cl olive oil
• 60g butter
• 80g butter of fennel
• 20g garlic
• 120g very matured tomato
• 50g tomato paste
• 10cl dry white wine
• 10cl cognac
• 50cl fumet of lobster (below)
• 30cl water
• 1pc scent bouquet (tails of parsley, thyme, ½ laurel leaf)
• 5g dry fennel
• ½ bunch basil
• 2g black pepper

For the lobster fumet (700g)

• 6 heads lobster without shell
• 100g fresh fennel
• 100g white onions
• 12g garlic
• 500g tomato
• 30g tomato concentrate
• 4cl fine champagne
• 10cl olive oil
• 80g butter
• 1 bunch fresh basil
• Pepper grains
• wild fennel

To finish (per serving)

• 1 pc Sole
• 50g Truffle-Scented Spinach
• 30g Champagne Sauce
• 50g Consommé of Sole
• 20g Mushroom of Paris
• 5g truffles
• 45g Crawfish

Method

For the lobster fumet

1. Cut the entire lobster bisque and the lobster heads into large round slices. Cook in a cast-iron casserole with some olive oil.
2. Add butter and caramelize. Add onions, fresh fennel and garlic with skin. Sweat without browning, then add the tomato paste and fresh tomatoes and let stew to remove the acidity.
3. Deglaze with some brandy, reduce the liquid.
4. Moisten with concentrated fumet, add the dry fennel and cook for 40 minutes over low heat.
5. While cooking, skim off the impurities without removing the grease.
6. Add the crushed pepper grains and the basil bouquet and leave simmering for 20 minutes on the corner of the heat source.
7. Drain the stock of carcasses, and then crush them in a fat-masher and filter.

For the crawfish fumet

1. Cut the crayfish into small regular cubes, heat the olive oil in a cast-iron casserole and sauté quickly with the crayfish heads.
2. Add the garlic cloves and the pre-cut aromatic garnish. Sweat for 3 minutes, then add the tomato paste and caramelize everything in butter.
3. Deglaze with the cognac and the white wine. Let the alcohol evaporate and add the fumet of lobster and some water so that the crayfish is completely covered.
4. Add the bouquet of aromatic herbs and the dry fennel and cook for 30 minutes.
5. At the end of the cooking, add a half-bunch of basil and the grains of black pepper and leave to infuse for 15 minutes.
6. Pass all ingredients through a fat-masher to extract the maximum flavour and filter through a sieve.
7. To make the concentrated fumet, cook to reduce to 130ml.

For the court bouillon of crawfish (Nage écrevisse)

1. Cook all ingredients together with 5 litres of water.

For the crawfish

1. Bring 4 litres of court bouillon to the boil.
2. Kill and clean the crayfish. Boil in the court bouillon, normally around 2 minutes to reach boiling point.
3. Shell immediately. Keep the crayfish tails in 1 litre of cold bouillon with 1g of ascorbic acid. Reserve in a vacuum bag, on ice. When needed, roll the crayfish in the concentrated fumet of crayfish.

For the sole consommé

1. Drain the fish bones over a sieve.
2. Wash, drain and sieve the mushroom trimmings.
3. Peel, wash and chop the onions and the shallots in a regular size.
4.  Make an aromatic bouquet with parsley stems, the thyme and the laurel-leaves. Melt the butter in a casserole, add the aromatic bouquet, and sweat without colouring.
5. Add the fish bones and cook gently for 5 minutes without colouring.
6. Moisten with cold water and the champagne; add the bouquet, the sliced mushrooms and some salt. Bring to boil.
7. Simmer gently for 20 minutes and skim as often as possible.
8. As soon as the cooking time is over, remove the pan from the heat, add pepper and let the consommé settle for 10 minutes.

For the clarified consommé

1. Wash the green part of leek and pat dry.
2. Remove the stem of the tomato, wash, cut the tomato into quarters and remove the seeds.
3. Mince the sole trimmings, leek and tomato finely. Add the egg white, lightly season with sea salt and mix vigorously.
4. Transfer the sole consommé to a pan high enough to skim off the scum. Stir constantly until it boils.
5. Gently simmer for 10 minutes on the edge of the stove so that a cap is formed for clarifying the stock.
6. Adjust the seasoning; filter the stock through muslin placed over a stainless steel container. Cool immediately.

For the champagne sauce

1. Quickly fry the lobster claws in butter without browning.
2. Add the shallots and celery, sweat on the corner of the stove. Deglaze with half of the champagne. Reduce half of the jus.
3. Add the sliced mushrooms, the shellfish juice, and the cream and concentrated fumet. Cook for 30 minutes over low heat.
4. Add the lovage and the pepper. Leave to infuse for 20 minutes.
5. Filter, store in freezing compartment. To use, heat the preparation to 80°C, season. Add the rest of the champagne and 40g of emulsified butter.

For the truffle scented spinach

1. Blanch the spinach in salted water (20g salt/L).
2. Cool, drain, squeeze and finely chop the spinach.
3. Sweat the shallots in butter and oil. Add the diced truffles, pour in the cream, cook for 5 minutes and add the chopped spinach.
4. Correct the seasoning and set aside.

For the truffle puree

1. Sweat the truffle in a little olive oil. Moisten with mineral water and cook, covered, over low heat for 20 minutes.
2. After cooking, mix the truffles with the cooking juices in a thermo blender to obtain smooth puree.

For the truffle croutons

1. Melt the butter in a frying pan, add breadcrumbs and stir constantly with a whisk until golden.
2. Remove from heat and cool over ice. Before it is completely cooled, add the chopped truffle, the truffle puree, the chopped garlic and a tour of the milled pepper.
3. Spread the crust between two sheets of baking paper. Make sure that it is regular and as thin as possible. Let harden.
4. Cut out a rectangle 12cm x 3cm and store in the freezer.

For the sole

1. Clean and gut the sole. Remove the white and grey skins. Fillet and remove delicately the outside membrane with a thin-bladed knife.
2. Flatten the fillets by placing them between 2 plastic sheets, which have been previously moistened to prevent the meat from sticking to the plastic sheets.
3. Spread the thicker fillet (from the side opposite the stomach) on a board. Butter the fillet lightly, season with a little French salt and lay down slices of truffle.
4. Season again with some French sea salt and put the other fillet on upper part of the truffles.
5. Roll the fillets by enveloping them tightly in plastic wrap for vacuum cooking (pressure at 3.2/welding 7).
6. Immerse the vacuum bag of fillets in a bath at 85°C for 5 minutes, and then leave the fillets in the vacuum bags to rest for 2 minutes.
7. Remove the fillets from the bag. Put the truffle crouton on upper and brown lightly under the broiler.
8. Bevel the sole.

To finish

1. Put the truffle-scented spinach in the centre of a Reynaud rectangular plate. Put the sole on upper of the spinach.
2. Spray the plate with the emulsified Champagne sauce.
3. Put 3 frozen crayfish in a separate bowl.
4. Decorate with a thin julienne of truffle and sticks of mushroom.
5. Serve the broth in a transparent sauce boat.
6. Decorate the plate with chervil and truffle juliennes.

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