CookEat Recipe
Little-Neck Clam Vol-au-Vent
Hot little-neck clams in an egg-and-cream sauce, served with one covered baked puff-pastry case.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Keep one prepared baked vol-au-vent case and its own lid warm. Use forty-eight freshly shucked raw little-neck clam meats with their retained shucking liquor, kept cold until cooking. Keep raw seafood and its utensils separate from the ready baked case.
Step 2
Put all the clam meats and their own liquor in a saucepan with half a pint of water. Bring to a boil and skim the surface. Strain the broth into a clean bowl, retaining all the clam meats separately for the sauce.
Step 3
Heat one ounce of butter with two ounces of flour in a saucepan, stirring continuously for one minute.
Step 4
Measure one and a half gills of the recovered clam broth. Use this actual measured amount; do not estimate it or make up a short recovery with extra water or bought broth. Stir it into the roux with half a gill of milk, one gill of cream, two tablespoons of sherry, three saltspoons of salt, one saltspoon of cayenne and one saltspoon of grated nutmeg. Stir until the sauce boils.
Step 5
Return all the clam meats to the sauce. Mix and boil for about five minutes as a guide, checking that the clam meats and sauce reach 74°C.
Step 6
Mix two egg yolks with the separate two tablespoons of cream. Gradually stir a little hot sauce into them, then stir the mixture back into the saucepan with the juice from a quarter lemon.
Step 7
Stir gently over the heat without boiling for about two minutes as a guide, continuing as necessary until the filling throughout reaches 74°C. Remove from the heat.
Step 8
Put the warm baked case on a large hot dish. Fill it with the hot clam mixture without overflowing, put its own lid on and serve immediately. Serve all actual remaining filling, if any, immediately alongside on the hot dish. Keep all the clam meats and sauce for this service.
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