CookEat Recipe
Crab Cutlets with Tomato Sauce
Crisp crab-meat cutlets with cream, mustard and Worcestershire, served with hot tomato sauce.
Method
Steps
Step 1
For the tomato sauce, dice the four ounces lean raw ham, slice two carrots and two onions, and chop one leek, two parsley branches, one celery branch, one green pepper and one garlic clove. Melt two ounces butter in a large saucepan. Add the ham and these vegetables with two cloves, one teaspoon whole peppercorns, half a bay-leaf sprig, half a thyme sprig, one tablespoon salt and one light tablespoon icing sugar. Cook over brisk heat for about twelve minutes, stirring, until lightly browned.
Step 2
Stir the four tablespoons flour into the sauce pan and cook for five minutes. Add the two quarts fresh ripe red tomatoes cut into quarters and one quart cold water. Mix, cover and simmer very gently for one and a half hours, stirring occasionally. The diced ham must be thoroughly cooked; check that its centre reaches 70°C for two minutes.
Step 3
Press the sauce through a sieve and then strain through clean food-safe cheesecloth. Measure the actual finished sauce portion needed below and keep it hot for immediate use. Divide the unused sauce into small shallow containers, cool rapidly and refrigerate at 40°F or colder within two hours; freeze for longer storage.
Step 4
Heat the separate one ounce butter in a saucepan, add the finely chopped small white onion and brown gently for three minutes. Stir in two ounces flour for one minute, then gradually whisk in one and a half gills cream until boiling.
Step 5
Add half a teaspoon chopped parsley, remaining half garlic clove finely chopped, one tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, half a teaspoon Dijon mustard, half a teaspoon salt, one saltspoon cayenne, one saltspoon grated nutmeg and two commercially pasteurized egg-yolk equivalents. Whisk over gentle heat for about two minutes until the mixture reaches 160°F and the flour is fully cooked.
Step 6
Check the one and a half pounds chilled fully cooked ready-to-eat crab flakes for shell and cartilage. Fold into the sauce gently without crushing and heat for about two minutes, continuing until hot throughout to 74°C. Spread in a clean shallow food-safe container, cool rapidly over external ice and refrigerate at 40°F or colder within two hours, until cold and firm enough to shape.
Step 7
Divide the whole cold mixture into six equal portions and shape as cutlets. Dip in beaten commercially pasteurized egg, then coat in fresh breadcrumbs. Discard leftover coating materials and keep the cutlets cold until frying.
Step 8
Heat enough canola oil in suitable deep-frying equipment without overfilling. Fry the cutlets in small batches for about ten minutes until golden, the centres reach 74°C and the coating is fully cooked. Drain well on clean food-safe paper. Serve promptly on a hot dish with washed parsley and one actual gill of the hot finished tomato sauce separately.
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