Crayfish soup alla Mayer

Ingredients for 2 servings:

• 2 kg crayfish, live
• 3 liters of water
• 1 bunch of soup vegetables
• 5 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp, heaped peppercorns, white
• 1 tbsp, heaped sea salt, coarse
• 10 large dill (dill crowns)
• 250 ml oil for frying the roots
• 3 carrots
• ¼ celery root
• 3 onions
• 3 parsley roots
• 20 cm spring onion(s), only the white part
• 2 tbsp, heaped tomato paste
• 200 ml cognac
• 1 liter dry white wine
• 1 ½ liters of fish stock
• 500 ml cream
• 1 tbsp, heaped flour
• some butter, cold
• some salt
• some pepper, white
• some cayenne pepper

Instructions

Working time approx. 2 hours; Cooking/baking time approx. 1 hour 30 minutes; Total time approx. 3 hours 30 minutes

The unsurpassable, classic preparation

Simmer the cooking liquid made from water, spices, and dill crowns for 20 minutes. Add the crayfish to the boiling liquid and cook for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat. Allow the crayfish to cool in the liquid. Then remove the crab meat from the tails and claws and set aside. Crush the crayfish shells well in a mortar. Roast the coarsely diced root vegetables with the crushed crayfish shells in a pan until well browned. Continue roasting briefly with a little tomato paste. Deglaze with cognac and flambé. Then pour in the white wine, boil for 3 minutes. Pour in the fish stock, and simmer everything for at least 1 hour 30 minutes to extract the full flavor from the shells. Strain, reserving the liquid and discarding the shells and roots. Reduce the liquid to the desired volume. Boil down this liquid, which has a strong crayfish flavor, with cream and thicken with a little cold flour butter. Season with salt, white pepper, a little cayenne pepper, and cognac. Pour the hot soup over the crab meat. Garnish with half-whipped cream and fresh dill. This is a quick way to prepare it, but the flavor is nowhere near as good as the classic method. Boil Langbein’s crab paste with water and cream, season as above, and serve with supermarket crab meat. It’s ready in 5 minutes.