The crunch of the outside, thin as crisps, and the soft potato within, infused with the shell of caramelized butter that encases the whole thing, tall as a pudding bowl — this is old-style Cordon Bleu cuisine, the kind of thing Audrey Hepburn would have had to learn in Paris as Sabrina, and as Gigi would have eaten.
The process involves removing the snails from their shell, cleaning and boiling them, then stuffing the shell with a mixture of butter, herbs, garlic and the meat before baking them.
In Venice, the razor clams are half the width of those sold here, sometimes no longer than three inches, and served grilled on the half shell with a gloss of butter.
Signe Johansen, Scandilicious Baking (Saltyard) It's very often the simplest ideas that sing the most sweetly... Serves 3 175-250g pasta shells A generous knob of butter 125g-175g cheesecheese 2-3 tbsparmesanan, grated, plus extra to serve 60g walnuts, roughly chopped 1 Cook the pasta shells according to the packet instructions.
In cold months, I make a rich, ruddy, complex sauce flavored with roasted lobster shells, tomato and a touch of butter and cream, then toss it with wide, tender pappardelle.
Keep refrigerated until ready to use. 4. Place some of the leek mixture and 1 teaspoon of butter into each scallop shell.
1tbsp olive oil 120-150g chorizo chorizo 12 scallops, cleaned, attached to the cupped half shell 60-80g butter A handful of hedgerow garlic, chopped (or you can use garlic chives) Salt and freshly ground black pepper Remove the skin from the chorizo and chop finely.
6 oysters, shucked and shells and juices reserved A good knob of butter 2 rashers of rindless, smoked streaky bacon, finely chopped 2 shallots, peeled and roughly chopped 150g spinach, picked, washed and cooked in boiling, salted water for 3 minutes 120-150ml double cream 1tbsp grated Parmesan In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, gently cook the bacon in the butter for 2-3 minutes without colouring.
French husband-and-wife team Frédéric Soulies, a graduate of the L'Ecole de Boulangerie Patisserie de Paris, and Fabienne Soulies are using family recipes and lots of butter to make homemade pastry shells, criossants and merveilles. .
Crush the shells lightly in a bag using a rolling pin, then heat a couple of knobs of butter in a heavy-based saucepan and fry the shells and shallots for two minutes on a medium heat, stirring as they are cooking.
