Martyn Nail’s Cornish lobster
Claridge's Executive Chef Martyn Nail has created a number of dishes to celebrate our favourite seasonal greens. We're delighted he has exclusively shared his recipe for Clarence Court egg, British asparagus & Cornish lobster to try at home - a true culinary creation.
Method
Cut the rye bread into a circle and remove the centre. Remove the avocado skin and stone. Crush in a bowl add salt and a little lemon zest.
Cook the asparagus in salted boiling water. Plunge into ice water immediately after removing from the pan. Remove the tips and cut the middles into lozenges.
Place a small frying pan on a moderate heat. Add some goat’s butter and add the egg. Fry until soft. Lightly season and remove from the pan.
To the same pan add the asparagus and morels and warm for 2 minutes.
Place the béarnaise sauce in a piping bag. Meanwhile, warm the bisque in a small pan.
Toast the rye bread and place on a warm plate. Place the avocado in the centre of the toast. To finish, place the egg on top, arrange the warm morels and asparagus around the egg, finish with the herb’s and small dots of bisque and béarnaise sauce.
For the Bisque:
Add half of the butter to a heavy-based saucepan and place over a high heat. Add the lobster shells and gently caramelize.
Add half of the brandy, flame and leave to reduce for 2 minutes. Add the remaining butter and brandy. Reduce the heat to medium, add the carrot, fennel and onion and sweat for 4 minutes. Stir in the tomato puree and cook for 3 minutes. Add the white wine and reduce for 2 minutes. Stir in the flour, then add the hot stock. Mix well. Add the garlic, star anise and lemon grass. Bring to the boil, skim and cook for 40 minutes.
Remove from the heat and add the tarragon sprigs. Leave to stand for 5 minutes before passing through the sieve.
Over a medium heat, reduce the lobster bisque by half, to about 80ml, 8 minutes or so. Leave to cool.
For the Béarnaise Sauce:
To make the vinegar reduction, place all the ingredients in a small saucepan and gently reduce by half to 2 tablespoons. Leave to cool and then strain.
Whisk the egg yolks in a heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water until they start to thicken slightly and become frothy. Gradually add a little of the warm clarified butter, then continue slowly adding the remaining butter, occasionally adding about one teaspoon of hot water to the mixture as necessary (it will thicken as the butter is added and may need to be loosened in order to take more butter).
Finally add the cooled vinegar reduction and the chopped tarragon to taste, then season and keep warm until ready to use.
Ingredients
1 Clarence Court egg of your choice
½ Cornish lobster cooked and removed from the shell
2 pieces of asparagus
30g Goats butter
2 Morels cleaned and cut into small slices
1 slice of rye bread toasted
½ avocado
3 buckler sorrel
3 nasturtiums
3 pea shoots
1 lemon
Table salt
20ml Bisque*
10ml Béarnaise sauce*
For the Bisque:
50g salted butter
200g lobster shells
150ml brandy
30g peeled chopped carrot
30g peeled chopped onion
30g peeled chopped fennel
12g tomato puree
50 ml white wine
12g plain flour
½ litre hot double chicken stock
1 unpeeled garlic clove
2 star anise
1 chopped lemon grass stalk
4 tarragon sprigs
For the Béarnaise Sauce:
25g Clarence Court egg yolks
125g clarified butter warmed
4 tarragon sprigs leaves picked and finely chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
For the vinegar reduction:
30ml good quality white wine vinegar
5g finely chopped shallots
2 white peppercorns
4 tarragon sprigs