Crayfish soup is one of the few traditional recipes for a crayfish dish. Today, the taste and nutritional qualities of crayfish are forgotten.
The village of Chróścina, located in the municipality of Lewin Brzeski in Opolskie province, is inhabited by resettlers from the Eastern Borderlands, from where the traditional recipe for crayfish soup comes from. This recipe is still made by the inhabitants of Chróścina to this day, however, due to the difficulty in accessing the main raw material – fresh crayfish, crayfish soup is usually served on special occasions and holidays.
Traditional crayfish soup should be made from fresh crayfish. Crayfish shells are used to obtain crayfish butter, which is one of the basic ingredients of the soup.
Ingredients:
– 12 pieces of crayfish,
– 1 bunch of dill,
– 1 bunch of parsley,
– 1 liter of broth,
– 1/2 liter of cream,
– a pinch of fine iodized sea salt,
– a pinch of ground white pepper,
– croutons,
– 100 grams of butter.
Preparation
1. Finely chop the dill and parsley.
2. Boil the water and put the crayfish together with the dill and parsley into boiling water.
3. Cook for about 10 minutes, drain and pour out the water.
4. When the crayfish cool down, peel the nippers and necks from the shells, remove the notochord*.
5. Sprinkle the meat with the broth and cover it so that it does not dry out.
6. Do not throw away the red shells. Dry them in a lukewarm oven and then grind the dried shells in a food processor.
7. Heat the butter in a frying pan, add the ground shells, fry. Add a ladle of broth and cook for about 5 minutes until red fat appears on the surface of the stock. This is called “crayfish butter”.
8. Boil the rest of the broth, put a strainer over the pot and pour the “crayfish butter” through it. Put the pieces of meat from the necks and nippers. Bring it to a boil.
9. Add cream, chopped dill, and parsley and bring to a boil.
10. Season to taste with salt and possibly white pepper.
Serve with croutons and baguettes browned in butter after frying crayfish shells.
Enjoy! ?
*How to remove the notochord? Turn the fin at the end of the abdomen at a 90-degree angle and lightly jerk it towards you.