Butter poached lobster with cannellini beans & celery by David Moyle

THE METHOD

Directly from David Moyle:

"Start by soaking of the beans for 24 hours if they are dried, less if they are fresh (ideally), and cook them in the same water. There’s a texture that comes off the water you soak the beans in, so don’t tip the water off. It’s almost a stock in itself. Add kombu and a slice of garlic and cook slowly, tasting until ready. (A couple of hours)

For this dish, I’ll use the water off those beans to make a sauce with roasted shells, tomato and fennel and so on.

I poach the meat from the crayfish for about 2 minutes in a broth of 60% butter, 40% rice wine or sake, but you can use white wine or water too. Let it sit in the broth after it’s cooked for an additional 10 minutes. 

Spoon beans into middle of shallow bowl, lift lobster out of the butter, and place on beans. 

Top with shaved heart of celery dressed liberally in a great quality olive oil. "

THE RECIPE

Ingredients

• 1 crayfish
• 5 large ripe tomatoes 
• 1 onion
• 1 head fennel
• 80ml olive oil
• 80ml sake
• 80gm butter

The beans: 

• 300g dried small white beans
• 1/2 clove garlic
• 1 piece kombu
• 1 head celery
• 30ml olive oil
• salt and pepper

Method

• Start by soaking the beans in water for at least 12 hours or overnight
• Cook the beans in the same water by bringing the beans up to the boil then turn the heat down to low simmer, add the garlic and konbu and cook gently for 2 hours
• Turn the heat off and cool the beans in the liquid then strain the liquid for use in the crayfish stock
• Prepare the crayfish by placing it live into a freezer for 30 minutes, then cut the carapace in half lengthways starting with the blade behind the eyes. Remove the tail and blanch in boiling water for 10 seconds before letting cool, then pull the meat from the shell. 
• Keep all of the shells and head and remove the filters from the head then chop all of the shell up into pieces. Place all of these pieces into a heavy based pot with the tomatoes, fennel, onion and olive oil and cook over a medium heat for 20 minutes or until all of the liquid has evaporated and all that is left is oil. Add the water off the drained white beans together with enough fresh water to make up to 1lt boil rapidly for 20 minutes then strain.
• Add the sake and bring up to the boil. Whisk in the butter and season this stock with salt and pepper
• Drop the crayfish tail in this liquid at about 90 degrees and remove the pot from the heat
• peel the outside celery stems off to reveal the heart or the 4 or 5 inner stems that are more pale yellow
• Shave the celery then douse in the good quality olive oil, season with salt and pepper
• Plate the room temperature beans topped with the crayfish and then the shaved celery next to it. Finish with a couple of spoons of the poaching liquid and serve with bread