Armenian Crayfish Soup

Method

1. If the crayfish are live, put them in the freezer for 20 minutes so they are still and sluggish.
2. Bring 3 litres of water with the 2 tbsp of salt to a rolling boil in the large pot.
3. Boil the crayfish for 3–4 minutes, until bright red all over; if you bought them cooked, just thaw them and skip this step.
4. Lift the crayfish into a bowl and let them cool until you can handle them.
5. Twist the tails off the heads, peel them, pull out the dark vein and refrigerate the tail meat; keep all the heads and shells.
6. Heat the olive oil in the heavy saucepan over medium-high heat and fry the heads and shells for 5 minutes, stirring, until they smell toasty.
7. Crush the shells in the pan with the end of the rolling pin or the potato masher.
8. Add the onion, carrot, garlic and bay leaf and fry for 3 minutes.
9. Pour in the wine and boil for 2 minutes, until almost gone.
10. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 1 minute.
11. Add the 1.5 litres of water and bring to the boil.
12. Lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 45 minutes, skimming off any foam.
13. Pour the stock through the sieve into a clean pan, pressing hard on the shells.
14. Strain it again through the fine sieve or a damp cloth to catch any shell fragments.
15. Add the cream and simmer for 10–15 minutes, until you have about 800 ml and the soup lightly coats a spoon.
16. Season the soup with salt and set it aside.
17. For the balls, beat the soft butter with the garlic, anchovies, mustard and wine until smooth.
18. Put a heaped tablespoon of the butter on a square of cling film, press 2 crayfish tails (or 1 prawn) into it and gather the film around them, twisting it into a tight ball about 3 cm across.
19. Make 8 balls in the same way and freeze them for 1 hour, until hard.
20. Put the flour, beaten eggs and breadcrumbs into the three shallow bowls.
21. Unwrap the balls and roll each one in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs.
22. Dip each ball in the egg and the breadcrumbs a second time, pressing the crumbs on.
23. Freeze the coated balls for 30 minutes; they can be kept frozen for up to a month.
24. Heat the oil to 175°C (350°F) in the small deep pan; it should be at least 3 cm deep.
25. Fry the balls from frozen, a few at a time, for 2–3 minutes, turning, until deep golden.
26. Drain the balls on paper towels.
27. Reheat the soup until steaming, without boiling.
28. Ladle the soup into warm bowls, add any remaining tails, and serve with two balls in or beside each bowl straight away.

1. At first, boil crayfish and peel crayfish tails that will be needed to cook the filling.
2. Fry crayfish shells in the olive oil then crumble them up.
3. Add chopped onion, carrot, bayleaf, garlic and fry again for 2-3 minutes.
4. Add wine and set on fire.
5. After the spirit evaporates and the fire goes out, add tomato paste and 2 liters of water.
6. Continue boiling at small heat for 2.5-3 hours.
7. Drain off the boiled mass, add cream and boil for necessary density.
8. For cooking the filler, whip the butter adding minced garlic and anchovy and pouring in white wine and Dijon mustard.
9. Put the cooked mass on clingfilm, one spoon at a time, and put the crayfish tails in such way that after rolling the clingfilm you get balls with crayfish tails inside.
10. Place the balls into refrigerator for a while.
11. After the balls are cooled cover them plentifully with bread crumbs.
12. You can place the cooked balls into the freezer.
13. Fry the balls in oil till golden colour before serving.

The dish in the photograph was cooked by the restaurant for this story. Photo: Oleksandr Slyadnyev.