Velouté de châtaignes, beurre aux coraux d’oursins

Name: Velouté de châtaignes, beurre aux coraux d’oursins (Chestnut velouté with sea urchin roe butter)
Yield: For 4
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 300 g cooked peeled chestnuts; 500 ml fresh chicken or vegetable stock (or water if you don’t have good stock); 250 ml single cream; Salt and freshly ground black pepper; 150 g salted butter, softened; 1 tablespoon sea urchin roe; 1 baguette bread

Chestnut velouté with sea urchin roe butter

Preparation info

For
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Nobody Does it Better

By Trish Deseine

Published 2007

About

This surf-turf combination contrasts sweet rich chestnuts with the smoky iodic taste of sea urchins. If fresh, have your fishmonger open them for you but make sure you use the roe promptly; urchins go off as quickly as oysters. Tinned roe avoids the little pieces of shell or spine that can give an unwanted grittiness.

Ingredients

500 ml fresh chicken or vegetable stock (or water if you don’t have good stock)
300 g cooked peeled

Method

Bring the stock or water to the boil, then add the chestnuts and cook for about 10 minutes until very soft. Liquidise in a food-processor and add the cream. Season to taste.

Mash the roe with the butter, then pop it back in the fridge to harden again.

Toast thin slices of baguette and serve spread with the roe butter, set on the hot chestnut velouté.