Lobster Mornay

The basis of this recipe is béchamel sauce, which becomes Mornay once cheese is added. Béchamel is also used in cauliflower cheese, lasagne, croque-monsieur and fish pie.

SERVES 2 PREPARATION TIME 30 minutes, plus infusing COOKING TIME about 15 minutes

FOR THE BÉCHAMEL SAUCE 250ml milk

1 thick slice onion

4 black peppercorns Blade mace

1 bay leaf

15g each plain flour and butter

Freshly grated nutmeg Pinch English mustard powder

50g grated Gruyère 25g grated Parmesan 1tsp Dijon mustard 1 whole cooked lobster

1 To make the sauce, put the milk in a pan with the onion, peppercorns, mace and bay leaf. Bring to just under the boil, then turn off the heat and leave to infuse for 30min.

2 Strain the infused milk into a jug. Put the flour, butter, nutmeg and mustard powder into a medium pan. Cook over low to medium heat, blending with a wooden spoon, for about 1min, until the mixture looks slightly dry and sandy.

3 Take the pan off the heat and gradually blend in the infused milk – don’t rush, otherwise it will make the sauce lumpy. When you’ve added half of the milk, return the pan to the heat, constantly stirring and adding the remaining milk.

4 Cook, still stirring, until thickened, then simmer for 2min (to remove the floury taste). At this point, you can keep the sauce in the fridge (covered with baking parchment on its surface to stop a skin forming) for 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

5 To turn the béchamel into Mornay sauce, lower the heat and stir in the cheese and Dijon mustard – do not boil as this will impair the flavour. Check the seasoning, then set aside.

6 Heat the grill to high.

Twist off each lobster claw and crack open to reveal the meat inside. Roughly chop. Halve the lobster along its length, starting at the head, and remove the meat (discarding the stomach sac, gills and intestinal thread along the tail. The liver and roe are edible). Roughly chop and add to the claw meat. Rinse the lobster shells and dry with kitchen paper. 7 Stir meat into the sauce and pile into the lobster halves. Put the halves on a baking sheet, then heat under the grill until the sauce is bubbling and golden brown. Serve at once with green salad and fries, if you like.