Dish from Culinary Class Wars 2!
If you’re also a fan of Netflix’s latest show, Culinary Class Wars Season 2, then you’re in luck.
This recipe is my take on the popular Snow Crab Egg Custard with Champagne sauce and caviar from the show. This is white spoon chef Son Jong-Won’s dish.
It’s a fine dining that uses French techniques. But don’t worry, I’ve broken this recipe down into many steps and tips so you can recreate it at home!
Prawns instead of crab
I know the original recipe on the Netflix show uses snow crab. However, as a home cook living in Australia, I don’t have access to this luxurious ingredient.
In fact, on the day I went shopping for this recipe, there were no crabs at my local grocery store or local fish shop!
So instead of using crab, I used king prawns!
Prawns are super accessible yet very flavourful if cooked right. In this recipe, I made egg custard paired with a very concentrated prawn sauce and luxurious creamy Champagne sauce.
I also made black spoon chef Culinary Monster’s Snow Crab Dumplings with Sabayon sauce and Caviar. Go check out that recipe if you’d like to recreate his dish too! Funnily both these dishes were from the same challenge in episode 10 of Culinary Class Wars 2.
The CONCENTRATED prawn sauce
This sauce is VERY concentrated and reduced. For that reason, I absolutely love how this sauce pairs with something more neutral in flavour, such as silky egg custard.
So how do you make a GOOD concentrated prawn sauce?
Use every part of the prawn – including its head, shells and meat!
The other tip? To air fry it or roast it in the oven before cooking in a pot. This adds so much more umami and depth to the sauce.
The sauce contains air fried prawns, carrots, onions, celery, canned tomatoes, water, Brandy and Champagne. You can use Cognac instead of Brandy if you have access to it.
This is how much prawn sauce my recipe yielded. There’s definitely a lot that goes into this sauce, and while it doesn’t yield too much, it’s enough to serve 3-4 egg custards.
Champagne sauce
This was my first time making (and possibly tasting) Champagne sauce.
It’s a sauce made from combining Champagne and cream.
It’s luxurious, creamy yet slightly acidic and absolutely delicious.
This sauce mixed with the concentrated prawn sauce = fine dining sauce!!
The key to a good Champagne sauce is to be patient – let it reduce properly and you’ll get up with something very tasty.
Side note: in the Netflix show Culinary Class Wars, chef Son Jong-Won made a foam out of the Champagne sauce. Unfortunately, I tried to do the same thing but it didn’t foam up for me. So for simplicity, I’ve made a normal Champagne sauce for this recipe.
Here’s a picture of the leftover egg custard I enjoyed for lunch the next day! It was super tasty!
I also recommend attaching as much pastry on the prawn ball as possible. This adds more crunchy texture.
Caviar
If you find caviar expensive, you can omit it from this recipe.
I really wanted to add that touch of luxury to this dish, so I used Lumpfish Caviar instead. It was only $12 AUD from my local seafood shop – super affordable and it adds fine dining vibes.
Watch the entire recipe video
Check out my other recipe for black spoon Culinary Monster’s Dumplings with Sabayon Sauce and Caviar!
Prawn Egg Custard with Champagne Sauce and Caviar
Ingredients
Method
- Air fry the raw prawns in a preheated air fryer without oil for 6mins at 200C.
- Wrap the prawns in a paper towel and gently smash with a pan or rolling pin.
- Heat a pot with cooking oil. Add prawns, celery, carrot, and onion. Stir-fry until lightly caramelised.
- Turn heat on high. Deglaze with cognac and allow alcohol to cook off for 2mins.
- Add champagne and let it come to a boil.
- Add canned tomatoes and water. Keep stirring.
- Simmer gently for 30 minutes, reducing to a rich, brown sauce.
- Strain and return the sauce back to the pot.
- Add in corn starch slurry mixture and keep stirring, until slightly thickened. Season lightly with salt.
- Set aside.
- Add oil in a saucepan. Sweat onion and celery until soft and lightly golden.
- Add champagne and reduce by half.
- Add cream, season with salt lightly, and reduce again until nappé consistency (thick enough to coat the back of a spoon and to have a line when you draw your finger through it)
- Transfer to blender. Blend until smooth and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk until completely smooth.
- Add cream and keep whisking.
- Pass through a fine sieve to remove bubbles (important for a silky custard).
- Place the chopped raw prawns into a heatproof bowl.
- Place a fine sieve on top of the heatproof bowl, and gently pour the egg custard through the sieve.
- Add a thin streak of prawn sauce on top (do not mix).
- Cover tightly with plastic wrap.
- Steam the egg on low heat for 15-18 minutes, until set.
- A generous spoon of caviar in the centre
- A drizzle of concentrated prawn sauce
- Sprinkle of finely chopped parsley
- Croutons
- Champagne sauce layered on top
- Lime zest and a few drops of lime juice.
- Enjoy!
