Combine the crayfish meat and celery root and add 1 ½ cups cubed melon, using cantaloupe or another firm fleshed melon. Arrange the salad on lettuce leaves on individual serving plates. Fold ½ cup cream, stiffly whipped, into the sauce and pour about ¼ cup dressing over each portion.
Shrimp may be substituted for the crayfish. Shell and devein 1 pound shrimp and cook them in boiling salted water with ¼ teaspoon caraway seeds for about 4 minutes. Drain them, cut them in half, shake them in tarragon vinegar, and chill.
Salzburger Nockerln
Beat 4 egg yolks light and creamy and bear in ¼ cup flour. Beat 8 egg whiles very stiff and add ¾ cup vanilla-flavored powdered sugar, a little at a time. (To make the vanilla sugar, bury a vanilla bean in a jar of very finely powdered sugar for several days.) The success of Nockerln depends on the stiffness of the egg whites; be sure not to underbeat. Heat 3 tablespoons butter in an 8-inch skillet until it bubbles. Tilt and roll the pan to coat the sides with butter. Quickly fold the egg whites and yolks together and turn the mixture into the pan. Divide it in sixths with a spatula and sauté it for a minute or two. only long enough to color the underside lightly. Place the pan in a slow oven (250° F.) and bake the Nockesln until the top is golden, about 10 minutes. Dust with more vanilla sugar and serve at once.
Dolce di Castagne (Chestnut Confection)
Cut a cross on the flat side of 2 pounds chestnuts, heat them in a very slow oven (250° F.) for 10 minutes, and remove the shells at once. Boil the chestnuts 10 minutes in salted water to cover and remove the skins. Combine 1 cup milk, ½ cup water, and ¼ cup sugar and in it cook the peeled nuts, covered, for 20 minutes longer, until they are lender. The nuts may be placed on a low trivet to prevent their sticking to the pan. Put the hot chestnuts through a food chopper at once.
Gradually stir into the chestnut purée a mixture of 2/3 cup cream, ½ cup powdered sugar, and 1/3 cup kirsch or cherry brandy. Add ¼ cup ground blanched almonds and whip the paste. It should be very thick. The mealiness of chestnuts varies; add a little more kirsch and cream if necessary. Chill the paste and whip it again.
Spread the paste in a square ½ inch thick on buttered brown paper and chill thoroughly on a baking sheet in the refrigerator. Spread the paste with 2/3 cup orange marmalade and chill it again. Lift one edge of the brown paper and with a knife, loosen the paste from the paper and roll up the sheet of paste as you would a jelly roll, smoothing it with the knife as you roll it. Smooth the finished roll and chill it. Spread the roll with marmalade and cover all except the two ends with ½ cup shaved blanched almonds. Arrange the dolce on a chilled serving platter and keep it cold. At serving time, pipe around the roll with a pastry tube 1 cup heavy cream whipped with ¼ cup powdered sugar. Dot the cream with large black or brandied cherries.
The dolce di castagne may also be made in a loaf mold lined with buttered paper. Press a layer of chestnut paste into the mold, spread it with marmalade, add another layer of paste, spread with marmalade, and top with a final layer of paste. Pack each layer firmly and chill it before proceeding. Unmold the confection carefully, smooth it with a knife, spread it with marmalade. sprinkle with shaved blanched almonds, and garnish with whipped cream and cherries.
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