Tour de Nesle vol au vent
SERVES 4 PEOPLE
CHICKEN SAUCE AND ESPUMA
140 g T45 flour, 140 g butter, 1 l chicken breast stock
FILLING
50 cl water, 15 g flour, 1 lemon, 50 g cock combs, 50 g oyster meat, 50 g golden oyster mushrooms
QUENELLES
100 g chicken breast, 1 egg white, 3 cl pouring cream, 10 g truffles, 50 cl breast chicken stock
PUFF PASTRY
350 g T45 flour, 150 g T55 flour, 22.5 cl cold water, 12 g Guérande salt, 50 g unsalted butter, 450 g dry butter, 3 egg yolks
CHICKEN SAUCE AND ESPUMA
Make a roux with the flour and butter, and whisk in chicken stock. Season. In a siphon, put 50 cl chicken stock and charge the siphon with 3 gas canisters. Put the sauce and siphon aside in a bain-marie.
FILLING
Mix 25 cl water, flour and half a lemon in a pan. Add the cock combs and cook on a low heat for 1 hour and then leave to cool. Dice the cock combs. Set aside. Cut the mushrooms in half and cook in a pan of 25cl water with the other half of lemon. Leave the mushrooms to cool in the cooking liquid.
QUENELLES
Blend the chicken breast with the egg white and salt in a mixer, then add the cream. Season. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve and add the chopped truffle. Form small quenelles of the finely blended chicken mixture using teaspoons, and poach these in a pan of chicken stock. The quenelles are cooked when they rise to the surface and are slightly elastic to the touch. Set aside in a cool place.
PUFF PASTRY
To make the pastry dough; with a whisk beat the flours together with the cold water, salt and melted unsalted butter until you have a smooth dough. Roll out the dough into a 30 cm square. Flatten out the dry butter and place it in the centre of the square, then fold the pastry over the butter like an envelope. Roll out the pastry into a rectangle measuring 60 x 20 cm. Lengthwise, fold the bottom third of the pastry up and then the top third down (1 single turn). Turn the dough a quarter turn and repeat the operation. Leave for 1 hour in the refrigerator. Repeat the process twice turning the pastry a quarter turn each time and leave for 1 hour again in the fridge. Repeat once more with a final quarter turn, then roll out the pastry to measure 27 x 40 cm. Cut this up into 4 x 7cm squares and baste with egg yolks. Cook the vol-au-vents in a preheated oven at 170 °C for 25 minutes. Cut out the middle to create 1cm thick pastry lids, and gently dig out a hole for the filling using a small knife.
FINAL STEPS AND PRESENTATION
Reheat the cock combs, mushrooms and quenelles with the chicken sauce in a pan. Fill each vol-au-vent with this mixture. Place a vol-au-vent in the middle of each plate, form a comma shape with the chicken sauce and add a squirt of espuma.
