Sauce Américaine
Cook 4 cups stewed tomatoes until most of the liquid has cooked away and strain through a fine sieve.
Heat 1 tablespoon “live oil and 2 tablespoons butler in a saucepan and add 2 shallots, finely chopped, 1 clove of garlic, and 1 tablespoon each chopped parsley and chervil. Add the tomato purée and simmer until the shallots are soft. Remove the clove of garlic, add 2 tablespoons brandy, and cook for a few minutes without letting the sauce boil.
Mushroom Duxelles
Heat 1 tablespoon butter in a saucepan, add ¼ pound mushrooms, finely chopped, and 1 shallot, chopped, and cook until the moisture is evaporated. Stir in 1 teaspoon chopped parsley and salt to taste.
Faisan Souvarov (Pheasant Souvaroff)
Sauté in butter large pieces of fresh goose liver or canned natural fore gras. Add an equal quantity of whole small truffles or larger ones cut into pieces and combine with 2 tablespoons beef extract mixed with 4 tablespoons Madeira or sherry.
Clean a pheasant and stuff it with the above mixture. Truss the legs and wings close to the body and sew up the opening. Lard the breast with thin strips of fat salt pork and cover with more salt pork, securing the slices with string. Put the pheasant in a roasting pan, season with salt, and spread with good fat. Roast it in a moderately hot oven (425° F) for 15 minutes, turn, and roast it for 15 minutes on the other side, basting frequently. Remove the pheasant and put it on its back in a casserole.
Remove the excess fat from the roasting pan and to the drippings in the pan add 3 ounces Madeira or sherry, 2 or 3 tablespoons trufile juice, 2 truffies, diced, and ½ cup good gravy or brown sauce (sec January, 1951). Cook the sauce for a few minutes and pour it around the pheasant in the casserole. Put 1 tablespoon of butler on the breast, cover the casserole, and seal with a roll of dough made of Hour, water, and a little fat. Bake in a moderately hot oven (425° F) for about 30 minutes, unseal, and serve.
This recipe may be used also for partridge or for any poultry.
Vol-au-Vent Eugénie
Prepare a puff-paste shell as follows: Roll out puff paste (see December, 1950) about 3/8 inch thick and from it cut a circle about 7 inches in diameter. Moisten a pastry sheet with water and on it lay the circle, turning this over so that the lop side is underneath. Cut another 7-inch circle from puff paste rolled to the same thickness and cut out and reserve the center to leave a rim 1 inch wide. Moisten a 1-inch border around the first circle and on this lay the cut-out rim, reversing it so that the top side is underneath. Press the two borders firmly together and cut small scallops about ½ inch apart to make a decorative edging. Lay the reserved circle lightly inside the rim and chill the shell in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes.
Brush the top with 1 egg beaten with a little milk and bake in a hot oven (450° F) for about 10 minutes, or until the pastry is puffed and golden brown. Reduce the oven temperature to 375° F and bake for 25 to 30 minutes longer. Remove the vol-au-vent from the oven and with a sharp knife gently lift out and reserve the center circle.
Prepare the filling as follows: Cut into large pieces the white meat and the second-joint meal from a poached chicken. Cut into pieces 3 sweetbreads poached until tender in salted water acidulated with lemon juice. Flute the edges of 1 dozen mushrooms and cook them for a few minutes over a hot fire in 3 to 4 tablespoons water mixed with 1 teaspoon each lemon juke and butter. Drain the mushrooms, reserving the liquor, and combine them with the chicken and sweetbreads. Add 12 small quenelles of chicken (see below) and ½ cup Madeira or sherry and heat all together.
Prepare 3 cups chicken velouté (see May, 1951) and add to it the reserved mushroom liquor. Stir in 2 egg yolks mixed with 1 cup heavy cream and bring the sauce to the boiling point. Add all but about 1 cup of this sauce to the chicken mixture and fill the vol-au-vent. Pour the reserved sauce on just before serving, garnish with a border of sliced truffles, and top with the baked pastry cover.
Chicken Quenelles
Grind finely 1 pound raw chicken flesh, place it in a mortar with 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon pepper, and ¼ teaspoon nutmeg, and pound it to a paste. Add gradually the whiles of 2 eggs, working the paste vigorously with a wooden spoon. Rub the forcemeat through a fine sieve, place it in a saucepan over cracked ice, and gradually work in about 2 cups heavy cream.
Form the forcemeat into small balls and poach them in chicken broth or salted water. Do not let the liquid boil or the quenelles will split.
Pinterest
