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CULINARYALCHEMIST'S BLOG

BakeSpace Challenge #1

Posted By: culinaryalchemist
Posted On: 07/06/08 10:22 PM

The Challenge: Five ingredients - Onion, Chicken, Eggs, Spinach & Puff Pastry Solution to the Challenge (Thanks to Chef Ramsey's show Hell's Kitchen) A spin on Beef Wellington; Duxelles Pate Chicken en Croute Oh, with cream horns filled with St.Germain Creme for dessert St. Germain Cream Horns To begin: Saute onions - Now you have to saute onions for both mixtures, so I did them both at the same time. The Onions/Mushrooms in a skillet and the onions for the spinach stuffing: Once the onions for the filling are done, add them to the spinach and complete the stuffing mix... More than likely the mushrooms will still be cooking, once the liquid from the mushrooms has evaporated, deglaze the pan with lemon juice and marsala, then add the cream, herbs and lemon zest. Toss this into the food processor with toasted almonds and puree to a pate. In the mean time, start butterflying the chicken breasts... The wicked klooking knife I am using is a great Japanese hybrid boning/fillet knife by Shun called a Gukoju, not so great for filleting fish, but fantastic for everything else. Divide the stuffing between the 4 Chicken breasts, then either close them up with twine or use turkey trussing needles (Which I had to use cause I did not realize I was out of twine.) By now the Pate should be done. Go ahead and remove the 1 sheet of puff pastry from the refrigerator and allow the pastry to warm a little before unfolding. Heat a skillet and rub the chicken with olive oil, sear on all sides then remove to a plate to rest while preparing the pastry. Roll out the pastry into a rectangle and divide into 4 equal squares, the remaining strip can be used to cut out decorations for the top. Spread pate over the pastry leaving a border for sealing. Fold pastry over and seal with egg white wash. Add decorations, using egg white wash as the glue, then give the whole thing another coat or egg wash. I sprinkled a little Murray River Salt from Australia over the leaves as a little extra decoration. Bake at 400 for 18 minutes or until Pastry is puffed and GB & D (To Coin a Phrase) Slice on the bias and serve with micro greens. Delicious - Although I may try this using only shallots, or maybe leeks.. The sweet onions (Thanks to Trader Joe's) worked really well though. Oh, and since I still had a sheet of Puff Pastry left over, and the oven was already hot... I made Cream Horns For dessert with St.Germain in the filling with raspberries (both Golden and Red) with a little couli from the left over berries. St. Germain is a newer liqueur to the U.S. it is made from French ElderFlowers... It's a little on the cost prohibitive side (41 bucks a bottle) but luckily I found the little airplane size bottle for 3 dollars. Great for adding that "little extra mysterious something that people can't quite put their finger on" to a dessert.

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