Chicken Celestine

Let's get the ball rolling. Here's the recipe for the Chicken Celestine that was served by Déwald & Heidi on 12 Jun 2013. Sorry, no pictures for this one.

Starter:
Salmon roulade with herbed shrimps on a bed of watercress, rocket and mizuna.

Main:
Chicken célestine with pancetta potato and taragon veggies.

Dessert:
Orange mousse

Guest Grubbers:
Jacques van den Bergh and Donnay Torr

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Recipe

Salmon roulade and herbed shrimps:

• Buy from Woolies (this is highly irregular and should not set a precedent... oh wait, that precedent has been set already)
• Serve on a bed of various greens. I used watercress, rocket and mizuna but in future I'd probably drop the rocket which might have been a bit overpowering.

Chicken célestine:

• Cover chicken thighs (about 16) in flour, seasoned with salt and black pepper. Chicken breasts would probably have worked just as well, or better.
• Heat some olive oil (4 tbsp) and butter (200g) in a frying pan and add the chicken when the butter starts to foam. Fry until the chicken is browned all over.
• Pour Cointreau (400ml) over the chicken and sprinkle the zest of 4 oranges over.
• Pour in chicken stock (1 liter) and bring mixture to the boil. Reduce heat and let simmer until the chicken is cooked through. My célestine sauce was much too liquid in the end so it may be better to use only 500ml chicken stock.
• Add 500ml double cream and juice of 4 oranges. Continue to simmer until ready.

Pancetta potato:

• Heat butter (150g) in a frying pan and add cubed potatoes (1.5kg). Fry until brown all over.
• Drain potatoes on paper towls.
• Sprinkle chopped parsley (6 tbsp) and chopped pancetta (150g) over potatoes and mix through.

Taragon veggies:

• Steam julienned carrots (1kg) until al dente. I would have preferred baby carrots but couldn't find any.
• Steam sugar snap peas (1kg) until al dente.
• Add carrots and peas to pot with butter (50g) and chopped taragon leaves (3 tsp) and mix through.

Orange Mousse:

• Soak 4 gelatine leaves in cold water until soft.
• Nuke juice of 2 oranges for 1 min.
• Squeeze excess water from gelatine leaves and add to hot orange juice. Stir until dissolved. Set aside to cool down.
• Whisk yolks of 4 eggs with 100g caster sugar and zest of 2 oranges in a bain-marie until thick and foamy. Remove from heat, add 2 tbsp Cointreau and continue whisking until cooled down. Yes, this is effort but don't be a wuzz, proper whisking here will ensure a lekker mousse.
• Whisk the whites of 4 eggs until stiff.
• Whisk 300ml double cream until stiff.
• Fold the egg yolk mixture, meringue, whipped cream and orange juice mixture together taking care not to beat the aeration from the mixture.
• Spoon into cocktail glasses and leave to set in fridge.

(Note: the orange zest may have been a tad stringy under the teeth. You can't really use less of it as that would affect the flavour and I'm not sure how to strain it as that would compact the egg yolk mixture. Maybe it can be boiled somewhat before using to soften it up.)