Timbales de foies de volaille -- Chicken liver custards

This is very much a Ladies Who Lunch kind of thing. 1950s hats and white gloves. I love it. Definitely a Madmen thing. But then MAFC is really an early 60s thing: published in 1961 (vol. 1 p. 174).

It reminds me of when we went to this time warp French restaurant in midtown Manhattan called Le Périgord a couple of years ago, with my daughter-in-law. Founded in 1964, it looked like it had the original carpet and the original waiters. I loved the dessert cart, with classics never seen today, like floating island. The fixed price lunch menu had a dish very much like this one.

Just rich enough to whet the appetite yet light; easy to make; stays warm well; inexpensive ingredients; elegant presentation. And less than 10 minutes into the oven. It also has a million variations, with (and I quote from Julia, p. 174) "ham, turkey, chicken, sweetbreads, salmon, lobster, crab, scallops, mushrooms, asparagus tips, or spinach."

Serves 4 as a first course

Preheat oven to 350º

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 cup boiling milk
1 cup chicken livers, pressed down (about 8 ounces)
2 eggs
3 tablespoons heavy cream or crème fraiche
1 tablespoon port, Madeira, cognac, sherry, etc.
cooking spray

1. Heat water in a kettle
2. In a small saucepan, make a béchamel sauce by melting together the butter and the flour, stirring until they foam, without coloring, about 2 minutes. Off heat, beat in the milk and seasoning. 
3. In a food processor or blender on high, puree the livers, eggs, and seasoning for 30 seconds.
4. Add the béchamel sauce, the cream, and the wine and blend for 15 seconds.
5. Spray four 1/2 cup ramekins and place them in a skillet or baking pan. Divide the mixture into them and pour boiling water around them, so it comes at least half way up the sides of the ramekins.
6. Place in the oven for 25 minutes or until a needle or knife comes out clean and the timbales have just begun to shrink from the ramekins. 
7. Run a knife around the edge of each ramekin to loosen the timbale. Invert a serving plate over each and invert to unmold. 
8. Garnish with one of the sauces below. 

• Coulis de tomate: The sauce in the pic is a simplified coulis consisting of summer tomatoes cored, seeded (not peeled) then food processed and frozen. 
• Sauce Aurore: Double the amount of béchamel (step 2) and reserve half of it. Add 1 tablespoon tomato puree or tomato paste, and optional chopped fresh herbs. (MAFC I p. 62)
• Sauce Madère ou Porto: Add 1 tablespoon Madeira or port to 1/2 cup demi glace, brown sauce, or leftover sauce from braised meats (MAFC I p. 75)
• Sauce Estragon: Stir one tablespoon chopped tarragon into 1/2 cup bdemi glace, brown sauce, or leftover sauce from braised meats (MAFC I p. 75). Off heat and just before serving, beat in 1/2 tablespoon butter.

Stephen Yang for The Wall Street Journal

Poulet sauté

Julia prefers thighs for sautes. I do too. And if they are boned, they cook in 10 minutes flat, with time to make a quick sauce. Nowadays, I can get them at the big supermarkets in the little packages of four. But usually I go to Fareway, buy hindquarters for 77 cents a pound, and bone my own. The legs I can roast later or turn into a leggy coq au vin, and the rest goes to make crock pot chicken stock (same). Boned out, the thighs weigh in at 5 ounces, coming from one of the huge modern chickens. So one per person is enough.

There are infinite variations to this possible, and I list some later, especially one that uses leftover sauce from a crock pot coq au vin (pictured).

Serves 4.

Poulet sauté (MAFC I 254).

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil (garlic flavored is nice)
Four boneless chicken thighs
Herbs de Provence (optional)
Shallot
1/4 cup white wine or dry vermouth
1/2 cup chicken stock (on this blog, though canned will do)
Chopped herbs (optional)

1. Melt butter and oil in a large skillet or fait-tout over high heat.
   
2. Dry the top side of the thighs with a paper towel and season them with salt, pepper, and herbs de Provence.
3. When the butter is melted, place the thighs seasoned side down and then season the top side.
   
4. Chop the shallot and the optional herbs.
   
5. Turn the thighs after four minutes. They should be golden.
   
6. Add the shallot.
   
7. After three minutes more, or when they are slightly firm to the touch, remove them to a plate and cover.
8. Add the wine, stock, and half the herbs, scraping the browned bits with a wooden spoon.
9. Nap the thighs with the sauce and garnish with the remaining herbs.
   

VARIATIONS

Au vin
Instead of wine and stock, use leftover sauce from Coq au Vin (pictured)

A la creme (MAFC I 256).
Instead of the stock, add 2/3 cup whipping cream or creme fraiche.

Herbs de Provence (MAFC I 257).
Season the thighs with herbs de Provence and fennel seed
Flame the thighs with Pernod
Add 1 tablespoon minced garlic preserved in olive oil when you turn the chicken.
Add 2/3 cup mayonnaise (or light mayo) to the deglazing juices.
Garnish with 2 tablespoons basil, fennel tops, or parsley.

Doria (from Escoffier)
Peel a cucumber and, using a melon baller, cut garlic-clove-sized pieces out. Microwave them with butter for three minutes. Add these, with the juice they render, with the wine to deglaze the pan and make the sauce.

Normandy
While the chicken is cooking, use an apple corer to core and cut the apple into 8 slices. Halve these crosswise and add them to the saute pan with the chicken. Shake the pan to coat the apples with the fat. Flame the thighs with Calvados. Deglaze with apple cider instead of wine.

Alsatian
Use pears and Poire William instead of apples and Calvados. Use a Riesling to deglaze.

Poulet bourride

I had forgotten about Bourride, that simple Provencal stew of most anything, crowned with rouille, until I walked into French Roast just before midnight, on our last trip to New York for the New Yorker Festival. French Roast is a neighborhood restaurant/coffee shop on West 11th and 6th Avenue, by the hotel where we always stay, The Larchmont. And it stays open 24/7. We had been going so hard we hadn't had dinner, and the seafood bourride was the daily special on Fridays, and it was superb. Tons of shellfish swimming in an autumn gold sauce.

This is a really fast adaptation of Julia's recipe for chicken bourride (MAFC II 263). But much, much lighter, because I use light aioli, which has become my all purpose sauce in the summer. I use chicken breasts instead of Julia's poached chicken, but you could make this even faster by buying a roasted chicken on the way home from work.

• 1 cup white wine and/or chicken stock
• (optional: 1 tablespoon Pernod, Ricard, or other licorice-flavored liqueur)
• 1 and 1/2 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 2 tablespoons fresh herbs or 2 teaspoons herbs de Provence.
• (optional: Cajun seasoning or pepper flakes)
• 1 bunch scallions sliced very thinly, whites and some green.
• (optional: a zuchinni cut into 1/2 inch chunks, or asparagus or thin green beans cut in 2" pieces.)
• 1 can (14 ounce) fire roasted tomatoes with garlic, drained, reserving the liquid
• 1/2 cup aoili sauce

1. In a fait-tout, heat wine (and/or stock) over high heat, covered.
   
2. Cut half breast lengthwise into three or four long strips--lamelles. Season with salt, pepper, herbs de province, and Cajun seasoning (optional). Place them in the pan, cover again.
   
3. Stir in a diced tomato (fresh, with skin on, or canned), very thinly sliced scallions (white and some green), and adjust the heat to keep simmering. The chicken lamelles should be pinkish inside at the thickest part (poke and peek).
   
4. Spoon into bowls or deep plates, spoon some aeoli onto each and and garnish with herbs.

Blancs de poulet a la crème et aux champignons

I love this recipe from Julia. It's so tender, melt in your mouth. And so so fast--as long as the breast pieces are a reasonable size. In these Tyson days, two breasts will feed four people. (Chicken is sold by the pound but bought by the piece, which means they make the damned chickens as big as possible.)

The big 10 ounce US chicken breasts need to be cut into fifths, to produce 10 two-ounce pieces--and nothing over one and 1/2 inches or they won't cook through properly. I put them into my fait-tout along with the wine, stock, lemon juice, and butter, covered them with waxed paper, and they cook fast enough on medium.

Use creme fraiche or heavy cream. The no-fat sour cream produces a weak sauce, but OK for dieting.

One pound boneless chicken breasts cut into pieces no more than 1 and 1/2 inches thick (about two large breasts)
1 tablespoon butter
1 lemon
8 ounces sliced mushrooms
1 tablespoon chicken stock or beef stock (or gravy from a chicken or beef stew)
2 tablespoons white wine or dry vermouth
2 tablespoons chopped scallion or 1 tablespoon minced shallot
1/4 cup  heavy cream
(waxed paper)

1. Heat a covered fait-tout on high (thaw the stock in the microwave on high if necessary)
2. Grate some lemon rind onto the breast pieces, about 1 teaspoon. Squeeze lemon juice on them. Salt and paper lightly, and toss.
3. In the fait-tout, add butter, stock, scallions, mushrooms, wine, and breast pieces.
4. Cover with waxed paper and reduce heat to medium.
5. Cover the fait-tout and simmer for 5 minutes, shaking occasionally or turning once if necessary.They are done when they are slightly springy to the touch (poke and peek at the biggest one to check). Do not overcook. They will cook a bit more when removed from the pan.
6. Raise the heat to high and remove the chicken to a warming oven or or platter, covered by the waxed paper.
7. Add the cream and stir till blended, boiling down the sauce until very slightly thickened. Check seasoning.
8. Pour the sauce over the chicken and garnish with chopped scallion greens or herbs.

VARIATIONS:

• Substitute champagne, cognac, scotch, bourbon, or Pernod for the wine.
• Add asparagus tips with the chicken, instead of the mushrooms.
• Add very thin green beans, broccoli, or cauliflower in the first step.
• Add a teaspoon of curry powder and use brandy instead of wine.

Joyce really liked them. But to me they don't have that perfect consistency of the oven poeled ones Julia does.

Coq au vin

This is the first dish J ever had in France, in Amiens, the night before we set off on bicycles through Picardy and Normandy. And she's made Julia's version (MAFC I p. 263) many times over the years, for company. You should have too much sauce, and all the better, as it makes the most delicious base for quick pan sauces for sauteed thighs, and so on.

4 chicken legs, 4 chicken thighs (or four hindquarters, each halved--or eight legs!)
Olive oil or vegetable oil
8 ounces mushrooms
8 small onions peeled OR 8 ounce package frozen pearl onions OR 15 ounce jar pearl onions, drained
3 cups red wine (one bottle), preferably Pinot Noir or Burgundy
1 teaspoon dried thyme OR 1 tablespoon herbs de Provence OR 4 branches fresh thyme
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 bay leaf
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup Wondra
(optional: 1 teaspoon Kitchen Magic)
Italian parsley or chives for garnish

1. Heat a large skillet on high with four slices bacon or uncured bacon.
2. Place the chicken, patted dry and dusted with herbs, in the skillet to color slightly (six minutes).
3. Peel the onions, if necessary, and and place them in the skillet with the chicken.
   
4. Mix the Wondra, the cognac, and the broth (and optional Kitchen Magic).
5. Turn the slow cooker on low. Add the chicken, onions, bay leaf, tomato paste, garlic and mushrooms to the slow cooker.
6. Deglaze the skillet with the wine, scraping up any browned bits, and add it to the slow cooker.
7. Stir in the Wondra and the broth.
8. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. Garnish with chopped Italian parsley.

VARIATION:

1. Combine all the ingredients in a crock pot, stirring in the Wondra last.
   
2. Cook for 6 to 8 hours on low.
   

Roast Chicken Breasts

Julia says that the test of a restaurant is its roast chicken. And she is eloquent in describing the popping sounds of roasting, subtle signals to the alert chef of doneness. She is really thorough in describing all the work it takes. This technique gets a similar effect in 5 minutes of prep. The juicy popping sounds, the house filled with roasting aromas.

I like the breast best, and it looks so mahogany with that skin on it. The timing works out well because it's done in 35-45 minutes, just about time to get an starter cooked and eaten and cleaned up.

Roast chicken is so juicy and buttery with the under-skin treatment. And if you throw in some root vegetables, they come out browned and wonderful too, with some drippings from the chicken above flavoring them.

Serves four

A whole, bone-in chicken breast (about 1.5 pounds), completely thawed
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon rosemary leaves, chopped

1. Put the oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 450.
   
2. Place a cooling rack for cookies on a cookie sheet (a "half sheet pan") and spray with oil
1. (optional) Add to the bottom of the pan one layer of potatoes or peeled carrots, parsnips, or butternut squash, cut about 1/2 inch thick and tossed in or sprayed with olive oil and salted (potatoes cut side down).
   
3. Mix the butter with 1/4 teaspoon salt and chopped rosemary (microwave for about 10 seconds if the butter is too firm to mix).
4. Wiggle a finger under the breast skin to form a pocket and, with a spoon, mush half the butter under each side. Smooth the butter around under the skin.
5. Pull out the ribs to form a base, and put the chicken on top of the broiler rack.
   
6. Roast for about 35 minutes until an instant reading thermometer put in the thickest part of the breast registers 155 to 165. (For a 2 pound breast roast 45-50 minutes.)
7. Remove from the oven and let it rest 5 minutes. Then remove breasts by cutting along the breast bone and scraping the meat off. Slice it on the bias or simply serve in sections.
   
   It's possible to make a quick sauce by deglazing the broiler pan with 1/4 cup white wine, scraping down the brown bits as it boils. Add 1/2 cup pot roast gravy, coq au vin sauce, or canned chicken stock, stirred with 1 teaspoon Wondra. Stir until smooth.