Episode 106: Forcemeat

Boudins de Fruits de Mer
Pheasant Pate
Chicken and Shrimp Quenelles
Lamb and Pine Nut Sausages

BOUDINS DE FRUITS DE MER
Preparation is easy

1-pound fillet of sole (500 grams)
8 ounces raw shrimp (250 grams)
8 ounces scallops (250 grams)
1 ½ cups heavy cream (375 millilitres)
1-teaspoon salt (5 millilitres)
Fresh white pepper
1-tablespoon fresh chopped tarragon, parsley, and chives

For the sauce:
½ cup celery leaves, chopped
¾ cup onion, chopped
1 bay leaf
Pinch fresh thyme
Pinch salt
10 black peppercorns, crushed
½ cup dry sherry (125 millilitres)
3 cups fish stock or water (750 millilitres)
1 ¼ sticks unsalted butter

Preparation time is 50 minutes

Cut the sole into ½-inch pieces. Cut the scallops into ¼-inch cubes and the shrimp into ½-inch pieces. Put the sole in the food processor and buzz for a few seconds. The mixture should be smooth, but you need to take care not to cook the delicate fish with the heat of the processor. Add ½ a cup of the cream and buzz once again to make a puree.

In a separate bowl using a hand beater, whip the cream until it forms soft peaks. Then fold the fish puree into the whipped cream. Add the diced scallops and the shrimp pieces. Season with salt and pepper and stir in the herbs.

Divide the mixture in three parts an put each part into the centre of a large piece of aluminium foil. Roll the foil to form a sausage shape and twist the ends to seal the package. Put the foil sausages in a large pan and cover them with cold water. Weigh them down with a smaller lid on top before covering the pan with its normal lid. Bring the temperature of the water to 180 degrees Fahrenheit and cook for 15 to 20 minutes. Do not allow the water to boil or simmer. Once cooked, allow the "sausages" to sit in their cooking water for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile make the sauce by putting and fish trimmings and shrimp shells into a pan. Add the fish stock and sherry, onion, bay leaf, celery, thyme, peppercorns and salt. Bring the liquid to a boil and boil gently for 20 minutes. Then strain the liquid through a fine-mesh sieve to remove any solids and reduce again until the liquid thickens noticeably. Stir in the butter, beating between the additions of each piece. Season the sauce.

Remove the sausages from the foil and slice carefully. Serve with a small amount of sauce poured over the top.

Yield: 8 servings
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PHEASANT PATE
Preparation is moderate

12 ounces pheasant meat (375 grams)
2 pheasant breasts (approximately 6 ounces, 180 grams)
6 lard strips
1 large piece of caul fat
1 pheasant liver
1 chicken liver
1 black truffle, coarsely chopped
1-¼ pounds pork butt, chopped fine (560 grams)
1-½ tablespoons finely chopped shallots
1-teaspoon thyme leaves very finely chopped
1-bay leaf, crumbled
2-½ teaspoons salt (12 millilitres)
Fresh black pepper
1 tablespoon Cognac (15 millilitres)
3 tablespoons dry white wine (45 millilitres)
5 cups pheasant or chicken stock (1.125 millilitres)
1-leek finely chopped
1-tablespoon parsley

Preparation time is 1 hour, 5 days including cooking and resting
Preheat the oven to 330 degrees Fahrenheit

In a food processor, mix the pheasant meat, (put aside the breasts), the pork butt, the shallots, thyme, bay leaves, leeks, parsley, salt, pepper, cognac and white wine. Put the mixture into a bowl and put the breast meat, livers and the truffle on top. Cover and set aside in the refrigerator for 4 days.

When you are ready to fill the terrine, chop the liver, truffles and the pheasant breasts to make it easier to spread them out into a layer in the pate.

Line the mould you have chosen for the pate with a piece of plastic wrap. Press it down into the corners of the mould. Then lay your caul fat over the inside of the wrap. Fill one third of the mould with the forcemeat. Then arrange half the lard, breast meat, livers and truffle in the middle. Add one third more forcemeat, then the remainder of the lard, breast meat, livers and truffles. Cover with the remainder of the forcemeat.

Fold the caul fat back over onto the pate. Cover the pate with tin foil and bake it in a Bain Marie in the oven for 2 hours, or until the internal temperature has reached 150 degrees Fahrenheit and a knife inserted in the middle comes out very hot.

When the pate has cooked, remove it from the oven, place a foil-covered brick or kitchen weights on top and allow it to cool overnight. Flavours develop after a day, so if you can leave it for a day it will be even better.

Remove the pate from the mould. Slice and serve with toast, pickles and chutney.

Yield: 12 servings
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CHICKEN AND SHRIMP QUENELLES
Preparation is easy

2 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 boneless skinless breast of chicken
24 shrimp peeled, deveined (10 of the shrimp to have tail remaining but half flesh used in quenelle mix)
¼ to ½ egg white
Splash of rice wine vinegar
Splash of light soy sauce
Splash sesame seed oil
1 tablespoon of freshly chopped coriander (15 millilitres)
1 green onion finely diced
½ cup diced Shiitake mushrooms (2 ounces)

For the sauce:
2 shallots, diced
1 inch ginger, peeled and finely diced
2 ounces shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced (60 grams)
1-tablespoon butter (15 millilitres)
3 tablespoons white wine (45 millilitres)
1-cup chicken stock (250 millilitres)
¼ cup cream (60 millilitres)
Salt and pepper

Preparation time is 30 minutes

In a chilled food processor, add the diced, chilled chicken and half of the shrimp that have been roughly chopped. Add the soy, sesame oil, vinegar and egg whites and pulse on the food processor 6 to 8 times until blended thoroughly. Be careful not to heat the mixture and cook it in the food processor. Add a splash of water, followed by the green onions and Shiitake mushrooms.

Turn out the chicken mixture into a bowl set over an ice water bath and add the chopped coriander, season with salt and pepper. Using the palm of your hand and a tablespoon, shape the mixture into a quenelle shape. Insert a shrimp tail into each piece and place on a lightly oiled parchment paper. Steam for 4 to 6 minutes until tender.

To make the sauce gently sauté the ginger, shallots and sliced Shiitake mushroom in the butter. Add the white wine, the chicken stock and allow it to reduce by half. Add the cream and season with salt and pepper. Ladle the sauce onto the bottom of your serving plate. Place the quenelles on top, drizzle with little more sauce and garnish with freshly picked coriander.

Yield: 6 servings
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LAMB AND PINE NUT SAUSAGES
Preparation is easy

1 pound lamb meat (450 grams)
100 grams pine nuts
4 slices bacon
3 ounces lamb's liver (90 grams)
2 onions, peeled and diced
4 chopped garlic cloves
1-teaspoon fresh sage
1-teaspoon fresh rosemary
1-teaspoon fresh thyme
1-teaspoon fresh parsley
11/2 teaspoons salt (7 millilitres)
1-teaspoon sugar (5 millilitres)
2 teaspoons pepper (10 millilitres)
1-tablespoon sherry (15 millilitres)
1-teaspoon hazelnut oil
¾ cup heavy cream (175 millilitres)
1 egg
3 ounces of lamb, seared and coarsely chopped (90 grams)
2 feet of hog casing
Chicken bouillon as needed….

Preparation time is 2 hours

Put your lamb, bacon, liver, and onions into the meat grinder and grind through a medium die. Add the herbs and seasoning, sherry and salt. Put the forcemeat in a bowl, cover it and allow it to sit in the fridge for 45 minutes.

Then, put ¾ of the forcemeat into a food processor, whiz until a ball forms and then add the egg and slowly add the cream. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and add the remainder of the mixture, the pine nuts and the seared lamb. Mix well.

Using the sausage attachment, feed the sausage casing over the end. Push the forcemeat down and into the sausage casings, tying them off at 4-inch intervals. Set them aside to hang for an hour.

Bring the chicken stock to a simmer and poach the sausages for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove them from the liquid, cool and then grill them until browned. Serve with garlic mashed potato and berry chutney.

Yield: 6 servings
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Recipes courtesy of Chef Michael Bonacini of Toronto’s Oliver Bonacini Restaurants, including ‘Canoe’; ‘Auberge du Pommier’; ‘Biff’s’; ‘Jump Café’; & ‘Steakfrites’