Candice's 2020 Christmas Recap
Capon
Take it out of the fridge two hours before cooking. Season the inside and outside with salt and pepper and brush with softened butter. Place it in a dish with 10 cl of white wine and 10 cl of water. Put in the preheated oven (250°), and cook for half an hour. Then lower the temperature to 180/200° for an hour and a half. Baste very often with the cooking juices to prevent the meat from drying out. At the end of cooking, cover it with aluminum foil.
Low temperature cooking - in a traditional oven at 150°, counting one hour per kilo.
Christmas cookies
Preparation: 20 mins. – Cooking: 12 mins. – Rest: 30 min.
350g of flour
250g butter
1 sachet of vanilla sugar
120 g of sugar
2 egg yolks
Zest of 1 lemon
1 pinch of salt
1 packet of baking powder
+ 1 tbsp. at s. cocoa powder for chocolate shortbread
+ 1 large tbsp. c. cinnamon for those with spices
In a bowl, combine the flour and baking powder. Add the sugar, vanilla sugar, salt and zest. Mix. Add the softened butter, cut into pieces, and the egg yolks. Work the dough with your fingers until you obtain a soft dough. Form a ball, wrap it in cling film and place it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200° (th. 7). Roll out the dough with a rolling pin (flour the board, the roller and the top of the dough) until it is a good 5 mm thick. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters. Run the blade of a long knife between the board and the dough so that the cookies come off easily. Place the cookies on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake for 12 minutes.
Risotto with sage, parmesan and pancetta chips
400g of Arborio rice
200g thinly sliced pancetta (or possibly raw ham)
1/2 liter of milk
1/2 liter of water
1 stock cube
75g mascarpone
4 sage leaves
A bouquet garni
100ml of white wine
1 chopped onion
1 tbsp. c. grated nutmeg
75g of parmesan plus a piece to serve at the table
Salt and pepper from the mill
Boil the milk and water with 4 sage leaves, the bouquet garni, the stock cube and the nutmeg. Leave the hot liquid on the heat. You will need it throughout the cooking of the risotto.
In a saucepan, sauté the onion over low heat in a generous amount of olive oil.
Sprinkle the rice in and stir well to coat with the fat. Moisten with wine. When it is absorbed, pour a first ladle of milk and let the rice absorb the liquid. Then count 18 min. Cooking.
As soon as the rice has absorbed most of the liquid, put a ladle back in the pan. Pepper.
Place the slices of pancetta on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 5 to 6 minutes. at 220° (th. 8-9).
At the end of cooking the risotto, add the mascarpone then the parmesan. Mix and cover 1 min. before serving with parmesan shavings and pancetta chips on top.
Roast deer
Start by preheating your oven to 210°. Bind and tie your roast deer so that the meat remains very tender during cooking. Salt it on all sides. Place the roast in a baking dish. Brush with a drizzle of olive oil. Sprinkle with a few knobs of butter. Arrange the garlic cloves around the meat. Cook the roast in the hot oven for 35 minutes for a meat of 1 kg. For low temperature cooking, sear the roast for 10 minutes at 240°C. Continue the cooking time of 10 minutes per 100 g of meat in an oven at 85°C.
After cooking, deglaze the dish with veal stock and liquid cream, scraping up the cooking juices.
Coffee Mocha Buttercream
150g unsalted butter (room temperature)1 pinch of salt100g sugar1 whole egg1/2 tbsp. c. vanilla extract1 cold coffee base, mixed with a teaspoon of soluble coffee or coffee liqueurWhip the egg, sugar, salt, vanilla. Add the butter in pieces and whisk. Add the coffee and whisk.
Vanilla Buttercream
175g soft butter + 300g impalpable sugar + 1 vanilla pod
Place the butter in a mixing bowl and beat until it thickens.
Add the sugar little by little while continuing to beat.
Add the seeds from the split and scraped vanilla pod.
Chocolate buttercream
175g of soft butter + 250g of impalpable sugar + 50g of cocoa
Place the butter in a mixing bowl and beat until it thickens.
Add the sugar little by little while continuing to beat.
Add the cocoa.
Roasted scallops with apples
6 scallops + 4 Granny apples + 1 tbsp. at s. of lemon juice + 50g of sugar + salt and ground pepper.
Peel and cut 3 apples into cubes and stew them for 15 minutes. in a saucepan with the sugar. Book. Finely chop the remaining apple and sprinkle with lemon juice. Fill your verrines with compote, cover with diced apple.
Cook your scallops. Preheat the oven to 200° (th. 6-7). Heat a dry pan. Cook the seasoned scallops for 30 sec. on each side and bake for 2 minutes. so that they are cooked through. Arrange the walnuts on top of the verrine.
3 chocolate log
For the sponge cake
4 eggs
120g of flour
120 g of sugar
1 pinch of salt
Preheat the oven to 180° (th. 6).
Separate the yolks from the egg whites.
Make a ribbon: mix the yolks with the sugar until pale.
Gradually add the flour with a spatula, mixing well. Book.
In a large bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff with a pinch of salt. Add a first heaped tablespoon of firm egg white to the sugar/flour/yolk mixture, mix well. Gently fold the rest of the whites into the first mixture and homogenize the preparation with a spatula.
Line the baking sheet with baking paper and pour the batter onto it. Bake 12 to 15 min.
Then place a clean, damp towel on the work surface. Transfer the sponge cake with its baking paper from the baking sheet to the tea towel. Cover the biscuit with a second sheet of baking paper and roll it up so that the sponge cake is slightly moistened. Unroll, remove the towel and the top baking sheet. Re-roll the sponge cake on itself, unhooking it from its bottom baking paper. Place the roll of sponge cake on a wire rack and unroll it.
For the ganache:
200g 70% cocoa chocolate
200 ml heavy cream
Chocolate buttercream
175g of soft butter + 250g of impalpable sugar + 50g of cocoa
Place the butter in a mixing bowl and beat until it thickens.
Add the sugar little by little while continuing to beat.
Add the cocoa.
Traditional chocolate mousse
1 egg per 40g of chocolate (count 3 eggs and 120g of chocolate for a standard amount of mousse)
If you wish, add 30g of sugar to the egg whites, in two batches, when whipping them.
Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie (or in the microwave), let cool before incorporating the egg yolks, lightly beaten with a fork. Whip the egg whites with the sugar and mix delicately with the foam in the making. Place in the fridge for 2 hours. before serving.
Roasted baby potatoes
Pre-cook them for 5 min. in boiling water then continue cooking them whole or cut in a large frying pan with high edges in a good quantity of oil and garlic. Season before serving.
Red fruit insert
220g of red fruits
50g of water
50g of sugar
1 and a half sheets of gelatin
Stew the fruit with the water and sugar until reduced. Add the softened gelatin to a bowl of cold water and wrung out by hand in the skillet off the heat. Whisk with a whisk to dissolve the gelatin.
Quick sauce without the fuss
Sweat 1 shallot, deglaze with 200ml of white wine, 1 tbsp. c. powdered chicken stock, 1 bay leaf and the juices and scraped turkey juices (if necessary loosened with a small glass of water). Bring to the boil, let reduce, strain through a fine strainer and adjust the seasoning.
Game sauce
The pepper sauce is suitable for the saddle and for large pieces. For ¼ L of sauce:
Melt 70 g of butter and add 150 g of ham cut into thin strips, 1 chopped onion and 1 carrot. Let steam gently. Powder with flour, stir, moisten with 1/2 L of chicken broth. Mix. Add 2 dl of filtered marinade (in which the game has marinated), a crushed clove of garlic, a bouquet garni. Salt. Simmer over low heat until the sauce has reduced by half (+/- 1 hour). Add 1 tbsp. c. cracked pepper. Let simmer for another 15 minutes. Pass the sauce through a sieve.
Derivatives
Venison sauce: pepper sauce + 2 tbsp. at s. red currant jelly.
The Grand Veneur sauce: pepper sauce + 1 dl of game blood (or pork, or rabbit). To bind a sauce to the blood: put the blood in a bowl, mix it carefully with 3 or 4 tbsp . at s. of sauce taken and only after this operation, pour the whole into the sauce and mix well with a whisk.
The Chasseur sauce: pepper sauce + 150 g button mushrooms + 1 tbsp. at s. of tomato puree.
Marinade for game
Note: marinades are mainly used for furred game and wild duck, to the exclusion, or almost, of all other game birds.
The marinade can be raw or cooked, but the latter is better. Boil a good red wine and flambé to remove the ethers. Add onions, carrots, shallots, thyme, parsley stalks, 1 head of garlic, bay leaf, a few juniper berries, 2 cloves and a little orange peel. Boil over very low heat for 30 minutes. Let cool. Never salt a marinade: salt hardens the meat. Do not use a metal dish or cutlery, it gives a taste to the meat.
Warning: only put the meat in the marinade when it is cold, at least 12 hours and no more than 24 hours. Do not wait for the moment of cooking to take out the meat, it should ideally rest for 1 day to dry. Even when drained after marinating, it retains moisture which, with the heat, will form a crust and cause the meat to toughen.
Quails with mushrooms and mustard
4 quails, gutted and trimmed
300 g oyster mushrooms
300 g of chanterelles
300g porcini mushrooms
1 large onion
3 tbsp. tablespoons light liquid cream with 8% fat
1 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. mustard
salt, pepper
Peel and finely chop the onion. Wash the mushrooms thoroughly. Chanterelles and oyster mushrooms are more delicate than porcini mushrooms. They must therefore be cleaned carefully. Chop them finely. Fry the chopped onion in a thick-bottomed casserole dish with a little butter.
Proceed to cooking the quails. Add the quails, sauté them for 7 minutes, turning them several times, salt and pepper. Add the mushrooms, fresh cream and mustard. Mix well and cover. Let simmer for about 10 minutes over low heat.
