Local free-range chicken stuffed with tarragon mousse with creamed leeks and a ragoût of broad beans, asparagus and wild mushrooms – by Simon Dow
Ingredients
(Serves four)
For the tarragon mousse
150g chicken breast
150g cream
Large pinch of finely chopped tarragon
Salt and pepper
For the chicken
4 x 200g free-range chicken breasts
For the white wine sauce
20g unsalted butter
25g shallots, sliced
5 sprigs of thyme
1 bay leaf
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
50g cream
100ml dry white wine
500ml chicken stock
175g unsalted butter (to finish)
For the leek fondue
2 large leeks, cut into a small dice
100g cream
1 clove of garlic
To finish
200g mushrooms
Butter
12 asparagus tips
100g broad beans
Method
For the mousse, blend chicken breast with a pinch of salt in a processor for about five minutes. Cool in fridge and repeat twice. Add 50g of cream and pass through fine sieve into a bowl. Place the bowl on ice and mix in remaining cream. Add the tarragon and season with salt and pepper.
Take each chicken breast, cut a pocket lengthways and fill with the mousse. Butter and season each breast, then place skin side down on to clingfilm. Roll up individually and fold in the ends. Place in fridge.
For white wine sauce, sweat shallots and garlic in 20g of butter without colouring. Add thyme and bay leaf and sweat for a further two minutes, add white wine and reduce to nothing. Add chicken stock and reduce by half, add cream and whisk in butter. Season and keep warm.
For leek fondue, trim and wash leeks, cut into a small dice, cook in boiling salted water. Once tender, refresh in iced water, strain and place on to a cloth to dry. Peel garlic and crush into a paste, add to cream and reduce until thick. Take 200g of cooked leek and fold it into cream, season with salt and pepper.
Heat a saucepan of hot water to 90ºC and poach each chicken breast for 12-15 minutes. Rest for a further 10 minutes, remove clingfilm. In a frying pan, slowly colour skin until golden and crisp in butter.
Meanwhile, pan-fry mushrooms in a little butter, salt and pepper, then add to white wine sauce. Cut asparagus tips to same length and peel broad beans from outer shell. Add to sauce and reheat.
Place creamed leeks in middle of each plate. Slice each breast into five rounds and place around outside of leeks. Serve three asparagus to each plate and spoon around mushrooms and broad beans with the sauce.
Simon Dow, head chef, Abode, Exeter, Devon
