Sometime last year I had lunch at Caveau a great little restaurant in Wollongong. Head chef at Caveau is Peter Sheppard, a protege of Liam Tomlin. Anyway, the lunch special on that day was a chicken ballontine with potato puree, mushrooms, buttered spinach & cepe(porcini) sauce. The chicken was cooked perfectly, I am still trying to work on my chicken doness radar, my chicken is always seems overdone. The chicken at caveau was the best I’ve had in a while, it actually took me back to the roast chickens from Kenchic outlets in the 80′s. Back in those days Kenchic roast chickens were done so well, plus the chickens here in Kenya still tasted like chicken.

Below is what the Caveau meal looked like done by a real pro. The spinach was buttery beautiful, chicken was amazing, those two little button mushroom pieces were amazing. Can’t remember what the cepe tasted like though…

Ok back to my cooking

Flipping through Jacques Pepin La Techique, I found the technique on how to debone half a chicken to make a small ballotine. Deboning was lots of fun, it took me a while(5 mins, pro’s would do it in seconds), just make sure you have a really sharp knife, with a sharp knife you won’t hurt yourself plus you will cut through the chicken like you are cutting soft butter.

The stuffing in the ballotine is just the thigh & leg meat diced up with a little cream, coriander, salt & white pepper. Mushrooms & spinach would also be great as stuffing along with the diced chicken.

In this dish also I incorporated a carrot jus, the recipe was from Justin North’s French Lessons. I have been looking at this jus recipe for a while, just could not figure what it would taste like. Maybe just like carrots, sometimes I expect some uber-new taste experience, but I have come to appreciate when something simple just tastes like what it is. This jus is so simple, its just carrots, bit of thyme, salt, pepper,butter & water. Treat this ingredients with care & you have something beautiful. In his book Justin recommends this jus to be served with roast poultry, meats or even as salad dressing.

The chicken ballotine

• Debone half a chicken, take off thigh & leg meat.
• Dice up thigh & leg meat, add some cream, coriander, salt & pepper
• The deboned chicken will consist of the breast & lots of skin. Try & even out the flatness breast by slicing off the top. Place extra breast meat on areas of bare skin.
• Place the diced up meat on the centre. Roll up into a long sausage & tie it off with string or whatever you can think off. I used thin rolled up strips of aluminium foil(lol!). Just tie it loosely, the chicken expands while cooking…. it does.
• Season skin with salt & pepper.
• Roast in 210 degree celsius oven until done…. I did mine for about 25 minutes.
• Let it rest before you slice it up.

The carrot jus

• Take 1 large carrot, peel it. Take the peelings & put into a saucepan, also add into the saucepan about 250mls of water, a sprig of thyme. Bring this to a boil, then simmer for about 15 minutes. Drain, reserving the stock, discard the peelings. This results in a fragrant carrot stock.
• Slice the carrot finely, sweat the sliced carrot,butter & sprig of thyme in a sauce pan for a few minutes, then add the carrot stock. Simmer for about 10 minutes.
• Now grab your blender, pour stock into it & about half the sliced carrots. Whiz until smooth.
• Pass jus through a sieve, done!!!

Potato Puree

• Do it the way you like, mine was just a potato, cream,milk, salt & pepper…. Too easy

Assembly

• Jam the potato puree at centre of bowl, pour some of the jus around it. Then place three slices of chicken on top….. doneskis!!!

Had some uncooked pumpkin leftover in my fridge and my carton of cream was approaching its used by date, it got me thinking Veloute, Veloute……

Adapted this recipe from Justin North’s Potato Veloute recipe from his “French Lessons” cookbook. Along with the veloute, I made a thyme chantilly which is a savoury whipped cream flavoured with thyme leaves & a bit of lemon juice. The chantilly was amazing, but next time i’ll infuse the thyme into the cream longer, for a more intense flavour hit.

Also in this recipe is my favourite saute medium, extra virgin olive oil & unsalted butter. Something magical happens when you combine this two fats/oils. Works great on my palate, I don’t know about everyone else?

Pumpkin Veloute

• 20 grams butter
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
• 4 sprigs of thyme (I’m addicted to this herb)
• 200 grams pumpkin
• 800 mls white chicken stock
• 50 mls cream
• 1 tsp of lemon juice
• Salt & white pepper

2. Melt the butter with olive oil on saucepan.
3. Add onions, garlic & thyme and season with salt & pepper.
4. Sweat under low heat until onion is soft & translucent.
5. Add pumpkin and sweat for another 2 minutes.
6. Add chicken stock, bring to the boil & season.
7. Lower heat and simmer until pumpkin is very soft.
8. Add cream, bring soup back to a simmer.
9. Spoon into blender, and whiz it to a smooth puree.
10. Check seasoning, the pass it through a fine sieve.

Thyme Chantilly

• 50 mls of chilled cream.
• 1 tbsp of thyme leaves (fresh, quit the dried stuff).
• 1 tsp of lemon juice.
• Pinch of Salt.

2. Whisk cream until it thickens to ribbon stage.
3. Fold in thyme leaves, salt & lemon juice.
4. Whisk to soft peaks.
5. Chill until ready to use.

Serve Pumpkin veloute with dollop of thyme chantilly & croutons.