Vol-au-vent
Vol-au-vent are delicious pastry cups often filled with a creamy mixture of mushrooms, chicken and other meats. These delights are typical of French and Belgian cuisines so don’t forget to try some when travelling in the area. As the name suggests, they’re as light as a breeze thanks to the soft and flaky puff pastry and they go really well with fries and a real Belgian beer on the side.
Try the recipe below so you can continue enjoying these goodies at home, whenever you like.
Vol-au-vent
Ingredients
- 3 lbs chicken whole
- 8 Parisian mushrooms medium white, cleaned and chopped into bite-sized pieces
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 1 medium carrot
- 2 stalks stalks
- 1 sprig rosemary
- 3 bay leaves
- 4 cloves
- 10.5 oz ground veal or ground pork
- 2 oz unsalted butter
- 2 oz flour
- 1/2 cup cream
- salt
- pepper
- 7 hollow round puff pastries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180° C/ 356° F.
- Place a sheet of parchment paper on a baking tray and place the hollow puff pastries on top. Bake according to the package instructions or until golden brown.
- Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, sauté the onion until it begins to soften. Add the carrot, celery, garlic, cloves, bay leaves and rosemary and season generously with salt and pepper. Let the aromas of the spices release and the vegetables soften.
- Place the chicken in the pan and stir well. Add about 7 cups of water to the pan or until the chicken is fully submerged and set the heat to high until the water begins to boil.
- Allow the mixture to cook for 10 minutes on high heat, then turn it down to a simmer and continue cooking for 30 minutes. Take the saucepan off the heat and set aside to cool completely for 45 minutes.
- In a bowl, combine the pork(or veal) with a dash of salt and pepper. Form 1/2- ounce meatballs by rolling bits of mince between your palms and place them in a large bowl or plate. You should get about 20 or so meatballs.
- Cover the bowl with cling film and place in the fridge while we continue preparing the rest of the ingredients.
- Drain the chicken stock from the saucepan into a separate container and reserve. Remove the meat from the bones and shred the larger pieces of meat into bite sized pieces.
- Strain the chicken stock into a large pan to remove vegetable chunks and bring it back to a simmer. Add the mushrooms and the meatballs we placed in the fridge.
- Cook for 5 minutes and transfer the meatballs and mushrooms together with the shredded chicken.
- Melt the butter in a frying pan and add the flour, stirring to form a roux. Add a ladle of stock and stir until the flour and butter mixture dissolves. Add another 3-4 cups of stock, stirring continuously as the sauce thickens.
- Finally, add the cream to the sauce and bring to a simmer, then take off the heat. Add the chicken, meatballs and mushrooms back in and ladle the cream and meat combination into the round puff pastries.
- Sprinkle with some chopped fresh parsley or watercress, and serve with fries, rice, or mashed potatoes.
Notes
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
