Suprêmes de Pigeonneaux à la Saint-Clair

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy lidded sauté pan large enough for four squab crowns
• •Food processor with chilled bowl and blade
• •Fine-mesh sieve and flexible scraper
• •Two small teaspoons for shaping quenelles
• •Instant-read thermometer
• •Small sharp boning knife
• •Wide mushroom sauté pan

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the pigeons

   Separate the legs without cutting into the breast crowns. Skin and bone the legs, trim away every visible tendon, and cut the meat into small pieces. Keep this meat, the processor bowl, and its blade thoroughly cold. Trim the crowns neatly, remove any pinfeathers, and return them to the cold while the mousseline is made. Reserve the bones and giblets for another stock.

   A butcher can remove the legs while leaving each pair of breasts on its crown. Say clearly that the crowns must remain intact for gentle poêling.
2. 2

   Build the mousseline

   Process the cold leg meat with 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and a pinch of white pepper until it becomes smooth and tacky. Add the egg white and process only until absorbed. With the machine running, pour in 6 tablespoons (90 ml / 90 g) of the cold cream in a thin stream, reserving the rest for adjustment. Press the mousseline, a cream-lightened forcemeat, through a fine sieve and keep it over ice. If it develops a greasy sheen or looks grainy, it has warmed. Stop, chill it over ice for ten minutes, then pulse briefly until it binds again. Ça se rattrape.

3. 3

   Poach the quenelles

   Bring 2 cups (480 ml / 480 g) of the poultry stock to a bare tremble, about 180°F to 185°F (82°C to 85°C). Shape one test quenelle, a small dumpling, between two wet teaspoons to the size of a small olive. Poach it gently until firm and cooked through, about 4 minutes, then taste. If it spreads, chill the mousseline for fifteen minutes before trying again. If it is springy rather than tender, beat in the reserved cream one teaspoon at a time. Shape and poach about 24 quenelles in batches, never allowing the stock to boil, until their centers reach 165°F (74°C). Lift them into a shallow dish with enough strained poaching stock to cover and keep them moist.

4. 4

   Make the velouté

   Melt 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g) of the butter in a small saucepan. Stir in the flour and cook gently for 2 minutes without allowing the roux to colour. Gradually whisk in 1 1/4 cups (300 ml / 300 g) of the hot strained poaching stock, then simmer very softly for 15 minutes, stirring along the bottom. This poultry velouté is the pale roux-thickened stock sauce that will carry the onions. If it lumps, do not attack it with more flour. Whisk in a spoonful of hot stock and pass it through the fine sieve. Keep it warm.

5. 5

   Poêle the crowns

   Heat the oven to 340°F (170°C). Spread the sliced onions in a thick, even bed inside a heavy lidded pan just large enough to hold the four crowns. Dot them with 4 tablespoons (60 ml / 57 g) of the butter. Season the crowns with 1 teaspoon of the salt and 1/2 teaspoon of white pepper, settle them breast-side up on the onions, and spoon melted butter over them. Apply Poëlings (No. 250): cover tightly, cook without added liquid, and baste with the butter every 4 minutes. Remove the crowns after 14 to 18 minutes, when the breasts register 129°F to 133°F (54°C to 56°C); they must remain underdone for carving and the brief final warming. If onion edges begin to tan, lower the heat and remove those slices immediately. Do not add stock, which would turn the poêling into a braise.

6. 6

   Sieve the onion sauce

   Transfer the crowns to a warm plate and cover loosely. Leave the cooking butter with the onions, add 1 cup (240 ml / 240 g) of the velouté, and simmer gently for 10 minutes so the stock absorbs the flavor held in the butter. Skim away only the excess fat after this simmer. Blend briefly, then press the onions and sauce firmly through a fine sieve into a clean saucepan. The sauce should be ivory, glossy, and thick enough to nap a spoon. If it is heavy, loosen it with strained poaching stock; if thin, reduce it before adding the quenelles. If butter beads on the surface, warm the sauce gently and whisk in a spoonful of velouté. Ça se rattrape. Add the quenelles and hold them at the barest heat.

7. 7

   Toss the cèpes

   Melt the remaining 3 tablespoons (45 ml / 43 g) of butter in a wide pan over medium-high heat. Add the cèpes in one uncrowded layer, working in batches if necessary, and toss until tender with bronze edges and a butter-bright sheen. Season with the remaining salt and white pepper. If the mushrooms release a puddle, lift them out, reduce that liquid until only butter remains, then return them for the final toss. The pyramid needs cèpes that hold themselves, not mushrooms swimming in their own water.

8. 8

   Raise the fillets

   Warm the shallow Croûtes et Croustades (No. 2393) for 5 minutes in the low oven. Cut each breast fillet cleanly from its crown, following the breastbone with a small sharp knife, then remove the pale skin. Check the center. If a fillet is rarer than intended, lay it in the warm onion sauce for 30 to 60 seconds, only until the final temperature reaches roughly 140°F to 145°F (60°C to 63°C). Do not simmer it. The sauce can finish an underdone breast, but nothing can make an overcooked one tender again.

9. 9

   Assemble Saint-Clair

   Set the warm croustade on a heated serving platter. Build the buttered cèpes into a low pyramid at its center and arrange the eight skinned breast fillets over them, leaning upward without crushing the pastry. Lift the quenelles from the sauce. Coat the pigeon lightly with the onion velouté, arrange the quenelles in an even ring around it, and finish with a narrow thread of warm glace de viande around the sauce. Carry it to the table immediately, while the croustade remains crisp and the sauce still gleams. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Ask for young farmed squab with plump breasts and clean, sweet-smelling flesh. Technique first, always, but this pale preparation leaves nowhere for tired poultry to hide. If frozen birds are your honest option, thaw them slowly in the cold and dry them thoroughly.
• •Fresh cèpes are splendid when the season offers them. At other times, use good frozen cèpes, thawed and pressed dry. Dried cèpes can perfume a sauce, but they cannot make the buttery pyramid this preparation requires.
• •The classical breast is served rose because the crowns are deliberately removed underdone and briefly warmed after carving. Use reliably handled farmed squab. For pregnant, elderly, or immunocompromised diners, cook the breast meat to 165°F (74°C), accepting that it will be firmer.
• •Serve a restrained red Burgundy or another supple Pinot Noir. Heavy tannin bullies both the pigeon and the pale onion sauce; the wine should follow the cèpes, not trample them.
• •Do not assemble early. Velouté softens pastry with great efficiency, a useful talent in many dishes and the wrong one here. Sauce the croustade only when everyone is ready to sit.

Advance Preparation

• •Prepare the shallow Croûtes et Croustades (No. 2393) up to one day ahead. Cool it completely, keep it airtight at room temperature, and refresh it in a low oven immediately before assembly.
• •The mousseline quenelles can be poached one day ahead, cooled quickly in their strained poaching stock, covered, and refrigerated. Warm them gently in the finished onion sauce, never at a boil.
• •The pale poultry velouté can be made earlier the same day. Press buttered parchment directly against its surface, chill if holding longer than two hours, and reheat gently before adding it to the poëling onions.
• •Break down the pigeons earlier in the day and keep the leg meat and breast crowns covered in the cold. The bones may be used to strengthen the poultry stock, but the finished stock must be strained and cooled before the mousseline work begins.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 575g)