Pain de Faisan en Belle-vue

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •1-quart (950 ml) straight-sided timbale or Charlotte mould
• •Food processor and fine-mesh sieve
• •Small heavy saucepan and balloon whisk
• •Large bowl for an ice bath
• •Instant-read thermometer
• •Thin slicing knife

Instructions

1. 1

   Choose the pheasant

   Use a young, tender pheasant close in size to the chicken required by the parent preparation. A mature wild cock can remain stringy even after careful cooking, while a young farmed bird gives enough supple breast for the decorative collops and enough leg meat and skin for the purée. If the bird is wild, feel carefully for shot and remove every fragment before cooking.

   Do not substitute pheasant breasts alone. The parent formula relies on the remaining meat and skin for body, flavour, and the correct proportion of purée to buttered sauce.
2. 2

   Follow the parent preparation

   Prepare Pain de Volaille Froid (No. 1709) as the complete parent preparation, replacing its tender chicken with the pheasant and changing nothing else. When the linked method tells you to poêler (covered-roast in butter), keep the bird pale and baste it carefully; colour would muddy both the purée and the jelly. Cook only until the thickest part reaches 165°F (74°C), then cool it promptly. Keep the prescribed strong veal stock, burned brandy, yolks, real butter, gelatin, truffled collops, rice cushion, and jelly croûtons in their proper sequence.

3. 3

   Protect the emulsion

   At the butter-and-yolk stage of the parent preparation, keep the reduced poêling liquor warm but never simmering. Whisk in the butter gradually, letting each addition disappear before the next; pheasant is lean, and this emulsion supplies the tenderness the cold meat needs. If the sauce turns oily, stop adding butter. Whisk a few drops of cold water in a clean bowl, then draw the broken sauce into it a spoonful at a time. Ça se rattrape. Once smooth, add the dissolved gelatin and pass the sauce through the fine sieve as directed.

4. 4

   Judge the jelly

   Set a spoonful of the prepared jelly on a chilled saucer before lining the mould. After several minutes it should hold a clean edge while trembling under the spoon, and it should remain transparent enough to see the saucer beneath it. If fat clouds the jelly, chill it until the fat hardens, lift that film away, then warm the jelly only until liquid and strain it through damp fine cloth. If it sets too firmly, remelt it gently and loosen it with a little clear stock; if too softly, reinforce it with a small amount of bloomed gelatin. Never boil it.

5. 5

   Build the belle-vue

   Set the one-quart mould in a bowl of ice and coat it with successive thin films of jelly, chilling each before adding the next. One thick pour makes a rubbery shell. Dip each truffle slice in half-melted jelly, attach it to a pheasant collop, then arrange the collops against the bottom and sides so the truffle faces outward when unmoulded. If a piece slides, stop and return the mould to the ice until the surface becomes tacky, then lift the decoration back into place with a teaspoon.

6. 6

   Fill and set

   Use a food processor in place of hand-pounding, but keep the fine sieving that follows; the processor is home-kitchen scaffolding, while the sieve is what makes the purée close and smooth. Combine the sieved pheasant meat and skin with the buttered sauce exactly as the parent preparation directs. Spoon it into the lined mould without disturbing the collops, pressing gently into the edges and tapping the mould against a folded towel to release hidden air. Seal with a final layer of jelly and chill for at least six hours, preferably overnight. Do not freeze it to hurry the set, because frozen aspic weeps when thawed.

7. 7

   Turn out cleanly

   Form the rice from the parent preparation into a low, chilled cushion on the serving platter. Dip the mould in warm water for about five seconds, dry it, place the platter over it, and invert both together. If the pain does not release, wrap the mould briefly in a warm towel; do not pull at the jelly. Surround it with the fine jelly croûtons and keep it cold until serving. Cut with a thin knife dipped in warm water and wiped dry between slices. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Choose a young pheasant with pale, supple legs and no strong gamey odour. Technique comes first, but no amount of careful poêling will turn a tough old bird into the tender collops this cold preparation requires.
• •Pain de Volaille Froid (No. 1709) is the complete parent formula. This entry changes the bird and nothing else, so resist adding liver, cream, herbs, wine, or extra brandy; each would pull the filling away from the book's clean buttered pheasant character.
• •Test the jelly on a chilled saucer before it touches the mould. A good aspic trembles, cuts cleanly, and melts readily in the mouth; too much gelatin turns the belle-vue into packaging.
• •Serve with a dry Champagne or a mineral white Burgundy. The wine needs enough freshness to meet the butter and jelly without trampling the quiet flavour of pheasant.

Advance Preparation

• •Prepare and mould the pain at least six hours before serving; overnight is better. The full set gives the decorations time to hold and the buttered pheasant filling time to become evenly cold.
• •If preparing the rice cushion ahead, cool the cooked rice promptly in a shallow container, cover it, and refrigerate it. Shape it on the platter shortly before unmoulding.
• •Keep the finished pain covered and refrigerated, and serve it within two days. Unmould no more than thirty minutes before the table so the jelly stays bright and firm.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 215g)