Tarteletter med Honsesalat

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Small saucepan for poaching
• •Heavy frying pan
• •Wide pan for blanching
• •Mixing bowls
• •Slotted spoon
• •Sharp knife

Instructions

1. 1

   Poach the chicken

   Place the chicken breasts in a small saucepan with the carrot, onion, bay leaf, peppercorns, and a generous pinch of salt. Cover with cold water by about two centimetres. Bring it slowly to the gentlest simmer, then turn the heat down so the surface barely moves. Poach for twelve to fourteen minutes, until the chicken is just cooked through. Slow heat is the whole point. A hard boil tightens the muscle fibres and gives you dry, stringy chicken. A bare simmer keeps it tender and juicy.

   Take the pan off the heat and let the chicken cool in the poaching liquid. It carries on cooking gently and stays moist. This is the difference between chicken salad you want to eat and chicken salad you tolerate.
2. 2

   Crisp the bacon

   While the chicken cools, fry the bacon lardons in a dry pan over medium heat. No oil, no butter. The bacon renders its own fat as it cooks. Stir occasionally and let them go properly crisp and golden, about eight minutes. Lift them out with a slotted spoon onto kitchen paper and leave the rendered fat in the pan. You're going to use it.

3. 3

   Butter-fry the mushrooms

   Add the butter to the pan with the bacon fat and turn the heat up to medium-high. When the butter foams, tip in the mushrooms in a single layer. Don't crowd them and don't stir for the first two minutes. Mushrooms release water the moment they hit the pan, and if they sit in that water they boil instead of frying. Let them colour first, then stir, then let them colour again. You want them deep golden at the edges and firm to the bite. Season with salt at the end, never the beginning. Salt pulls water out and stops them browning. Tip them onto a plate to cool.

   If your mushrooms refuse to brown, your pan is too cool or too crowded. Cook them in two batches if you need to. The colour is the flavor.
4. 4

   Blanch the asparagus

   Bring a wide pan of well-salted water to the boil and prepare a bowl of iced water beside it. Drop the asparagus in and cook for ninety seconds, no longer. Lift them out immediately and plunge them into the ice water. The cold stops the cooking dead and locks the green in. Drainthem on a tea towel and cut into pieces about three centimetres long, keeping the tips whole.

5. 5

   Make the dressing

   In a large bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, creme fraiche, mustard, and lemon juice. Mayonnaise alone is too rich and too heavy for a summer salad. Creme fraiche brings a clean tang and a lighter body, and the mustard ties everything together. Season with salt and white pepper. White pepper is the Danish habit here. It blends in without specks and has a softer warmth than black.

6. 6

   Build the salad

   Lift the cooled chicken from its poaching liquid and pat dry. Tear it into bite-sized pieces with your fingers, following the grain. Tearing rather than cutting gives you irregular surfaces that hold the dressing better. Add the chicken, the cooled mushrooms, the bacon, and the asparagus to the bowl with the dressing. Fold everything together gently. Taste. Adjust the salt, the lemon, the pepper. You'll know when it's right.

7. 7

   Chill and rest

   Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least an hour. The salad needs this time. The flavors round out, the dressing settles into the chicken, and the salt finds every corner. A chicken salad eaten straight from the bowl and a chicken salad rested for an hour are not the same dish.

8. 8

   Warm the tarteletter

   Just before you assemble, warm the tarteletter in a 180C oven for four minutes. This is non-negotiable. Tarteletter from the box are slightly soft, and a quick pass through a hot oven brings back the shatter that defines them. Let them cool completely on a rack. A warm shell will wilt the cold salad, and a wilted shell defeats the whole point of the dish.

9. 9

   Fill and serve

   Spoon the chilled chicken salad into the cooled tarteletter, mounding it generously so it rises above the rim. Scatter chives and dill fronds across the top. Serve at once. If you're carrying these to a picnic, pack the salad in one container, the empty tarteletter in another, and assemble at the table. Filled tarteletter sit for fifteen minutes before the bottoms surrender. Tak for mad.

Chef Tips

• •Buy your tarteletter unless you're a confident pastry baker. Even Danish home cooks rely on the boxed kind from the supermarket, and there's no shame in it. The filling is the dish. The shells are the vehicle.
• •Green asparagus belongs to early summer in Denmark, May into June, and the season is short. If you're cooking in midsummer when the local crop has finished, this is the moment to use what's still good rather than chasing an imported version. Sugar snap peas or fresh peas blanched the same way will carry the dish beautifully.
• •Smoked Danish bacon is what you want, but any good smoked streaky bacon works. Avoid anything labelled 'low salt' or 'lean.' The salt and the fat are doing real work here.
• •Serve with a chilled glass of dry rose or a cold Danish lager. White wine sometimes feels too formal for a picnic dish; a cold beer is more honest.

Advance Preparation

• •The chicken salad can be made up to a day ahead and kept covered in the fridge. The flavors actually improve overnight.
• •Crisp the bacon and butter-fry the mushrooms the day before if it makes your timing easier. Store them separately and fold them into the dressed chicken when you're ready.
• •Never fill the tarteletter ahead. Carry the salad and the shells separately and assemble at the moment you serve. Filled tarteletter go soft within fifteen minutes.
• •If you're making this for a picnic, pack the salad in a chilled container with an ice pack and keep the tarteletter in a tin so they don't crush.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 320g)