Vol-au-vent, basic version

This is a simplified version of vol-au-vent that many of you may enjoy.

I used 3 entire chickenlegs this time instead of a whole chicken. Although when making it with a whole chicken you could store some away in your freezer.

Start by making chickenstock; put whole legs in a large cookingpot, add roughly chopped onion, leek, carrot, celerysticks. Also peppercorns, bay leaf, a little salt. Add cold water until the legs are under water. Put to a boil, reduce fire to low and let simmer for 45-60 minutes. If any scum floating on top; take it off with a ladle. Take out the chickenlegs, take skin off, take all meat from the bones and preserve. Only if you want to; bones and everything else can be simmered for another 30 minutes in the stock again to get more flavor.

Make the sauce; basically it's like wellknown béchamel, but made with the stock instead of milk, let's call it a velouté. You can make it with half milk, half stock; you're the chef.

Make a roux with equal parts butter and flour and let cook and dry for a while on low fire. Keep stirring and NO coloring of the roux! Now moist with a few ladles of chickenstock and stir. Keep adding stock until you reach the desired thickness. S&P. Add cream as you wish and certainly essential; some lemonjuice, in this case from 1/2 lemon. No more boiling when the cream is added! Add meat. Done. A little parcely on top if you like. I used some chopped wild garlic.

Serve with handcut fries or whatever you like. This dish is a classic in my country, homemade fries are a must to most of us, homemade potato croquettes even better!

The posh version of vol-au-vent is a little more elaborate. There will be tiny boiled veal meatballs in it too, and mushrooms. It will be served in a puff pastry cup with a tablespoon of Hollandaise on top. 

The one-person-pastry shell is called a bouchée or a vidée. Filling that kind of pastry with a chicken preparation makes it a Bouchée à la Reine. In ancient times there were big pastry shells filled to serve to up to 8 persons. They were called vol-au-vent.

The name vol au vent is still in use in my country for the whole preparation, served with or without the pastry and always with chicken.

In France they will probably use the name bouchée for the whole dish and for the pastry.

And yes, I have eaten a puff pastry in a fish shape, filled with seafood, also in a velouté.

Seems the original was also never served with fries or anything else. It was a dish on it's own.

Simplyfied means without the pastry, without the veal meatballs, without the mushrooms, without (I forgot) sweatbread, without the Hollandaise...

Quote:

Originally Posted by panini 

... a Vol au vent is a one person Puff shell  with the center scored and saved. A one bite vol au vent is known as

a bouchee usually used for hors devours...

Hey Pan, have you ever heard of the term vidé or vidée while in Europe? Over here it's frequently used for both the entire dish as well as the shell.

Seems vidé(e) refers to what you said "with the center scored and saved". The freshly baked shells have to be emptied, hence the name vidé(e) which means literally "emptied". That small piece of pastry is often carefully removed and used as the lid of the puff pastry shell.

The term bouchée is also pointing at what you said. Bouchée simply means a mouthful, although in France it's also used for the bigger one person version.

Ah well, many dishes have indeed another content depending on the region they are cooked in.

Don't know about other parts of the world, but this dish is a big favorite of many people around this part of the world. It's been around since forever.