Cannelloni of Chicken Mousse (2007)

Based on Roberto Donna's class at Galileo 2003-02-09. In class this was "cannelloni of chicken and duck liver mousse with fava beans in a sauce of chanterelle mushrooms".  I made this several times to get the flavor (light and dark meat and liver) and texture right (ice, cream, egg). I've stuffed it into pasta colored with chlorophyll, steamed to cook, and topped with a little spicy red sauce. Ten ounces of pasta made 14 thin (Atlas #7) 5x6 inch cannelloni sheets. I've also filled Chard leaves, as below.  And I've made a similar filling with salmon: 12 ounce Salmon, 3 Egg White, 3 ounce Cream.

Serves 4

8    ounce  Chicken white meat, chilled

8    ounce  Chicken dark meat, chilled

4    ounce  Chicken Liver, chilled

4     Egg Whites (6 ounces by weight)

2    tsp    Salt

1    tsp    Black Pepper, ground fine

3/8  cup    Cream (3 fluid ounce)

Process Chicken meat; you might want to add an ice cube or two to keep it cool and loosen it a bit but that will soften the texture so you might have to cut back on the cream later.

While processing, add Egg Whites, Salt, Pepper and process.

And Liver and continue processing until very smooth.

Add Cream or process, but do not overwork or you'll create butter. 

The final texture should be almost like a pudding, it will firm up on cooking.

For Pasta:

2 Cup Durum Flour, 2 Tbs Chlorophyll, 2-3 whole Eggs, 1 Tbs Milk.

Roll out into sheets you can see your hand through (thinnest setting on my on

my Atlas, #7).  Mine are 5-6" wide and I cut the sheets into 5x6" rectangles.

Drop each sheet into salted boiling water about 30 seconds; it will swell in

all dimensions.  Remove with a spider and drop in ice water to stop the

cooking; remove and drain both sides on dish towel.

Pipe the chicken filling near long edge of each sheet and roll the sheet along the shorter dimension.

Place parchment on the bottom of the steamer to prevent sticking, steam until the chicken and pasta/chard is cooked, 10 minutes.

For Chard wrappers:

We had giant leaves in the garden and had to blanch them so they wouldn't crack when rolling; shocking in ice water was not needed.

Dollop about 2 Tbs filling near one end, spread over 2/3 of the length of the leaves and roll jelly-roll style; this gives a better texture -- a crunchy lightness -- than rolling like the cannelloni pasta above.

Don't wrap too tight as the filling will expand during cooking.

Place a raw chard leaf on the bottom of the steamer to prevent sticking,  steam until the chicken and pasta/chard is cooked, 10 minutes.

This is almost finger food but the veins in were a bit too chewy to bite through cleanly.

What other leaves work? cabbage seems good, maybe collards; spinach would be too much work, basil out of the question.