Boudin Blanc with Mushrooms
This terrine-style boudin recipe isn't hard to prepare, since there’s no fussing with sausage casings. But it does take some time and organization. The process has three main steps: first, you make an infusion, which basically means cooking vegetables in milk and cream so that they give all their flavor to the liquids. The second step is preparing and cooking the terrine.Finally, when it’s cool, you slice the terrine and sauté those slices in a bit of butter. I like to make this terrine-style boudin the day before I want to eat it, since it takes on a better consistency and more flavor.The secret to good boudin blanc is making the mixture in which fat molecules from the milk and cream are bound by the egg yolks to form a smooth paste. Professional charcutiers have special machines to form this emulsion, but the recipe below doesn’t need any fancy equipment that you don’t already have in your kitchen.Also, most sausage recipes require buying and grinding fatback. But using a relatively moist cut like pork belly replaces this step. Gilles Verot, a charcutier with two shops in Paris, uses only pork belly in his boudin, and regularly makes over one ton of white sausage during the holiday season!
Equipment
- a food processor, a terrine mold or rectangular loaf pan (9x5x3 inches, or 23x13x8 cm)
Ingredients
- 8 ounces (225 g) chicken breasts, ground (ask your butcher)
- 8 ounces (225 g) pork belly, ground (ask your butcher)
- ½ tablespoon butter
- 1 ounce (30 g) mushrooms (I used 2 medium shiitake mushrooms), chopped finely
- 2 tablespoons dried mushrooms (ideally a mix of morels, porcini), plumped for 10 minutes in hot water
- 2-3 small slices of excellent-quality bread (about 2 ounces or 55 g) toasted lightly
- 1 egg
- 2 egg whites
- a bit of butter for the mold
Instructions
- Spread the ground meats around on a plate. Then wrap in film and place in the freezer for 1 hour.
- In the meantime, melt the ½ tablespoon of butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, and when it begins to foam, add the fresh mushrooms and lower the heat, sautéing slowly for about 4 minutes. Squeeze all the water out of the now-plumped (formerly dried) mushrooms. Chop them finely and add them to the sauté pan. Continue to sauté for 1 more minute, then set aside.
- Now make the milk infusion: in a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat, and when it begins to foam, lower the heat to medium-low and add the onion, leek, and carrot. Cook the vegetables, stirring often, for about 4-5 minutes. They should look softened, but not colored.
- Add the milk, cream, clove, bay leaf, and thyme, and bring to the boil over medium-high heat (watch this closely – milk can quickly boil over). Lower the heat to minimum, cover partially, and let simmer very gently for 20-30 minutes.
- Cut the bread slices into cubes about the size of your thumbnail. Preheat oven to 320°F (160°C). Strain the milk into a medium bowl and set aside.
- Remove the meats from the freezer and place them in the bowl of a food processor. Process them by alternating the pulse command and running continuously for about 3-4 minutes.
- Add the egg and egg whites, and continue to process. Then run the machine continuously, and very slowly and carefully pour in the still-hot milk. Continue to process, stop to add the bread cubes, and then continue until you have a smooth mixture.
- Add the salt, pepper, nutmeg, and Port, and pulse once more to mix.
- Stir in the mushrooms, and turn the mixture into a buttered terrine mold or loaf pan.
- Cover with aluminum foil or the terrine mold’s cover and bake in a hot water bath for 40 minutes, or until a knife poked into the center comes out clean.
- When ready to eat, slice the boudin into 1-inch slices (2.5cm), and sauté both sides of the boudin in a bit of butter over medium heat. Or roll cubes of boudin into puff pastry and bake according to pastry instructions. Bon app’!
Notes
makes 4-5 main course servings, or about 15-20 puff pastry bites
© Allison Zinder