Sunday, August 9, 2009

Vol-au-vents

Well I'm finally back to blogging some recipes after more than a very eventful year! My little girl is now 15 months old and I think she's going to be a foodie just like her elder brother (he just baked a carrot cake with only minimal help from me) ... I just started catering for small events and finger foods for office meetings, so here are a couple recipes from my last order:


Vol-au-vents:

1. Frozen vol-au-vent shells (you can make these from scratch but the ready made options make things very simple): 1 dozen or as per your requirements.
2. Basic white sauce:
- Warm 30 gms butter in a saucepan.
- Add 30 gms all purpose flour and continuously whisk on a low flame till cooked but without the flour changing colour.
- Gradually add part of approx one quart milk and whisk to remove lumps.
- Pour in the reamining milk and stir till sauce thickens and coats the back of wooden spoon.
- Remove from flame, add a dot of butter to prevent a skin from forming and set aside.
3. Filling:
- Diced cooked chicken, Sweet corn niblets and chopped sun dried tomatoes

Method:

1. Bake the vol-au-vent shells as per package instructions. Make sure to do them in the coolest part of the oven - the upper most level as they bake very quickly and tend to burn easily.
2. Once cooled, arrange the shells on a patterned plate.
3. Add the filling to the cooled white sauce and adjust seasoning with salt and white pepper.
4. Carefully fill the shells with a spoonful each of the mixture and garnish with parsley leaves.

A good place to get creative ideas for vol-au-vent fillings is available here and here http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/Chicken-and-Mushroom-Vol-au-Vents-L5059.html

Vol-au-vents are a great idea for finger foods that look and taste great especially for when you want to go light on a cocktail dinner.

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