Ingredients for 10-12 people:1 chicken weighing approx. 1.5 kg100 g lean cured ham (cut in just one slice)100 g salted tongue (cut in just one slice)
200 g cooked ham (cut in just one slice)2 fresh black truffles o 1 small jar of preserved ones
30 g peeled pistachios400 g lean beef200 g lean pork½ chicken breast200 g “lardo” (cured pork fatback) cut in 2 fairly thick slices
2 beef feet2 pieces of beef knee neck and feet of a chicken500 g beef shin 1 egg white15 g sheet gelatin1 onion1 stalk of celery1 carrot2 sprigs of parsley1 clove
3-4 tbsp Vin Santo
nutmeg salt pepper
For this dish – which is a real work of art – you need a chicken, if possible free-range, or even better a hen. It needs to be deboned; normally the butcher will do this for you. Lay the deboned chicken on a chopping board and delicately remove as much meat as possible without tearing the skin. Put the chicken skin in a bowl, season it with salt, pepper, a tiny pinch of nutmeg, and a splash of Vin Santo, and leave to marinate.
Dice the ½ chicken breast, cured ham, salted tongue and cooked ham; put them in a large bowl with the pistachios, the truffles (brushed clean and cut into small pieces), 1 slice of lardo (100 g) cut into pieces. The lardo should first be “blanched”: bring some water to the boil, take it off the heat and soak the lardo in it for 20 minutes, then put it in cold water to cool down, dry it, and it’s ready to use. Season the mixture in the bowl in the same way as the chicken skin, stir and set aside.
Mince the lean beef and pork, the chicken removed from the skin earlier, and the second slice of lardo. Put them all in a bowl, season with salt and pepper and mix at length until you have a compact mixture in which the difference between the types of meat is barely visible. To do this properly, you need to amalgamate them with your hands. Put this mixture in the bowl with the diced meat and cold cuts, pistachios, truffles, etc. Mix well again, amalgamating everything together as thoroughly as possible. By taking particular care in this phase, the galantine will be easier to slice when cooked and you will avoid “pockets” of air forming between the various ingredients.
Now lay the chicken skin out on a chopping board (or your work surface) and place the meat mixture on it, giving it a rounded, cylindrical shape. Carefully sew up all the parts in which the skin is open (or has been torn) using needle and thread, just like with a piece of fabric. Now, tightly wrap a white cloth napkin around it, tie it at both ends like a giant sweet and sew it up down the middle.
Put the galantine in a large saucepan (preferably oval). Add the bones of the deboned chicken, the chicken neck and feet (if you manage to get a few extra from the butcher, even better), the beef feet, knee bones and shin, the carrot, the onion (with a clove stuck into it), the parsley, celery and a little salt (as you would for a normal broth). Add water to almost fill the saucepan to the brim, put the lid on and simmer for 1½ to 2 hours, very slowly over a low heat. At his point, take the galantine out of the broth, using 2 slotted spoons and taking care not to ruin it (it’s especially delicate while still hot) and place it on a serving dish.
After about half an hour, remove the napkin, rinse it in cold water, wring it out well and then wrap it tightly around the galantine again. Put it back on the serving dish, with a chopping board and a weight (for example a heavy book) on top of it; keep it like this for several hours (at least 7 or 8) in a cool place. After which you can keep it in the fridge wrapped in a clean napkin, which should constantly be kept damp (once a day, wet it and wring it out before wrapping it around the galantine). Now the galantine is ready to be sliced.
Gelatina
(= Aspic)
Once the galantine has been removed from the broth, add a little more water to the saucepan to finish cooking the beef feet, which in the end should be almost disintegrated. When they reach this point, use a slotted spoon to remove the bones and meat, and then strain the broth through a sieve. When it has cooled down a bit, filter it through a piece of muslin. Then let it cool completely in order to be able to remove the fat which will set on the surface. To clarify the aspic, which would otherwise be cloudy, add an egg white (whole, just as it is) to the skimmed broth and stir briefly with a wooden spoon. Put the saucepan back on the stove over a moderate heat and, stirring carefully (armed with patience!), bring it back to the boil. Make sure you stir continuously; broth for aspic can easily stick and get a “burnt” taste.
In the meanwhile, soak the sheet gelatin in cold water for 10 minutes When it has softened, drain off the water and squeeze it well with your fingers. Put this “gluelike” pulp in a small saucepan with a spoonful of broth. Stir it at “finger temperature” (that’s to say, a very low temperature) and it will dissolve quickly, then add a ladle of hot broth. Now pour this mixture into the large saucepan. As it comes to the boil white lumps will form; this is the egg white which has solidified. Remove the saucepan immediately from the stove and leave to cool down a little again (around 20 minutes).
At this point, filter the broth a little at a time through a wet, squeezed out piece of muslin, into a container (or containers) suitable for refrigerating. The solidified egg white and other residues will remain in the cloth. This is long and tedious procedure; you have to wait for the liquid to slowly strain through. In this way, however, the aspic will be clear and transparent. Now (with a sigh of relief!) you can put your “work of art” in the fridge and wait for 4 to 5 hours until it has set.
Use a spatula to delicately loosen the aspic all around the edge of the container and turn it out onto a serving dish. You can serve it as it is, with slices of galantine arranged around it, or use a sharp knife to cut it into large cubes or triangles (or whatever shape you prefer) and then garnish the slices of galantine with them.