Food and cooking articles and information:

Poulet Vallée d’Auge
by Andy Whitson of Oui Chef

This recipe, and the video guide on how to prepare it, has been reproduced courtesy of Chef Andy Whitson.

Andy has been cooking for over thirty years (all his working life) and is French classically trained. For fifteen years he worked as a college senior chef lecturer winning many awards in national and international culinary competitions and captaining senior teams and student teams to great success.

A few yeare ago Andy took the plunge and moved his famiily to live in Normandy where he has set up his own cooking school Oui Chef. He has a vast amount of practical experience and knowledge which he openly shares with his students at his gourmet cookery school in Normandy, so that they gain the ultimate cooking holiday experience.

Andy has worked in various restaurants since qualifying as a chef and lecturer, including teaching at The Army School of Catering for eight years and Rüdesheimer Schloss, West Germany. Andy is also quite a dab hand at food sculpture using icing sugar and corn flour . . . more info

The Cuisine of Normandy

The people of Normandy take their eating very seriously indeed. Norman recipes are usually quite simple, but as they make use of local dairy produce and apples, the fresh natural flavours come through in a vast range of dishes. The sea is as bountiful as the region's orchards, and the Norman table boasts such specialities as Dieppe sole with Normandy oysters.

From the delicate flavour of saltmarsh lamb to creamy chicken "à la Vallée d'Auge" and duck "à la Rouennaise", the excellence of Normandy meat is matched only by that of its cheeses: Neufchâtel, Pont-L'Evêque, Livarot (otherwise known as the "Colonel"), and the round Camembert of Marie Harel, these evocative names are famous world-wide.

The creamy omelettes of the Mont Saint Michel, the Vire andouille sausages, tripes cooked "à la mode de Caen", the "boudin" sausages of Mortagne, and the recent introduction to the region of foie gras, all these delicacies and more entice lovers of good food to the area.

Round off a memorable meal with the local desserts, "bourdelots" or "teurgoule", or such sweets as Isigny toffees or apple sugars from Rouen. Wash the whole meal down with cider, still or sparkling, dry or sweet, or perry, with an occasional pause for a shot of calvados - the very essence of apples is distilled into calvados.

Finally, sit back, savour the moment, and enjoy a glass of Benedictine liqueur.

The classic Normandy recipe - Poulet Vallée d’Auge

This recipe is the first in a series of video cooking lessons from Whitsons Country Kitchen. The videos are filmed and produced by Tim Millard and Andy Whitson on location in Normandy, France.

To make life easier, if you scroll down the page, you will find a complete list of ingredients togther with written instructions. so site back and enjoy the video lessons whoist Andy takes you step by step through preparing this wonderful dish, sharing toips and techniques along the way.

Whitsons Country Kitchen : Part 1 : Introduction to Poulet Vallée d'Auge

Whitsons Country Kitchen : Part 2. Step 1 : Introduction to Poulet Vallée d'Auge

Whitsons Country Kitchen : Part 3. Step 2 : Cutting up and seasoning the chicken

Whitsons Country Kitchen : Part 4. Step 3 : Making the stock

Whitsons Country Kitchen : Part 5. Step 4 : Sauté the chicken

Whitsons Country Kitchen : Part 6. Step 5 : Making the sauce

Whitsons Country Kitchen : Part 7. Step 6 : Apples and croutons

Whitsons Country Kitchen : Part 8. Step 7 : Plating up

POULET VALLÉE D'AUGE RECIPE

Ingredients for Poulet Vallée d'Auge

1 farmed chicken of about1.5 Kg
50g of flour
80g of butter
Sea salt and ground pepper
100g of peeled carrots
100g of prepared leeks
50g of prepared celery
1 Bouquet garni (use fresh parsley and tarragon tied together in a small bunch)
3 apples
1/2 lemon juiced
10g caster sugar
50g of butter
Olive oil
100g of peeled onions
10g of butter
100g of washed small Paris mushrooms
6 or 7 peeled small shallots
1 1/4 lt of chicken stock
1 glass of Normandy cider
25 ml of Calvados
200g of thick cream
10g of butter
10g sugar

How to make Poulet Vallée d'Auge

• Cut the chicken in pieces (wings, thighs and breasts).

• Keep the bones for the chicken stock

Chicken Stock:

• Peel and wash the onions and cut into large dice with the carrots, leeks and celery.

• Put the vegetable dice into 1.5 lt water.

• Add the bouquet garni and the chicken carcass.

• Boil on a low heat for about an hour.

• After the stock has finished cooking, pass it through a strainer and keep the liquid. Season the chicken pieces, and flour.

• Heat up a frying pan and brown off the chicken in the 50gms of butter and a dash of olive oil until the chicken is three-quarter cooked. Keep to one side whilst the sauce is being made.

Sauce:

• Wash and peel the shallots.

• Fry them off in 10gms of butter and a little olive oil.

• Add in the small Paris mushroom and gently fry.

• Add the semi cooked chicken and 1 1/4 lt of the chicken stock and slowly simmer until the stock has reduced by half.

• Add a peeled and diced apple (small).

• Add in the 200gms of fresh thick cream and reduce this until you reach a sauce consistency.

• Correct the seasoning with the sea salt and ground pepper.

Apple garnish:

• Wash and cut two of the apples in slices and coat in the lemon juice (both sides).

• Sprinkle with sugar and gently fry them in butter and a little olive oil.

• When the apples are browned, flame them in the 25mls Calvados and add a glass of cider (reduce slightly) and keep warm

Serving suggestion:

• Lightly fry off large slices off French bread (one per portion) to make a crouton and lay this on a large warmed plate.

• Place chicken on the crouton and mask with the cream sauce.

• Garnish with the sliced apple and a little parsley and serve.

Serves 4

The Poulet Vallée d’Auge recipe and the accompanying videos were provided by Andy Whitson who runs Oui Chef cooking and gite holidays in the Normandy region of France and filmed and produced by Tim Millard.

For details of the cooking holidays or to rent a gite visit www.ouichef.co.uk

Published 29 June 2009