Bouchées à la reine
Here is another good use of the same puff-pastry that I make for croissants. Bouchées à la reine are always a nice entrée; you can even get creative with the filling. I made sauce béchamel from scratch and then mixed that with chicken, portabella mushroom and zucchini sautéed in olive oil and tarragon.Sauce béchamel
You will need:
500 ml of 3.25% homogenized milk.
40 g of unsalted butter
35 g of white flour
a medium-sized onion
4 or 5 bay leaves
mace
nutmeg
Heat up 500ml of homogenized milk in a pan, add 4 bay leaves, 3 thick slices of onion and a pinch of mace. Slowly
bring to a boil and then lower the heat. Allow to simmer for about 5 more minutes and then set aside. Heat up the
butter in a pan to melt and then gradually add about 5 level tbsp of white flour. Mix this well so that it is
consistent and there are no clumps.Strain out the milk and gradually add it to the butter and flour mixture
until smooth. Add a pinch of nutmeg, continually stirring. Add salt and pepper as desired.
Meanwhile I had cut my puff-pastry into circles and had arranged them to make the shells. One for the base, and then two more with the center cut out using a smaller glass. Once baked, I added the filling and put them back in the oven for another 5 minutes. They turned out a bit lop-sided, but next time I do these they'll turn out nicer.
