Chicken Mousse

Hi there!

I always wanted to try something like this, so the other day, I just went to the store and bought all I needed.


You'll want to do that, too, and get:
-1 whole chicken
-3 eggs
-mayonnaise
-sour cream
-curd cheese
-laurel leaves (dried)
-onion
-garlic
-lemon
-mustard
-black peppercorns (whole)
-salt
-thyme (dried)
-rosemary (dried)
-olive oil
-water

Now, first of all, you have to cook the chicken.
Halve the onion and peel one half. Peel the garlic, cut it once lenghtwise and remove the small, light green part inside of it.
Pour some olive oil into a pot and roast the onion.
To do that, you put the onion into the hot oil, flat side down, and let it rest for a while, until the onion is brown, but not burnt.
Put some water into the pot (about as much as is needed to cover the chicken and 1-2 inches more.
Add black peppercorns, some salt, 2-3 laurel leaves, the garlic-clove-halves and let it boil.
When the water is boiling, add the chicken, whole.

While the chicken is cooking, boil 3 eggs for about 9 minutes or till they're hard.
Put them in cold water (I add ice) to cool them and make them easier to peel, then, when you can bear touching them/they'r cooled down, peel them and throw away the shells. Now chop the eggs roughly.

When the chicken is cooked, take it out of the water and on a plate.
Now, with a fork and a knife, remove the meat from the bones and put it on another plate. Throw away the bones or let them cook a little longer with the soup for more taste.

Put the chicken into a blender and add about half a cup of the chicken broth, or better, less.
Blend.
Add the eggs, about 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise, 1 1/2 tblsp of curd cheese and 1 1/2 tblsp of sour cream.
Blend again. If the mixture is too dry, add a little of the chicken broth, mayonnaise or sour cream, if it's too liquid, boil another egg and add half of it.
Add a pinch of dried thyme and a pinch of dried rosemary, as well as a teaspoon of mustard and the juice of half a lemon.
Blend.
Add salt and pepper to taste.

Put the mousse into a tupperware or a bowl or whatever you have lying around and refrigerate.
Serve on white bread, toasted white bread, crackers,...

Tips:
1. Add some tabasco, if you'd like, to spice it up.

2. If you halve a garlic clove lengthwise, you will see a thin, usually light green or yellowish thing in the middle. This is some kind of shoot, it's the part that will grow into the plant, if you put the garlic into the earth (or let it sit around for a long time in a dark place). Remove this and you will reduce garlic breath and body odour the next day.

3. To give a broth a stronger flavour and the "typical" golden colour, halve an onion, peel it, and roast it flat side down in a little oil. The brown residue in the pot and the browned part of the onion cause the colour and make the broth taste better. (If you want to be fancy, you can add some burnt sugar, otherwise known as caramel).

4. If you're cooking the chicken for the meat, let the water boil first, then add the chicken, don't let it cook for too long, just till it's done.

If you want a good chicken soup, put the bird into the water when it's still cold, then boil. This way, the soup will taste more of chicken, but the meat will be drier.

5. If you remove the meat from the bones of a chicken, put the bones, the skin and all little bits you couldn't get off the bones, back into the water and let it cook a little longer. This way, you'll get tender meat and a good-tasting soup.

6. To peel eggs easily, I crack the shells in the middle, all the way around the egg, then I carefully press and pull to peel away the shell. Sometimes this tears the egg apart, but if you don't need it whole, like for this recipe, this doesn't matter.

This way is easier, because you usually don't have to clean off tons of small pieces, but you have to be gentle.