The memory hen

Hen with beer is a dish inspired by my memories, a dish recalling my grandmother and my life in London. I wanted to get the same flavour but with better raw materials, technique and dish-composition. This memory was transformed into this dish, based on the contrast between sweet and bitter and acid notes. Just like memories…

Hen fillet with beer, aromatised malt, cinnamon and cloves

Recipe for 5 people

INGREDIENTS
For the hen cooked at low temperature
2 hens from which to obtain 500 g of pulp divided into 4 fillets
7 g zimolo
20 g Birra Moretti

For the hen ink with beer
All the bones and giblets of the hens – after removing the fat
40 g pepper
30 g chopped scallion
40 g carrot
20 g celery
1 garlic clove
5 g rosemary
3 x 66 cl Birra Moretti

For the aromatised malt
100 g barley malt
5 g cinnamon stick
10 g liquid glucose
5 g garlic cloves
10 g glucose

For the hen skins
170 g hen skins after removing all feathers and steaming them for 10 minutes
20 g boiled potatoes
80 g carnaroli rice
150 g Birra Moretti
crispy salt to taste
black pepper to taste

To finish
100 g celery sticks seasoned with oil, crispy salt and beer vinegar
10 sanded hazelnuts with Birra Moretti
wild hop sprouts
powdered hop

METHOD
Cut the fillets from the hens, remove the fat and keep them as intact as possible. Mix the zimolo enzymes with the Birra Moretti for a few seconds and massage the fillets with this solution. Wrap the meat in cling film making sure that as little air as possible remains. Close in a cylinder shape, tighten the ends so that all the air comes out of the “candy” and seal at the highest pressure in a vacuum. Leave it for 12 hours in the fridge. Steam in the oven at 70°C until it reaches 54°C in the centre.

For the hen ink with beer, toast all the bones on hot embers for five minutes. Put the toasted bones and all the giblets into a casserole tin over a strong flame. Remove the exceeding fat and add the washed and diced vegetables. When the ingredients are golden, add the rosemary for a few minutes and then remove it.

Adding the three Moretti beers, let the sauce evaporate and continue to cook in ice water for 3 hours. Filter and reduce 9/10 of the sauce on a very low flame. It will take you further 4-5 hours. If necessary, cool down and remove the fat and keep warm. For the aromatised malt add the ingredients in two different vacuum packs and vacuum cook in the oven for 2 and a half hours at 65°C.

For the hen skins, put all the ingredients (the steamed skins, the boiled potato, the raw rice and the Birra Moretti) in the Thermomix. Cook at minimum speed, at 80°C, for 30 minutes. Blend at the highest speed for 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste and form some cylinders using cling film. Chill them. Cut them into very thin slices and cook between two silpat sheets at 170°C until they are dark.

Finish cooking the hen in the oven at 170° for 3 minutes. Outside the oven, glaze the hen cylinder with the ink for three times. Brush the base of the dish with the aromatised malt, cut the hen cylinder in the shape of a small scallop and place them on the dish. Place two drops of aromatised malt, a little powdered clove, a little salt and some more hen ink onto each slice.

Finish the dish with the sanded hazelnut with beer which, together with the skin wafer, will be the crispy part of the recipe. A mineral and acid note is given by the white celery sticks with beer vinegar. Finally add the slightly blanched hop sprouts.