This is a very nice dish from Lyon, France. It is a bit tricky to prepare the first time, but once you have done a few, it becomes second nature and can be prepared quickly. The secret in this recipe is to make sure that you “dry” the “panade” as much as possible. This will allow for Quenelles that will keep their shape in the boiling water and will also puff nicely if you cook them in the oven afterwards with sauces….Yummm….You can also cook in “hot” water rather than boiling water, it actually changes a little the texture which is very nice. As long as the water is above 67 degres, the eggs will cook.
Ingredients (for basic quenelles):
250ml Milk, 50g Butter (demi-sel),
10g of fleur de sel and teaspoon of pepper, nutmeg
100g Flour, 50g Fine semolina, 3 eggs.
To prepare the panade, put the butter and spices in a saucepan, once butter fully melted, take off the heat and put all the flour in one go. Mix quickly with a spoon or spatula.
Put the saucepan back on the heat. Here is the trick, mix continuously until the pastry comes off the saucepan as a ball of pastry. Then add the semolina, continue to mix until you get a ball.
Put the saucepan off the heat, add the eggs one by one, mixing well in between each egg.
Once the mixture is nice and smooth, put in a separate container with cling film and in the fridge for a couple of hours.
To cook the Quennelles, take out of the fridge and make small quenelles with 2 tablespoons. Like in this video. Drop in boiling or fairly hot water for 5 minutes. I like to use a chicken stock water to give a bit of taste already to the quenelles “Nature”.
In the picture above, I serve the quenelle with a very light soup, the kids love it.
You can also prepare the quenelle in the oven (after cooking in the water). My preferred one is sauce Nantua.
Enjoy…
