Chicken
soup takes on special and surprising flavors when prepared by chef David Bitton
of La Regence. The version below is an adaptation for the home kitchen.
Once
every few months, you simply have to take a total time-out. You head home and
peel off those everyday clothes, putting on the fancy clothes kept for special
occasions. Not for festive events or Shabbat dinners, but genuine costumes −
the sort that puts some distance between the body and anything that’s habitual
or familiar. You wait for the night to settle in and for the rain to ease up,
and then stride briskly in the cold air from the front door to the car. You
start the engine and tune the radio to the classical music station and then
start driving on the dark road, without saying a word.
You
periodically exchange glances and smile, hum the cello solo of a duet while
perhaps remembering a similar drive you once took together in Safed or France,
or even Mitzpeh Ramon. You park by the stone wall and walk up the broad path,
your heels clicking on the brick pavement until you reach the doorman, in his
brimmed hat and overcoat. A welcoming gesture and the heavy doors are opened.
You cross the foyer, descend the stone steps, present your coats at the
hatcheck, and follow the waitress to your table.
Now it
begins: the white tablecloths and crystal; the gold-rimmed dishes, neatly
arranged silverware and quail eggs in caramel toffee, served on a silver tray.
This is the real place that never was, a here-and-now that never happened. You
exchange looks once more, and smile. That’s it − everything has finally come to
a stop. When you are in the care of David Bitton at his La Regence restaurant
in Jerusalem, you feel free and liberated for the first time.
A terrine
of goose liver with praline; tomato leather; tomato jelly and beetroot granita;
fish suspended in smoke, served on a green cypress branch; ground chicken stock
with noodles melting into it; olive oil-laced chocolate and a “financier” with
marmalade. And the dishes continue to be laid down and picked up, and the
silverware is retrieved and replaced and retrieved again, and the glasses of
wine seem to refill of their own accord. All is flanked by silence, and
occasional cries of astonishment and surprise, but there’s not a single trace
of the world that continues to race around us.
He is
only 30 years old, and for 15 of them he has been moving slowly and
unassumingly in his dazzling white jacket about hotel kitchens, moving his
ideas in and out of ovens. A few years ago, he quietly entered the sacred
sanctuary that lies in this emotionally charged stone building, and transformed
everything that is local and primeval into something that goes beyond place and
beyond time, and is bathed in hot water and fire and plumes of smoke. He does
not console or flatter and turns things upside down and then right-side up
until everything that has been concealed from the eye is revealed − until, in
his exacting hand, he serves up the cloud and the raindrop, the question and
the answer, on the plates.
Stop
everything when you have a moment and, even if you have no time at all, head to
Jerusalem, to David Bitton, who is at La Regence at the King David Hotel. And
if you don’t have a car, or if the children are sleeping, console yourself by
making his soup at home.
Chicken Soup with tapioca and chicken noodles (10 portions)
The most
fascinating thing about Bitton’s kitchen is his ability to turn something
that’s so everyday into a work of art. For example, he disassembles the
routine, familiar taste of chicken soup and then reassembles it into a
different and surprising texture and flavor. In his restaurant Bitton prepares
the stock using a consommé technique, into a clear, rich essence of soup,
although we have adapted the mode of preparation to the home kitchen.
Contrary to
our usual custom, this is not a simple, intuitive recipe. One should be highly
attentive to changes in ingredients and consistency, and even measure the exact
temperature so as to stop the cooking at the exact point at which the egg white
congeals, so the noodles won’t be dry and tasteless. On the other hand, the
tapioca and noodles can be prepared ahead of time, so that the Shabbat meal
will not be disturbed by fits of fussiness and punctiliousness in the kitchen.
This is
not a soup you make for when the kids come home from school on a winter day.
This is a soup you prepare slowly and conscientiously for important guests who
will keep on thinking even when they are eating.
For the stock:
1 kilo
chicken bones
1 onion
2 carrots
1 leek
1 celery
root
1 parsley
root
4 tbsp. (60 ml.) olive oil
3 liters
water
2 bay
leaves
1 wild
fennel bulb or 4 sprigs of dill
12 sprigs
of parsley
Atlantic
salt
coarsely
ground black pepper
For the
tapioca:
100 grams
tapioca
2 1/2
cups (650 ml.) chicken soup stock
For the
noodles:
1 kilo
chicken breast, without fat or tendons
1 egg
white
fine sea
salt
Begin
preparation of the stock: rinse and clean the bones well. Place half in a flat
metal baking tin and roast for about 15 minutes in a preheated
250-degree-Celsius oven, until the bones are seared and browned.
Peel the
onion, carrot, leek, and celery and parsley roots; cut into large chunks. Heat
the oil in a large pot and steam the vegetables slightly. Add both the
partially cooked and the seared bones into the pot, then add 3 1/2 liters of
water. Bring the liquid to a boil, and immediately lower the heat so the liquid
will be at the verge of boiling, at a gentle simmer. With a spoon, remove the
cloudy foam that forms on the surface, continuing to do so until none is left.
This stage is highly important as it is responsible for ensuring the clear
color of the soup.
When the
stock is clear, add the bay leaves and the fennel/dill; cover the pot and cook
for about four hours. The lengthy cooking time brings out the flavors of the
vegetables and the meat, and imbues the soup with a deeper color. Strain the stock
and put back on the stove. Taste, and adjust the seasoning with salt and
pepper.
Meanwhile,
we move on to preparation of the tapioca. Bring the stock to a boil and add the
tapioca pearls. Reduce the heat; stir constantly until the tapioca turns
transparent. When the pearls are still white, take a spoonful of the tapioca
and taste it. If the consistency is pleasant to the palate, remove from the
flame and cover until serving; if it is still somewhat hard, cook a bit more.
Take care not to overcook, as the tapioca will then become colorless,
gelatinous dough.
Preparation
of the noodles is easy, as you will see. Grind the chicken two or three times,
to a fine consistency. Transfer to a food processor equipped with a steel
blade, and add the egg yolk and a little salt. Process thoroughly so you get a
smooth and delicate cream. Bitton pours this cream through a flour sifter,
using a special baker’s instrument to push the mixture through the tiny holes.
But excellent results may be achieved even without this method. The mixture is
transferred, portion by portion, into a pastry bag with a narrow,
spaghetti-width hole at its tip.
Place a
thermometer into the stock, and heat to 63 degrees Celsius. Remove from the
heat and “spray” the noodle mixture into it in a circular movement. Spray
enough noodles for one portion, and then repeat. Place the soup back on the
stove, checking that the temperature has returned to 63 degrees; cook for
another half minute or so. Move with the help of a slotted spoon into a tureen,
repeating the action with the remaining mixture.
To
assemble the dish: Place 2 tablespoons of tapioca in an elegant soup bowl, with
a cluster of noodles on top of it. Then pour in the boiling broth and serve
hot, complete with silver tablespoon and snifter of cognac.
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