Chef Vladimir Mukhin’s The White Rabbit restaurant is situated at the top floor of the Smolenskaya building in Moscow. Being top listed in the most renowned culinary guides Vladimir Mukhin has become a true star in the culinary world. Mukhin prepares finely-designed combinations with seasonal local Russian products. Beautiful and modern, but still authentic, that is what the chef wants the customer to experience. Today Vladimir Mukhin shares the recipe for one of his signature main courses: quail, corn, truffle and fermented Jerusalem artichoke.

The original course is called “The End of The Beginning”. Here he is trying to comprehend the famous philosophical paradox: “Which came first – the chicken or the egg?”. At the same time this dish is his tribute to chef Christian Etienne, where Mukhins did his first apprenticeship abroad. “He was eating pâté of quail every day, topping it with a thick layer of sliced fresh truffle. So, I re-invented his favorite dish in his honour.”

Recipe: quail, corn, truffle and fermented Jerusalem artichoke

Ingredients & preparation: Quail

Ingredients:

• 1 farmers quail (210-220 g)
• 3 g garlic puree
• salt

Preparation:

• Cut the first third of the wings, debone legs and thighs, put fresh thyme inside.
• Rub it with garlic puree and salt from inside and outside.

Ingredients & preparation: Liver pate

Ingredients:

• 100 g shallots thinly cubed
• 60 g butter clarified
• 1 chicken egg
• 2 g sugar
• 2 g salt
• 20 ml sherry
• 20 ml madeira
• 150g quail liver
• 100 g milk
• 4 g nitrite salt
• 30 g olive oil

Preparation:

• Fry onions on low heat with olive oil until they are soft and translucent.
• Add sherry and madeira.
• Boil for one minute, leave for 5 minutes to cool, strain (you need to save only wine).
• Put liver in milk for 30 minutes, then drain it.
• Add the liver, wine mixture with onion aroma, egg, sugar, salt, nitrite salt in blender and keep processing it till it is smooth and homogeneous. You have to work fast.
• While processing the liver pour melted butter into the mixture, but not all at once: the result should be an emulsion.
• Strain the mixture and put it in a vacuum package.
• Cook in sous-vide for 30 minutes (68°C), then cool the package in an ice bowl.

Ingredients & preparation: Polenta

Ingredients:

• 40 g polenta powdered
• 50 g cream 33%
• 150 g milk 3.2%
• 25 g butter
• Salt

Preparation:

• Mix the cream, milk and butter in a pan.
• Heat it, add polenta and stir till it boils.
• Take away from the heat, cover with the lid and put in a steamer (85°C) for 25-30 min.

Ingredients & preparation: Quail egg

Ingredients :

• 1 quail egg
• Onion skins

Preparation :

• Boil the quail egg for 2 min 10 seconds.
• Put in the ice bowl to stop the cooking process.
• Peel the egg, put into the onion skins and stock for 24 hours (The onion skins need to be boiled first).
• Take it from the stock (it will turn orange-brown) and smoke it with alder filings.

“Onion skins stock is another traditional trick: before Holy Easter it’s used for coloring the eggs. It produces an amazing orange or purple hue.”

Ingredients & preparation: Fermented Jerusalem artichoke

Ingredients:

• Jerusalem artichoke
• OCCO fermenting device

Preparation:

• Wash the Jerusalem artichoke thoroughly with a brush.
• Place it in a OCCO fermenting device (“Century egg” button) for 14 hours.
• Cool and slice it.

Finishing

Ingredients:

• 1 farmers quail (210-220 g)
• 50 g butter
• 1 g thyme
• 3 g garlic puree
• 20 g quail liver pate
• 1 quail egg
• 30 g quail demiglace
• 20 g fermented Jerusalem artichoke
• 20 g polenta
• 5 g black truffle
• Fresh juniper twigs
• Oxalis for decoration

Plating:

• Pat the quail dry, heat a skillet with some oil like canola. Melt the butter and fry our quail on a skillet pouring it with melted butter, basting it until it becomes golden brown.
• Put the fried quail together with juniper twigs into the preheated oven (210°C) and bake until it is medium rare. Debone it (only the skeleton part).
• Warm the polenta, remove from the heat, add liver pate and whip until it’s smooth. Add salt to taste.
• Serve the polenta on a warm plate. Stir it with the quail demiglace and top it with the quail half also coated with the sauce.
• Finish it with black truffle julienne on top of the quail and garnish with the quail egg and a slice of fermented Jerusalem artichoke.

Discover the full reportage of Vladimir Mukhin and the Whit Rabbit Restaurant here.

 

Recipe : Vladimir Mukhin

Photgraphy:  Adriaan Van Looy