Elegant filled pastry shells
A bouchée à la reine is a pastry shell filled with delectable morsels in a creamy sauce. This recipe proposes two fillings — with mushrooms and with sea scallops (coquilles saint-jacques). There are several steps. First, you make the pastry shells. Then you cook the mushrooms and/or sea scallops. Third, you make the Béchamel sauce. And finally, you combine the cooked ingredients with the sauce and assemble your pastries.
Bouchées à la reine make an elegant starter for a festive occasion, and may also be served as a lunch dish, perhaps with a salad of tender leaves alongside. You can choose to make one variety or both. Preparation takes time, but it’s fun and may be done in stages.
For the pastry shells, you will need one sheet of puff pastry (pâte feuillétée), preferably all butter (pur beurre). You will also need two round cookie cutters of different sizes — about 3″ (8 cm) and 2″ (5 cm). If you don’t have cookie cutters, no problem. You can use glasses of different sizes to cut the pastry, as I did. Alternatively, you could use store-bought pastry shells, but then you wouldn’t get the cute little caps that sit on top.
Regarding the filling ingredients, you may use fresh or frozen scallops, and normal white mushrooms (champignons de Paris) are fine. For extra elegance, you could substitute wild mushrooms such as chanterelles (girolles) or morels (morilles). As for the Béchamel, the recipe below will make a thick sauce. For best results, do not use a non-stick pan.
This recipe will make 4-5 bouchées — 2 of each variety and, depending on the size of your pastry shells, 1 more of either variety. If making just one variety, double the quantity of the chief ingredient, i.e. 8 ounces (250 g) of scallops or 14 ounces (400 g) mushrooms.
The quantities below may make more filling than you need to fill the shells. Save the extra and use it to make an elegant open-faced sandwich: toast a slice of bread, top with the filling, add some grated cheese and pop in the oven until the cheese melts.
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp. water
1 sheet puff pastry, preferably all butter (pur beurre)
4 ounces (125 g) sea scallops, fresh or frozen
6 tbsp. dry white wine
salt and freshly ground black pepper
7 ounces (200 g) mushrooms
2 tsp. butter
1/4 tsp. thyme, dried or fresh
1 cup Béchamel sauce (see below for ingredients)
The pastries
Preheat the oven to 400 F (210 C, gasmark 7). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a small bowl, combine the egg yolk and 2 tbsp. water. Mix well to blend. This is your egg wash. Have a pastry brush standing by.
Unroll the pastry — on top of its paper — on a large wooden board or your counter top. Using the larger cookie cutter or larger glass, cut out eight rounds. Transfer four of them to the baking sheet. Brush with the egg wash.
Now use the smaller cutter to cut rounds into the center of the four remaining large rounds — this gives you four small rounds and four rings.
Place the rings on top of the large rounds on the baking sheet. Press down lightly so that they stick. Place the small rounds on the baking sheet separately. Coat with the egg wash.
Transfer to the oven and bake until the shells start to turn golden, about 10 minutes (but keep an eye on things, as it may go more quickly). Remove from the oven. Using a spoon, gently cut out the centers of the large rounds to create a shell. Return to the oven and bake until golden brown, about 5 minutes more. Remove from oven when done and set aside.
Filling 1 / Sea scallops
Rinse off the sea scallops. Measure 4 tbsp. white wine into a pot. Bring to a simmer. Add the sea scallops and cook, covered, until just tender, 2-3 minutes if using fresh scallops and 4-6 minutes if using frozen. The cooking time will depend on their size.
Turn off the heat when done, leaving the scallops in the pot, uncovered. Salt lightly and grind on some black pepper. If your scallops are very large, cut them into smaller pieces once they’ve cooled off. Set aside.
Filling 2 / Mushrooms
Rinse the mushrooms. Chop off the stems. Cut into bite-sized pieces.
Heat the butter to sizzling in a skillet. Add the mushrooms, turn the heat down to medium and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 2 tbsp. white wine and the thyme. Continue cooking the mushrooms until they are tender and uniformly gray — you don’t want them to brown. Add a little water if necessary. Turn off the heat and set aside.
The Béchamel sauce
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. flour
1 cup (25 cl) milk
2 tbsp. dry white wine
salt and freshly ground black pepper
freshly grated nutmeg
Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. When bubbly, add the flour. Stir to blend well. Cook over medium-low heat for one minute.
Pour in the milk. Whisk to blend. Turn up the heat to medium-high and cook, whisking occasionally, until the sauce thickens. Turn off the heat. Stir in the wine. Add 1/2 tsp. salt and grind on some black pepper. Grate a little nutmeg over the pot. Stir. Set aside.
Assembly
If using two fillings, transfer half of the Béchamel sauce to a bowl. Add the mushrooms and stir to coat evenly. Add the scallops to the Béchamel that remains in the pot. Stir to coat evenly. (If using just one type of filling, you can simply stir the mushrooms or sea scallops into the Béchamel in the pot.)
Gather your pastry shells and their caps on a board or large plate. Spoon in the filling. Top with the caps.
Reheat the bouchées for about 5 minutes in a medium oven. Transfer to a serving plate. Makes 4-5 bouchées.
