Mrs Daniell’s Chicken Lasagne
150g/6 oz butter 6 tbsp flour twenty grinds of white pepper and some salt 6 bay leaves fifteen grinds of nutmeg 3 stock cube 1.8 litres/3 pints/7½ cups of milk 3 banana shallots 9 tbsp (135ml) single cream (it’s not a disaster if you don’t have any of this to hand)
500g/1 lb 2 oz lasagne sheets 250g/9 oz mozzarella 250g/9 oz grated cheddar, plus an extra 100g to put on the top
flesh of two small roast chickens (or this is a very good way of using up leftover chicken) 200g diced pancetta or bacon 8 oz/225g Philadelphia cream cheese grated zest of two lemons thyme – good handful 1 red onion peeled and chopped olive oil to fry
preheat oven to 180ºC in a large casserole fry the pancetta/bacon and the onion, remove
put the bay leaves, milk, shallot, and nutmeg into a saucepan, cover and leave to infuse for about 30 minutes – or an hour if you have the time. in another saucepan, melt the butter and stir in the flour. cook this mix (roux) for about three minutes – don’t let it go brown. strain the milk a little at a time through a sieve into the roux – STIR WELL AFTER EACH ADDITION OF MILK OR IT WILL GO LUMPY! bring it to the boil, stirring ALL THE TIME, and simmer for about three minutes add salt, pepper and the cream mix the chicken sauce ingredients in with two thirds of the white sauce then layer: chicken sauce in the bottom then mozzarella/cheddar then lasagne then chicken sauce again then mozzarella/cheddar again then more lasagne then the rest of the white sauce then sprinkle on cheddar cheese put in oven for forty minutes, and if the cheese needs a bit more temperature to get golden turn the oven up, or move to the roasting oven for five minutes or so
This post is dedicated to Felicity Daniell
