This recipe makes a really fine, elegant, light…and a little different starter.

What makes it different? It’s a double mousseline.

What exactly is a mousseline?

Basically, according to Wiktionary, the term ‘mousseline’ can mean four different things:

“mousseline (countable and uncountable, plural mousselines)

1. A very fine, semi-opaque fabric similar to muslin, typically made of silk, wool or cotton.

2. A soft, light sweet or savoury mousse.

3. A hollandaise sauce that has been made frothy with whipped cream or egg white, served mainly with fish or asparagus.

4. A very thin glass for claret glasses.”

So, leaving aside the first and last definitions, a mousseline is a light savoury (or sweet) mousse, like this chicken mousse; and it’s also a hollandaise sauce made frothy, like this orange and cardamom one, with whipped cream.

If you can make the sauce the day before the flavours will infuse into the Hollandaise, and it will taste less ‘bought’. You can also make the mousselines a couple of days before.

If you have any sauce left over you could use it with any white fish fillets you may be cooking, or even as a salad dressing.

You could, of course, make your own Hollandaise sauce, but if you do, you may feel the need for an extra pair of hands. Follow this link to find out how.

These mousselines freeze.

Recipe for chicken mousselines with an orange and cardamom sauce

Makes 16 small mousselines – or you could make in ramekins – could be eight or so but this would be a lot for one person. Freeze what you don’t need.

Ingredients

• 600g/1 lb 5 oz chicken chunks, fillets or breasts, boneless and skinless
• 1 banana shallot, finely chopped
• 200g/7 oz light cream cheese
• 3 large eggs
• 17 cardamom pods
• juice and zest of three oranges
• 240 ml/1 cup double cream; plus 60 ml/¼ cup double cream to froth up the Hollandaise
• salt
• Aleppo pepper, or Byadgi chilli, or some Spanish sweet smoked paprika
• olive oil
• 540g/1 lb 2 oz (3 x 180 g packets) fresh ready-made Hollandaise sauce
• 100g packet of rocket

Method

1. Crush the seeds of eight cardamom pods in a pestle and mortar and add to the Hollandaise. Crush the rest of the seeds in the remaining pods, cover, and use later in step , below. Add the zest of one and a half oranges. Cover, and leave overnight, or as long as possible, in the fridge.
2. Preheat the oven to 150ºC (use the top left Aga oven).
3. Roughly chop the chicken if necessary, and peel and cut the shallot into quarters – put into a food processor and blend. Add cheese and eggs. Blend again. Add the zest of an orange and seven tbsps. orange juice.
4. Add the remaining crushed cardamom seeds to the processor and add some salt to taste.
5. Add the double cream slowly, using the pulse movement.
6. Put the lot into the fridge for half an hour.
7. Line the mousseline moulds with cling film. Fill with the mixture. Put into a roasting tin, and fill to just over half way up with very hot water from a just boiled kettle. Cover with foil and bake for half an hour. At this stage a knife should come out fairly clean. Take out and leave to cool.
8. Make the dressing by using some of the remaining orange juice (about 3 tbsps); 6 tbsps peppery olive oil; and some salt and pepper.
9. Whip the remaining cream, and fold into the Hollandaise.
10. Unmould the mousselines, lightly dust with the red chilli pepper – whichever you are using – garnish with the dressed rocket leaves, and serve with the orange and cardamom sauce.