The XXL New Year’s Eve dinner, capable of sustaining a large number of guests, is a classic holiday puzzle. Flora Mikula solves it gently with this recipe that mixes capon and semolina. This chef who grew up in Avignon still makes the South and the Mediterranean sing in her generous and refined cuisine.
After a career in the stars (she notably assisted Alain Passard), she traveled a lot, from Morocco to Japan, before setting up addresses with Provençal inspiration (Les Olivades) and exotic-gastronomic (Le Flora). Today she works as head of the kitchens of Millésime, a hotel group of ten houses. In particular, she handles spices at Domaine de Raba in Talence and cooks fish in a salt crust at La Palmeraie (Maison Millésime in La Baule). Let yourself be caught up here by this culinary tale that rhymes New Year’s Eve and couscous!
Recipe for 6 people (multiply according to the number of guests)
Preparation time 2 hours including cooking.
Ingredients :
- 1 empty capon
- 500 g of medium couscous semolina
- 50 g of dried apricots
- 50 g of dried figs
- 50 g of raisins
- 50 g pistachios
- 50 g of crushed almonds
- 15 cl of orange blossom
- the juice of an orange
- the juice of a lemon
- 100 g of honey
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 star anise
- salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
Crush the dried fruits (except almonds and pistachios). Put in a salad bowl and cover with orange blossom. Let the fruits swell for an hour.
Add the raw semolina, a pinch of salt, cumin, pistachios and almonds. Mix and stuff the capon.
Tie just the legs close to the body and cap the end of the capon with aluminum foil. Place in a baking dish. Drizzle the capon with honey. Pour in the citrus juice and add the spices, salt and a little water.
Cook for 3 hours at low heat 150 ° -160 °, basting very often to check doneness. Prick the thighs: if there is no more blood, it is cooked. Take out the capon, keep warm.
Pass the remaining cooking juices through a Chinese to remove excess fat. Before serving, remove the string, the aluminum stopper, and remove the semolina with a spoon. Present the whole capon, well lacquered with the spices placed on it and the gravy in a gravy boat, the semolina on the side.