Poached chicken with pilaf rice and sauce supreme

Season the cavity with rock salt and pepper and fill it with parsley, the bouquet garni and a little mushroom, which also keeps the stock from going cloudy.

Truss the chicken with string.

Rub the whole chicken, underneath as well, with a good dose of lemon; this is what keeps the skin white when poaching.

Lay the garnish and the clove-studded onions in the bottom of a 10 litre stock pot, set the chicken on top and pour in the stock until it is just submerged. Bring to the boil on high.

Blanch the four halved chicken wings from cold water, bring to the boil one or two minutes, rinse and add them to the pot.

At the first boil, lid on, and simmer at the back of the stove for 45 minutes. No salt yet; check the seasoning halfway.

Cook the mushrooms white in butter and water: bring nearly to the boil, drop to a simmer for 10 minutes, then off the heat to cool. The juice is what the sauce needs.

For the roux, melt butter until foaming, add all the flour at once and mix, then cook very gently on low two to two and a half minutes to kill the floury taste. Turn off and let it go completely cold: this is a cold roux for a hot liquid.

Heat the oven to 200C, about 390F, for the pilaf rice.

Filter three cups of stock off for the rice; the pilaf ratio is one measure of rice to one and a half of liquid, so two cups of rice to three cups of stock.

Melt butter in a pan on low, sweat the onions until translucent, add the unwashed rice and coat it in the butter and onions for a minute or so.

Pour in the stock, lay a parchment paper lid on top, put the lid on and bake 20 minutes.

Lift the cooked chicken out onto a large tray with a little stock underneath, cover with foil and rest while the sauce is made.

Remove the garnish and the wings and filter the stock into a large saucepan.

Reduce three cups of stock down to about two to concentrate the flavour.

Detach the grains of the cooked rice, mix once more, stir through a little piece of butter to keep it moist, and hold it warm.

Pour the hot reduced stock over the cold roux off the heat and mix it in completely; this is the veloute.

Bring to a gentle boil on low to medium and let it reduce a good ten minutes or more.

Add the concentrated mushroom essence and let it reduce again. Escoffier reckons an hour of reduction on this sauce.

Make a chicken essence by boiling stock right down - about a quarter cup to a tablespoon - and stir it into the veloute.

Stir in two tablespoons of cream to whiten it, and reduce again.

Finish with a few mushrooms, a little pink salt and a last little bit of cream off the heat.

Remove the skin to reveal the white meat, carve pieces off and plate with the rice built into a little tower, then drizzle the sauce over and around; the sauce should be very white, pristine and thick.