Purée de Carottes

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •4-quart heavy saucepan
• •Fine-mesh metal sieve and sturdy flexible scraper
• •Kitchen scale
• •12-inch heavy sauté pan
• •10-inch skillet for Croûtons
• •Warmed timbale or deep round serving bowl

Instructions

1. 1

   Set the ratio

   Weigh the peeled carrots before slicing, then weigh out rice equal to exactly one quarter of that amount. For 1 pound (454 g) carrots, use 4 ounces (113 g) rice. Rinse the rice briefly under cold water and drain it. Keep the carrot slices even so they become tender at the same moment as the rice.

   Use plain white rice without a floral or nutty aroma. It is serving as a liaison, not announcing itself as a separate flavour.
2. 2

   Cook until yielding

   Put the carrots, rice, water, sugar, cooking butter, and ¾ teaspoon of the salt into a 4-quart saucepan. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer steadily, partially covered, for 20 to 25 minutes. Both ingredients must be completely yielding: a carrot slice should collapse under the back of a spoon, and no firm grain should remain at the centre of the rice. Drain as soon as they reach that point, then leave them in the colander for 2 minutes so loose water runs away.

3. 3

   Sieve it fine

   While the carrots and rice remain warm, rub them through a fine-mesh sieve in small batches with a flexible scraper or the back of a sturdy ladle. Scrape the underside of the sieve into the bowl after every batch. Work patiently until only dry carrot fibres and any stubborn grains remain. Weigh the finished purée, then calculate the finishing butter at 3 ounces (85 g) for every 1 pound (454 g) of purée. This weighing replaces the judgment and large quantities of the brigade without changing its ratio.

4. 4

   Dessécher with butter

   Transfer the sieved purée and its measured finishing butter to a wide, heavy sauté pan. Set it over medium-high heat and stir without pause, scraping broadly across the floor and into the corners, for 6 to 10 minutes. The source's fierce fire meant fierce evaporation with a saucier always at the pan; controlled strong heat and a moving scraper are its honest home equivalent. At first the butter may melt into a yellow pool around the purée. Keep stirring. Ça se rattrape: as the excess water cooks away, the rice will bind the butter back into the carrots. The purée is ready when it gathers into one glossy mass, leaves a clean path behind the scraper for 2 seconds, and shows no separate slick of butter. If you see dark specks from catching, lift the unmarked purée into a clean pan immediately and leave the scorched layer behind.

5. 5

   Loosen the purée

   Lower the heat and beat in ½ cup (120 ml / 120 g) of the warmed milk or consommé, a few spoonfuls at a time. Milk keeps the flavour sweet and rounded; consommé makes the purée more savoury, especially beside braised veal. Add only enough of the remaining liquid to reach the consistence of an ordinary purée: smooth and spoonable, holding a soft mound before slowly settling. Taste and add the remaining salt if needed. If too much liquid goes in, return the pan to medium heat and stir until the clean path behind the scraper appears again.

6. 6

   Fry the Croûtons

   Melt the Croûton butter in a skillet over medium heat. When the foam subsides, add the bread triangles in one uncrowded layer and fry them until deep butter-gold underneath, then turn and colour the second side. Lift them out immediately and drain briefly. Croûtons are pieces of bread fried in butter, and here their crisp edges are the necessary contrast to the soft purée, so make them at the last moment.

7. 7

   Fill the timbale

   Spoon the Purée de Carottes into a warmed timbale or deep round serving bowl. Shape it into a generous mound and draw one broad furrow across the surface with the serving spoon so the butter sheen catches the light. Arrange the triangular Croûtons around the rim and serve at once, particularly with braised veal. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Ordinary full-sized carrots are right here. Their stronger flavour survives simmering, sieving, and butter better than watery little bagged carrots. Older storage carrots are welcome once peeled; the classical pot has always known what to do with them.
• •Keep the rice at one quarter of the carrot weight. Less leaves the purée vulnerable to weeping, while more dulls the carrot and turns the texture pasty. The rice should disappear as a flavour but remain as structure.
• •A food processor is not the equivalent of the fine sieve. It chops the carrot fibres and can work the rice into glue, while the sieve removes the fibres and gives the purée its close, silken texture. Cooking well is not cooking fancy, but this bit of patience is the dish.
• •Choose milk when serving the purée with roast poultry or as a gentle vegetable side. Choose consommé beside braised veal, as the source suggests, when you want the carrots to meet the meat rather than sit sweetly beside it.
• •Do not fry the Croûtons ahead and seal them while warm. They soften in their own trapped moisture. Fry them while the finished purée rests over the lowest heat, then bring both straight to the table.

Advance Preparation

• •The purée can be completed through the loosening step up to 2 days ahead. Cool it promptly in a shallow covered dish and refrigerate within 2 hours.
• •Reheat the purée gently in a wide pan, stirring often, until thoroughly hot. Loosen it with a spoonful of warm milk or consommé if it has tightened; if moisture beads around the edge, raise the heat briefly and stir until it binds again.
• •The bread can be trimmed and cut into triangles earlier in the day, but fry the Croûtons only when the purée is ready to serve.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 240g)