Purée de Pois Frais, dite Saint-Germain

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •2½ to 3-quart heavy saucepan
• •8-inch sturdy fine-mesh sieve or food mill fitted with its finest disk
• •Heatproof mixing bowl
• •Flexible scraper or broad wooden spoon
• •Kitchen twine

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the green bundle

   Wrap the lettuce leaves around the parsley and secure them with kitchen twine so the bundle can be removed whole. Put the boiling water, salt, and sugar into a narrow heavy saucepan and return it to a full boil. These precise quantities preserve the source ratio of one-half ounce of salt and one-sixth ounce of sugar per quart of water. Measure rather than season by instinct, because nearly all that liquor will be concentrated and returned.

2. 2

   Cook the peas through

   Add the peas and lettuce bundle. The water should barely cover them; if it does not, move everything to a narrower pan before adding more, since excess water only lengthens the reduction. Return quickly to the boil, then cook uncovered at a lively simmer for 8 to 12 minutes, until a pea crushes smoothly between your fingers. Bright but raw peas will not pass cleanly through the sieve. Cook them tender, but stop before their color turns dull.

3. 3

   Drain and reduce

   Lift out and discard the lettuce and parsley bundle. Drain the peas over a bowl, reserving every drop of their cooking liquor, then return that liquor to the saucepan. Boil it uncovered over medium-high heat while you sieve the peas. Reduce it to about 2 to 3 tablespoons, when the bubbles become broad and slow and a spoon drawn across the pan leaves a clear path for a moment. If it tightens into a sticky syrup before you are ready, remove it from the heat and loosen it with a tablespoon of boiling water. If it smells scorched or tastes bitter, do not fold it into the peas.

4. 4

   Pass through the sieve

   While the liquor reduces, rub the hot peas through a sturdy fine-mesh sieve into a warm bowl, working in small batches with the back of a ladle or a flexible scraper. Scrape the smooth purée from the underside after each batch and discard the dry skins left above. This is not brigade scaffolding. The sieving is the dish, giving Saint-Germain its fine, close texture without cream. If the peas refuse to pass, they are undercooked; simmer them for another 2 minutes with a spoonful of boiling water, then try again.

5. 5

   Work in the butter

   Measure the sieved purée. Use 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g) of butter for every cup, preserving the source ratio of 4 ounces per quart. For the expected 2 cups, return the purée to the dry saucepan over the lowest heat and beat in the 4 tablespoons of softened butter one piece at a time, incorporating each before adding the next. If the butter beads on the surface, the pan is too hot. Lift it off the heat and beat in a teaspoon of cool water until smooth, then continue. Ça se rattrape. Never let the buttered purée boil.

6. 6

   Finish with the glaze

   Scrape every drop of the reduced cooking liquor into the buttered purée and beat until the color is even and the surface gleams. Saint-Germain should fall from the spoon in a slow satin fold and hold a soft mound, neither runny nor stiff. If it is too tight, loosen it with boiling water a teaspoon at a time; if it is loose, stir it over the gentlest heat only until the spoon leaves a brief track. Taste before adding anything, since the reduction carries the measured salt and sugar. Spoon it generously into a warm serving dish. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Taste a pea before you begin. Young peas are tender and sweet; large starchy peas need longer cooking and will make a heavier purée. Technique first, but no sieve can return tenderness to a pea that has already gone floury in the pod.
• •Out of season, frozen petits pois are the honest pantry answer and will keep their color beautifully. They make an adaptation rather than this exact fresh-pea entry, but the lettuce, parsley, sieving, butter ratio, and reduced liquor remain unchanged.
• •A small butter lettuce heart is the home-scale equivalent of the source's whole lettuce. It lends a quiet green savor to the cooking liquor and is removed before sieving. Do not replace it with bitter leaves.
• •Use unsalted butter with a clean, sweet flavor. The liquor already contains the dish's seasoning, and salted butter makes the final reduction difficult to judge. We don't apologize for butter, but we do measure it properly.
• •Serve Saint-Germain beside roast lamb, chicken, veal, or a plainly cooked fish. It can receive a little jus from the plate, but no cream, stock, or decorative garnish belongs in the purée itself.

Advance Preparation

• •For the best make-ahead result, cook and sieve the peas and reduce their liquor up to 24 hours before serving. Cool them separately in shallow containers, cover the purée directly on its surface, and refrigerate within 2 hours. Work in the butter and reduced liquor shortly before dinner.
• •A fully finished Saint-Germain can be refrigerated for up to 2 days. Reheat it over very low heat, stirring constantly and loosening with teaspoons of boiling water as needed. Do not boil it, or the butter may separate and the green color will dull.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 125g)