Purée d’Oseille et de Tapioca à la Crème

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •4-quart stainless steel or enameled heavy saucepan
• •Immersion blender
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Heatproof mixing bowl
• •Whisk and flexible spatula
• •Instant-read thermometer, optional

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the mise

   Use Purée d’Oseille et de Vermicelle à la Crème (No. 642) as the governing method: weigh exactly three ounces of tapioca in place of its vermicelli, and keep the remaining sequence intact. Separate the poaching milk from the finishing dairy, reserve a little finishing milk for adjustments, and have the sieve set over a heatproof bowl before cooking begins. Once the tapioca thickens, orderly hands matter.

   Use small-pearl tapioca, not instant granules. Instant tapioca thickens before the pearls can poach properly and gives the purée a pasty, uneven body.
2. 2

   Fondre the sorrel

   Melt the butter in the heavy saucepan over medium-low heat without letting it brown. Add the dry sorrel and ¼ teaspoon of the salt, then turn the leaves through the butter until they collapse completely. Continue cooking for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring, until the loose moisture has evaporated and the sorrel forms a soft purée. Its bright green will settle into olive green. This is natural, not a mistake. Measure 4 tablespoons (60 ml / about 70 g) and set them aside.

3. 3

   Poach the tapioca

   Wipe the saucepan clean, add the 2⅓ cups of poaching milk, and bring it just to the boil over medium heat. Sprinkle in the tapioca gradually while whisking so the pearls remain separate, then lower the heat until the milk barely trembles. Poach for 25 minutes, stirring frequently and scraping the corners, until the pearls are translucent and the milk has thickened. If the tapioca clumps, take the pan off the heat and whisk in 2 tablespoons of cool finishing milk at a time until the pearls separate. Ça se rattrape. If milk catches on the bottom, transfer the unscorched portion to a clean pan without scraping.

4. 4

   Add and strain

   Stir the measured cooked sorrel into the tapioca and poach gently for 2 minutes so their flavors join. Add about 1 cup of the finishing milk to loosen the mixture, then pulse briefly with an immersion blender. Do not run the blender continuously, or the tapioca can turn gluey. Press the hot purée through the fine-mesh sieve with a flexible spatula. If it refuses to pass, loosen it with another spoonful of hot finishing milk rather than forcing a stiff paste through dry.

5. 5

   Thin and boil

   Return the strained purée to the clean saucepan. Add enough remaining finishing milk or light cream to bring the base to about 7½ cups (1.78 liters), stirring until perfectly smooth. Season with most of the remaining salt. Bring the soup to one clean boil while stirring the bottom constantly, then immediately remove it from the heat. It should coat a spoon lightly and run from it in a broad ribbon. If it stands heavily, add reserved milk; if it runs like plain milk, simmer it briefly before proceeding. This is the final boil.

6. 6

   Make the liaison

   Whisk the egg yolks and heavy cream together in a heatproof bowl until smooth. While whisking constantly, add 1 cup of the hot purée in a thin stream, followed by a second cup. Take the saucepan off direct heat and whisk the tempered liaison back into the remaining soup. The residual heat should thicken it slightly without a simmer. If you must warm it, use the lowest heat and stop at 165°F to 170°F (74°C to 77°C). If fine curds appear, lift the pan off the heat at once, whisk in ¼ cup (60 ml / about 62 g) cold reserved milk, and strain again. Ça se rattrape at the first sign; a hard boil cannot be undone.

7. 7

   Season and serve

   Taste and add the remaining salt only as needed. The sorrel should arrive first as a clean, lemony tartness, followed by milk and cream, while the tapioca remains invisible except for the purée’s gentle body. Ladle it into warmed bowls immediately, with no added herb or oil to distract from the source preparation. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Fresh sorrel has a clean acidity no spinach can supply. If it is out of season, use 4 tablespoons (60 ml / about 70 g) plain frozen sorrel purée and cook it briefly in the butter. Spinach with lemon makes a pleasant soup, but it makes another soup.
• •Cook sorrel only in stainless steel, enamel, or another nonreactive pan. Bare aluminum or iron muddies its color and can give its acidity a metallic edge.
• •The twenty-five-minute tapioca poach is not brigade scaffolding. The pearls must become translucent before they are sieved, or the finished purée will taste chalky and continue swelling in the bowl.
• •Serve this in small first-course bowls. Its tartness welcomes bread and butter beside it, but the soup itself needs no garnish and no theatrical flourish. Cooking well is not cooking fancy.

Advance Preparation

• •The tapioca and sorrel base can be strained, cooled promptly, covered, and refrigerated for up to 24 hours before the finishing dairy and liaison are added. Reheat it to the required boil first, then complete the liaison just before serving.
• •Cooked sorrel can be prepared a day ahead and kept covered in the cold. Bring it toward room temperature while the tapioca poaches so it joins the hot base without stopping the cooking.
• •Leftover finished soup keeps for up to 2 days in the cold. Reheat it over very low heat while stirring, and never allow it to simmer; loosen it with milk if the tapioca has tightened during storage.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 245g)