Purée de Pommes de Terre, otherwise Parmentier

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •4-quart (3.8-liter) heavy saucepan
• •Small saucepan for heating the cream
• •10-inch (25-cm) skillet
• •Sturdy fine-mesh sieve and flexible bowl scraper
• •Large heatproof mixing bowl

Instructions

1. 1

   Sweat the leeks

   Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a heavy 4-quart saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the minced leek whites and a small pinch of salt only if the consommé is unsalted. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until the leeks soften and smell sweet but remain pale. This is suer sans coloration, sweating without colour, and it protects the soup's clean ivory finish. If a few edges begin to brown, add a tablespoon of consommé at once, lower the heat, and scrape the pan clean; the purée will be slightly more golden, but it isn't lost.

   Keep the leek pieces small and even. Large pieces take longer to soften, which tempts the butter to brown before the leeks are ready.
2. 2

   Cook the potatoes

   Add the quartered potatoes and the white chicken consommé. Bring the liquid promptly to a simmer, then partially cover and cook at a lively but controlled tremble for 15 to 20 minutes. Test early: the moment a thin knife slides through a potato without resistance, take the pan from the heat. Cooking quickly here means reaching tenderness without leaving the potatoes to collapse and release unnecessary starch; it does not mean boiling them violently.

3. 3

   Fry the croûtons

   While the potatoes cook, melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the bread dice and toss until every side is crisp and evenly butter-gold, 4 to 6 minutes. Transfer them to a plate immediately so the residual butter doesn't darken them. These small croûtons are the source formula's garnish, not a raft of bread, so keep them tiny and crisp.

4. 4

   Pass the purée

   Set a sturdy fine-mesh sieve over a large heatproof bowl. Lift the potato and leek solids into it with a slotted spoon, crush them while hot, and press them through with a flexible scraper using firm, economical strokes. Pour the cooking liquid through the sieve, pressing the last leek fibres, then rinse the cooking pan and return the purée to it. The tammy of the brigade was simply a broad drum sieve; this is its honest home equivalent. Never use a blender or food processor, whose fast blades rupture the potato starch and turn silk into glue.

   If the purée begins to feel tacky, stop working it. Ça se rattrape: loosen it gently with a little of the hot cream in the next step, folding rather than whisking. It may be less plush, but it will still be a proper soup.
5. 5

   Add the cream

   Bring the light cream just to the boil in a small saucepan. Stir about three-quarters of it into the purée with a wooden spoon, then add the rest gradually until the soup falls from the spoon in a broad, fluid ribbon. Return the combined soup to medium heat and bring it only to its first full bubble, exactly as the source directs. Remove it promptly. If it seems thin, simmer briefly before adding the last butter; if it is too thick, fold in another spoonful of hot cream or consommé.

6. 6

   Finish with butter

   Take the pan completely off the heat. Monter au beurre, finish by emulsifying with butter, adding the remaining 2 tablespoons in small cold pieces and stirring until the surface is glossy and no butter floats at the rim. Taste before adding salt, since consommé may already carry enough. If the butter leaves an oily ring, whisk in a teaspoon of cold water off the heat until the purée comes together again. Do not boil it after this finish.

   The final butter is not decoration. It rounds the consommé, softens the leek, and gives the purée its sheen. We don't apologize for butter.
7. 7

   Garnish and serve

   Ladle the Parmentier into warmed soup bowls. Divide the butter-fried bread dice over the surface and finish with the chervil pluches, adding them only now so their delicate fragrance remains fresh. Serve at once. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Choose a floury potato such as russet. Its dry flesh passes cleanly and gives the soup body without prolonged cooking; a waxy potato resists the sieve and encourages you to work it too hard.
• •A prepared white chicken consommé is the original foundation. A clear, lightly seasoned stock made without roasting is the honest home equivalent because the final purée hides consommé's clarity; what you surrender is a little concentration, not the method. Dark roasted stock will turn the soup brown and overwhelm the leek.
• •The source also permits velouté and cream versions, but those are separate classical branches, not permission to stir flour into this purée. Here the potato itself supplies the body.
• •For cold service, chill the finished soup thoroughly, thin it with a little cold light cream, and taste again for salt because cold mutes seasoning. In that register, Parmentier becomes the close relation known as vichyssoise.

Advance Preparation

• •The leek, potato, and consommé base can be cooked and passed up to 2 days ahead. Chill it promptly, then reheat gently before adding the boiled cream and final butter.
• •The bread dice can be fried a day ahead, cooled completely, and kept airtight at room temperature. Add them only at serving so they remain crisp.
• •Finished Parmentier keeps for 3 days under refrigeration. Reheat over gentle heat without boiling, loosening it with a little cream if the potato has thickened in the cold.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 250g)