Coulis de Grives au Pain Noir, otherwise à l’Ardennaise

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 5-quart saucepan or cocotte
• •Wide 12-inch skillet
• •Poultry shears
• •Heavy mortar and pestle
• •Countertop or immersion blender, used only after bones are removed
• •Medium-fine sieve
• •Fine-mesh sieve and food-safe muslin
• •Instant-read thermometer

Instructions

1. 1

   Ready the foundation

   Warm the first measure of feathered-game consommé to a bare simmer. Taste it before adding salt; it must be full-flavored but not aggressively seasoned, because the bread and final boiling will concentrate it. Set out a covered bowl for the breast fillets, a second clean saucepan, and a fine sieve lined with damp muslin. Once the birds are cooked, the work moves quickly.

2. 2

   Fry the pain noir

   Melt the butter for the bread in a wide skillet over medium heat. Fry the pain noir in two batches, turning the dice until their cut faces are crisp, evenly bronzed, and fragrant with butter. Rye begins dark, so judge it by smell and edges rather than color alone. A scorched crumb will be puréed into every spoonful and cannot be hidden; brown deeply, never blacken. Transfer the bread and every buttery crumb to a plate.

3. 3

   Fry and poach birds

   Melt the frying butter in a heavy 5-quart saucepan or cocotte over medium-high heat. Season the birds lightly, then fry them in batches until every side is a deep hazelnut color. Pour in the warm feathered-game consommé, scraping the fond from the pot floor, and add the fried rye dice. Hold everything at the barest tremble until the birds are cooked through, about 12 to 15 minutes for thrushes or 18 to 22 minutes for quail. The thickest part of the thigh should reach 165°F (74°C); a hard boil toughens the breast and drives the consommé cloudy.

4. 4

   Reserve the fillets

   Lift the birds from the pot and let them stand only until they can be handled. Remove both breast fillets from each bird in the largest pieces possible, cover them, and keep them aside. Return any juices to the pot. Leave the legs, wings, skin, and adhering meat on the carcasses, because their flavor belongs in the coulis.

5. 5

   Pound the carcasses

   Cut the carcasses through their joints with poultry shears. Working in small batches, pound them in a heavy mortar with the juniper berries and a ladleful of the softened bread mixture. The cooked meat should become a rough paste and the small bones should be thoroughly cracked. Do not put bones into a countertop blender; the large mortar was not ceremony, it controlled the crushing and kept the blade work away from bone.

6. 6

   Pass the coulis

   Stir the pounded carcasses into the bread and consommé. Ladle the mixture through a sturdy medium-fine sieve into a clean bowl, pressing firmly with a wooden spoon to recover the liquid, bread, and soft meat. Stop when dry bones remain, and never grind sharp fragments against the mesh. Once every hard piece has been removed, blend the strained mixture until smooth, then rub it through the damp-muslin-lined fine sieve. This double passage is the home equivalent of the tammy, and it stays because the silken texture is the dish.

7. 7

   Boil and strain

   Return the purée to the clean saucepan and whisk in the reserved 1 cup plus 3 tablespoons of feathered-game consommé. Bring it to a full boil for 30 seconds, stirring constantly across the entire pot floor, then pass it through a clean fine strainer once more. If the bread catches, do not scrape the scorched layer into the soup. Pour the unburned coulis into another pan and loosen it with some additional consommé. Ça se rattrape. The finished consistency should coat a spoon yet still pour freely.

8. 8

   Monter au beurre

   Whisk the cream into the coulis over gentle heat and bring it only to the edge of a simmer. Remove the pan from the heat. Monter au beurre, mount with butter, by whisking in the cold cubes a few at a time until the surface is dark, silken, and visibly glossy. Do not boil it again. If beads of fat appear, stop adding butter, place 1 tablespoon of cool consommé in a clean warm bowl, and whisk in the broken coulis one spoonful at a time before incorporating the remaining butter. Taste and correct the salt. We don't apologize for butter.

9. 9

   Cut and serve

   Cut the reserved breast fillets into very thin slices or julienne-fashion, meaning matchstick strips. Warm them for 30 seconds in a ladleful of coulis off the heat, then divide them among heated soup bowls. Ladle the coulis over the fillets and serve immediately, while the butter still holds its gloss. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Many thrush species are protected, and the rules governing lawful game differ by place. Buy only fully dressed, inspected birds sold legally for food. For this two-quart batch, eight very small thrushes replace four farmed quail; never improvise with an unidentified or backyard bird.
• •Farmed quail is the honest practical substitute, but it is not invisible. Its breast is larger and its flavor milder than thrush, so the finished feathered-game consommé must carry real depth. Four quail preserve the source formula’s approximate bird-to-liquid ratio once the other quantities are doubled.
• •Choose a dense rye loaf without caraway, seeds, molasses, or added sweetness. The bread is the liaison, not a seasoning, and every flavor baked into it becomes part of the coulis. Day-old bread fries evenly and drinks the consommé without dissolving at once.
• •Use a lightly seasoned feathered-game consommé with enough natural gelatin to set softly when cold. A salty commercial broth becomes harsher during boiling and leaves no room for correction at the finish.
• •Serve the coulis in small bowls at the beginning of a special dinner. A mature brut Champagne or a restrained red Burgundy can stand beside the game, rye, and juniper without crowding them.

Advance Preparation

• •Feathered-game consommé is a finished foundation rather than a stock improvised inside this recipe. Prepare or source it up to two days ahead, chill it promptly, and remove any excess surface fat before measuring.
• •The coulis can be prepared through the final straining one day ahead. Chill the reserved breast fillets separately, cool the purée promptly, and refrigerate both. Reheat the coulis gently, then add the cream and mount with butter only before serving.
• •The rye bread may be diced earlier in the day, but fry it shortly before cooking the birds. Once buttered, it loses fragrance and can absorb dampness while it waits.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 245g)