Coulis de Perdreau à la Purée de Marrons (Mancelle)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 4-quart saucepan with lid
• •Small saucepan for the carcass extraction
• •Poultry shears
• •Food processor
• •Heat-safe blender
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Firm ladle or flexible bowl scraper

Instructions

1. 1

   Blanch the chestnuts

   Bring the water to a full boil. Split each chestnut shell deeply enough to pierce the shell and inner skin without cutting the nut in half, then boil the chestnuts for exactly 5 minutes. Keep them in the hot water and remove only three or four at a time, shelling and peeling them while they are still almost too hot to hold. If the inner skins cling, return those nuts to the hot water for another minute. Ça se rattrape. Cold chestnuts are stubborn chestnuts.

2. 2

   Cook the chestnuts

   Put the peeled chestnuts into a heavy saucepan with 2½ cups (590 ml) of the white consommé, the minced celery, and the sugar cubes. Bring to the barest simmer, cover partly, and cook for 25 to 35 minutes, until a chestnut collapses under the back of a spoon. Keep the heat gentle because the sugar and chestnut starch catch easily. If the pan dries before the nuts soften, add reserved consommé by the ladleful; browned chestnut would muddy the finished coulis.

3. 3

   Bone the partridges

   Begin with the partridges and their liquor already prepared according to Poëlings (No. 250). Lift off the breast fillets intact and keep them covered for the garnish. Strip every scrap of remaining meat from the legs and frame, checking carefully for shot if the birds are wild, then break each carcass into several pieces with poultry shears. Keep the meat, carcasses, and poëling liquor separate.

4. 4

   Extract the carcasses

   Put the broken carcasses into a small saucepan with all the reserved liquor from Poëlings (No. 250) and 1½ cups (355 ml) of the hot consommé. Hold it at a quiet simmer for 15 minutes, stirring once or twice so the liquor dissolves from the bones, but do not reduce it hard. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve and press the carcasses firmly with a ladle before discarding them. This short extraction is the safe home equivalent of pounding the carcasses into the purée.

5. 5

   Purée and pass

   Process the boned partridge meat with the cooked chestnuts, celery, their cooking liquor, and the strained carcass extract until no pieces remain. Transfer the mixture to a blender in batches, never filling the jar more than halfway with hot liquid, and add enough reserved consommé to make a thick but flowing purée. Vent the lid under a folded towel and blend until smooth. Press the purée through a clean fine-mesh sieve with the back of a ladle, scraping the smooth coulis from underneath. If it sits like paste and refuses to pass, loosen it with another ladleful of consommé. Ça se rattrape. Do not mistake a powerful blender for the sieve; the sieve removes fibers and any minute bone fragments.

6. 6

   Add the game stock

   Combine the sieved purée with the very clear game stock in a clean saucepan. Bring it just to the boil while stirring along the pan floor, then immediately lower the heat and pass it once more through the cleaned sieve. Add enough remaining consommé to bring the yield to about 2 quarts. The coulis should pour in a broad ribbon and lightly coat a spoon. If it is thin, simmer it gently before the butter goes in; if it is too thick, loosen it with consommé.

7. 7

   Mount with butter

   Return the coulis to low heat and add the cayenne. Taste before reaching for salt because both stocks may already carry enough. Take the pan completely off the heat, then whisk in the cold butter a few cubes at a time until the surface gleams and the soup feels round on the tongue. Do not boil it after the butter enters. If the butter separates into yellow beads, pour the coulis into a cooler bowl and whisk in a tablespoon of cool consommé until it gathers again. We don't apologize for butter, and we don't abandon it either.

8. 8

   Cut and serve

   Cut the reserved breast fillets julienne-fashion, into short match-shaped strips. If they have cooled, warm them for 1 minute in a ladleful of coulis off the heat; simmering would toughen the lean meat. Divide the fillets among warmed soup bowls, ladle the coulis around them, and serve at once while its butter gloss is intact. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Farmed partridge, fresh or properly frozen, is the sensible choice when wild birds are unavailable. Thaw frozen birds slowly in the refrigerator and dry them well before completing the referenced poëling. A modest bird treated carefully serves this dish better than a grand one cooked carelessly.
• •The white consommé and game stock must taste clear, concentrated, and clean. Cloudiness is less serious than weak flavor, but an aggressively salty packaged stock will become harsher as the coulis is worked and reduced. Begin with low-salt stocks and correct only at the end.
• •Fresh chestnuts earn their place because their starch gives the coulis body without flour or cream. Choose heavy, firm nuts with taut shells. A nut that rattles has already dried inside and will never purée into silk.
• •Serve small bowls. This is a concentrated first course, rich with game, chestnut, and mounted butter, not a bowl meant to occupy the whole supper. A light Loire red such as Saumur-Champigny has enough freshness for the chestnuts and enough red-fruit character for the partridge.
• •Do not skip the second passing after the game stock is added. The first sieve refines the purée; the second catches anything loosened during the brief boil. C'est la même grammaire as a classical sauce: build, refine, then finish.

Advance Preparation

• •The white consommé and clear game stock can be prepared up to 3 days ahead and kept refrigerated, or frozen well in advance. Heat both before beginning so the chestnut cooking never stalls.
• •The partridges may be completed as Poëlings (No. 250) earlier the same day. Reserve every drop of their liquor, remove the fillets once cool enough to handle, and refrigerate meat, carcasses, fillets, and liquor separately until needed.
• •The coulis can be made through the second sieving up to 1 day ahead. Cool it promptly in a shallow container, cover, and refrigerate. Reheat it slowly while stirring, then add the cayenne and mount with cold butter only when the guests are ready to sit.
• •Keep the breast fillets whole until shortly before serving. Cutting them early exposes more surface and dries the garnish; cut julienne-fashion while the finished coulis reheats.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 240g)