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Potage Choiseul
Created by Chef Juliette
Potage Choiseul turns a smooth Conti lentil purée into something darker and brighter at once, with game fumet beneath, buttered sorrel above, and separate grains of poached rice in every spoon.
Potage Choiseul (game-scented Conti lentil purée with sorrel and rice) teaches a quiet rule: a garnish must complete a soup, not merely sit on it. The one true thing to know before touching a pan is that the game fumet, the concentrated essence drawn from game, belongs inside the lentil purée from the beginning. Stir it into an ordinary purée at the end and you get dilution, not depth.
The original assumed a saucier on staff, a stockpot that never went cold, and enough hands to pound lentils before rubbing them through a tammy. At home, you prepare the Purée de Lentilles, otherwise Conti (No. 640) with excellent game fumet in place of white consommé; a food mill and fine-mesh sieve replace the pounding and tammy. Holding separate pots through service is brigade scaffolding and may go. The smooth body, the finishing butter, and the exact sorrel-and-rice garnish are the dish and must stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.
When it is right, Choiseul falls from the ladle in a broad tawny ribbon, glossy with butter and punctuated by white rice and dark green sorrel. Lentils tighten as they stand, so judge the consistency before the garnish goes in. If the potage becomes spoon-standing thick, hot fumet brings it back. Ça se rattrape.
Ingredients
Purée de Lentilles, otherwise Conti
Quantity
About 2 quarts (1.9 L / about 2 kg) Purée de Lentilles, otherwise Conti (No. 640)
prepared with excellent game fumet in place of white consommé and without its usual crouton-and-chervil garnish
poached long-grain white rice
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 30 g), from about 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 12 g) raw rice
raw rice rinsed before poaching
water
Quantity
2 cups (475 ml / 475 g)
for poaching the rice
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Purée de Lentilles, otherwise Contiprepared with excellent game fumet in place of white consommé and without its usual crouton-and-chervil garnish | About 2 quarts (1.9 L / about 2 kg) Purée de Lentilles, otherwise Conti (No. 640) |
| poached long-grain white riceraw rice rinsed before poaching | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 30 g), from about 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 12 g) raw rice |
| waterfor poaching the rice | 2 cups (475 ml / 475 g) |
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