Potage Régence

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •4-quart heavy saucepan
• •Two 3-quart saucepans
• •Food processor with metal blade
• •Fine-mesh sieve and immersion blender
• •Slotted spoon, two teaspoons, table fork, and instant-read thermometer

Instructions

1. 1

   Clean the cockscombs

   Bring 6 cups (1.4 L) of the water to a boil. Lower in the cockscombs for 30 to 45 seconds, then transfer them immediately to cold water. Rub away the loosened outer membrane with a clean cloth and use a small knife only on stubborn patches. Trim any dark tissue from the bases, then soak the combs in fresh cold water for 20 minutes, changing the water once. If the membrane clings, blanch the combs for another 15 seconds; prolonged boiling now will tighten them before their proper poach.

2. 2

   Poach them white

   Whisk the flour into 6 cups (1.4 L) cold water in a saucepan, then add the lemon juice and 2 teaspoons salt. This blanc, a lightly acidulated flour poaching liquid, protects the cockscombs from discoloration. Add the cleaned combs, cover their surface with a round of parchment, and hold them at the barest tremble for 35 to 45 minutes, until a fine skewer enters without resistance. If exposed edges begin to grey, turn the combs and restore the parchment contact. Keep them warm in the strained blanc until service.

3. 3

   Make the forcemeat

   Chill the food-processor bowl and blade for 10 minutes. Process the cold chicken with the forcemeat salt until the meat becomes smooth and tacky, then pulse in the egg white. With the machine running in short bursts, add 1/2 cup (120 ml) cold cream gradually, followed by the softened crayfish butter and white pepper. This farce mousseline, a cream-lightened chicken forcemeat, must stay cold enough to remain smooth. If it turns slick or oily, stop. Ça se rattrape: set the bowl over ice until thoroughly cold, then pulse briefly to restore the emulsion.

   Process in short bursts and touch the bowl often. If the bowl no longer feels cold, neither does the forcemeat.
4. 4

   Shape and poach

   Heat the remaining 8 cups (1.9 L) water with 1 teaspoon salt to 175 to 180°F (79 to 82°C). Poach a teaspoon of forcemeat first and taste it. If it feels rubbery, fold in 1 tablespoon of the reserved cold cream; if it frays or spreads, chill the paste for 15 minutes before testing again. Using two wet teaspoons, shape 24 small oval quenelles, then draw the tines of a table fork lightly along each one to make shallow grooves. Poach them in batches without boiling until they rise, feel gently springy, and reach 165°F (74°C) at the center, about 6 minutes. Lift them with a slotted spoon and hold them in warm poaching water.

5. 5

   Heat the barley cream

   Transfer the Crème d’Orge (No. 712) to a heavy saucepan and warm it slowly, stirring along the pot floor so the barley cannot catch. Bring it to about 175°F (79°C), hot enough to temper the liaison but below a simmer. If a skin forms while the garnishes wait, whisk it back in gently rather than scraping dried pieces from the rim.

6. 6

   Temper the liaison

   Whisk the yolks with all but 1 tablespoon of the liaison cream in a large heatproof bowl. Add two ladlefuls of hot soup in a thin stream while whisking constantly, then return the tempered mixture to the saucepan. Stir over low heat until the soup lightly coats a spoon and reaches 170 to 175°F (77 to 79°C). Never let it boil. If small egg flecks appear, take the pot off the heat immediately. Ça se rattrape: blend for 10 seconds with the head fully submerged, then pass the soup through a fine sieve.

   The liaison thickens through gentle heat, not reduction. Boiling cannot make it richer; it can only curdle the yolks.
7. 7

   Monter au beurre

   Take the saucepan completely off the heat. Monter au beurre, whisk in butter off heat, by adding the chilled crayfish butter one cube at a time until each addition disappears and the soup becomes glossy and faintly coral. Taste before adding salt, since both the barley cream and shellfish butter may already carry enough. If orange beads of fat collect on top, the soup was too hot. Whisk the reserved tablespoon of cold cream in a clean bowl, then add the soup back gradually until smooth. Keep the finished Potage Régence warm, never simmering.

   Real crayfish butter supplies both the shellfish perfume and the warm coral tint. Plain butter colored with spice gives only the tint.
8. 8

   Dish the potage

   Warm a soupière or eight shallow soup plates. Drain the quenelles and cockscombs well, then divide them with the cooked pearl barley among the warm plates, giving each serving three quenelles and one or two cockscombs. Ladle the Potage Régence around the garnishes so their pale shapes remain visible. Serve immediately, while the surface is glossy and the liaison still holds its silk. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Prepare the Crème d’Orge (No. 712) as a finished component before beginning this entry. Its long barley cooking belongs to that recipe; reheating it gently here keeps the Régence service manageable.
• •Buy crayfish butter made from crushed crayfish shells cooked into real butter. It should smell sweet, mineral, and distinctly of shellfish. Plain butter or a colored compound cannot supply the dish's defining finish.
• •Order fresh cockscombs from a poultry specialist well in advance. If they cannot be had, use twelve additional quenelles and describe the result plainly as a variation; mushrooms and cauliflower change the dish rather than replacing the garnish.
• •The forcemeat lives or fails by temperature. Chicken, egg white, cream, processor bowl, and blade should all be cold before mixing, because a warm farce loses its emulsion and poaches grainy.
• •Pour a dry Champagne or a restrained white Burgundy. Both have enough acidity for the liaison and enough quiet fruit to meet the crayfish without crowding it.

Advance Preparation

• •The Crème d’Orge (No. 712) may be prepared up to two days ahead, chilled promptly, and reheated slowly before the liaison is added.
• •The cockscombs may be cleaned and poached one day ahead. Refrigerate them submerged in their strained blanc, then rewarm them gently in that liquid.
• •The quenelle forcemeat may be made up to six hours ahead and kept tightly covered over ice in the refrigerator. Shape and poach the quenelles close to service.
• •Do not add the liaison or crayfish butter ahead. Both finishes belong to the final minutes, and reheating the completed soup risks curdling the yolks and separating the butter.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 350g)