Potage Solférino

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •4-quart (3.8 L) heavy saucepan with lid
• •2-quart (1.9 L) saucepan for the garniture
• •Food mill fitted with a fine disk
• •Fine-mesh sieve and sturdy ladle
• •1/2-inch (12 mm) melon baller
• •Balloon whisk

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the garniture

   Use a 1/2-inch melon baller to raise twelve neat balls from the waxy potato. Keep them under cold water while you work so they do not darken. Cut the green beans on a sharp diagonal into small lozenges, then pick and finely shred the chervil into pluches. Keep the chervil cool and dry; it goes into the finished soup, never the cooking pot.

   No melon baller is a reason to improvise neatly, not to abandon the garnish. Cut twelve even 1/2-inch potato cubes and pare their corners slightly; the shape changes, but the proportion and separate cooking remain honest.
2. 2

   Étuver the vegetables

   Melt the 3 tablespoons butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat. Add the leeks, carrot, and onion with a small pinch of the salt, cover, and étuver, stew gently in butter without colouring, for 10 to 12 minutes. Stir every few minutes. The vegetables should collapse, glisten, and smell sweet while remaining pale. If the butter begins to brown, pull the pan from the heat and stir in a tablespoon of consommé before lowering the flame. Ça se rattrape.

3. 3

   Cook the potage base

   Add the pressed tomatoes and sliced floury potatoes. Turn them through the butter for 2 minutes, then moisten with 1 2/3 cups (395 ml) of the white consommé. Bring the liquid to a bare simmer, cover with the lid slightly ajar, and cook gently for 25 to 30 minutes. The potatoes are ready when they collapse under a spoon and the leeks offer no resistance. If the bottom threatens to catch, add consommé a few spoonfuls at a time; this is a pale vegetable foundation, not a place to chase browned fond.

4. 4

   Cook the garniture

   While the potage simmers, bring the water and 1 teaspoon of the salt to a gentle boil in a small saucepan. Add the potato balls and simmer, never boil hard, for 7 to 10 minutes, until a fine knife enters their centres cleanly. Lift them out carefully. Bring the water back to a lively boil, add the green-bean lozenges, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until tender but still distinctly green. Drain and refresh the beans briefly under cold water, then keep both garnishes separate.

5. 5

   Pass through tamis

   Crush the cooked vegetables in their liquid with a potato masher, then pass everything through the fine disk of a food mill. Rub that purée through a fine-mesh sieve with the back of a ladle, working in small batches while it is warm. Leave the dry leek fibres behind. A blender can turn the potato gummy and still leave threads of leek, so the sieve is the honest home equivalent of the old tammy. If the purée cools and becomes stubborn, loosen it with a ladleful of hot consommé and pass it again. If the first result is uneven, rewarm it gently and repeat the sieve. Ça se rattrape.

6. 6

   Complete the potage

   Return the sieved purée to the clean saucepan. Whisk in the remaining consommé gradually until the soup flows from the ladle in a broad, smooth ribbon and measures about 2 quarts. Bring it to one full boil as the original method directs, then immediately lower the heat and simmer for 3 minutes. If it is too thick, add more consommé; if it is thin, simmer uncovered until it lightly veils the back of a spoon. Taste and correct the salt before adding the finishing butter.

7. 7

   Monter au beurre

   Take the saucepan completely off the heat and wait until the bubbling stops. Monter au beurre, finish by emulsifying the cold butter, whisking in a few cubes at a time until each disappears before adding the next. The potage should turn supple and glossy without becoming greasy. If beads of butter rise to the surface, stop adding butter and whisk in a tablespoon of cold consommé; once the surface is smooth, continue slowly. Never boil the soup after this point or the emulsion will separate.

8. 8

   Garnish and serve

   Warm the potato balls and green-bean lozenges for 30 seconds in a ladleful of the finished potage, then place them in a warmed soupière or divide them among warmed soup plates. Pour over the Solférino and scatter the chervil pluches at the final moment so their fresh anise scent reaches the table intact. Serve immediately. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Pressed tomatoes are ripe tomatoes peeled, seeded, and squeezed gently to remove excess water. Outside tomato season, use good canned whole tomatoes, drain them thoroughly, remove the seeds, and weigh the flesh. An honest preserved tomato is better than a pale fresh one.
• •White consommé gives the potage clarity and savoury depth without muddying its colour. A clear, lightly seasoned chicken stock is the practical home equivalent; avoid dark roasted stock, which overwhelms the leeks and turns the coral soup brown.
• •The food mill begins the work, but the fine sieve finishes it. Potato supplies body and leek brings fibre, so stopping after the mill leaves the texture merely puréed. Passing the soup finely is the technique this dish is built to teach.
• •Chervil is not decorative parsley. Its faint anise note is part of the named garnish, and the pluches belong on the soup at the last moment, when they remain fragrant and green.
• •Serve Solférino as a generous first course for a dinner party or with buttered bread for supper. Cooking well is not cooking fancy.

Advance Preparation

• •Prepare and sieve the vegetable base up to 24 hours ahead. Cool it promptly, cover, and refrigerate without the finishing butter. Reheat gently, adjust with consommé, then monter au beurre immediately before serving.
• •The green beans may be blanched up to 8 hours ahead, refreshed, dried, and refrigerated. Shape the potato balls up to 4 hours ahead and keep them submerged in cold water; cook them close to serving so their edges remain clean.
• •Leftover finished potage keeps for up to 3 days under refrigeration. Reheat it over gentle heat without boiling and whisk firmly as it warms; a spoonful of cold consommé will bring back the emulsion if the butter separates.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 240g)