Purée de Champignons

Purée de Champignons (pale mushroom purée) teaches restraint. Raw mushrooms must meet their sauce quickly and leave the fire as soon as their water has cooked away. Brown them first and you make a fine duxelles, but not this. The one true thing to know before touching the pan is simple: raw and quick keeps the purée pale.

The original recipe assumed a commis at the sieve, a saucier with reduced Béchamel ready, and an open fire under a broad sautépan. At home, one pound of mushrooms serves four, a food processor performs the first rough work, a sturdy sieve supplies the refinement, and a wide pan on an ordinary burner gives the necessary evaporation. The brigade quantity and hours of hand-pounding were scaffolding, so they can go. The raw sieving, reduced Béchamel, brief reduction, and butter added away from the fire are the dish, so they stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.

The mixture will loosen when the mushrooms surrender their water, then gather into a soft, glossy mass. Don't panic and don't add flour. Keep it moving until a spoon leaves a furrow that closes slowly, then take the pan off the heat before adding the butter. Work swiftly from sieve to pan, because that is the step that decides the color.