Fresh Peas or St. Germain Royale

Royale Saint-Germain (poached fresh-pea custard) teaches the whole discipline of a royale: concentrate the flavor before the eggs arrive, then set them so gently that no bubble scars the custard. The one true thing to know before touching a pan is this: a royale is poached, even when the oven supplies the heat. Let the water boil and you get holes and weeping; hold it below a simmer and the custard comes out smooth, green, and tender.

This entry needs neither stock forever on the fire nor a salamander. What the old formula assumed was a kitchen hand to pound the peas through a tamis (drum sieve), ranks of identical metal molds, and a poaching bath watched through service. At home, a small processor begins the purée, a fine-mesh sieve finishes it, and four ramekins replace the regiment. The processor is brigade scaffolding we can dismiss. The sieving, the exact dilution of two-fifths cooking liquor and one-fifth cream, and the binding of one egg with two yolks are the dish, so they stay untouched.

The finished royale should yield under the spoon without slumping, tasting first of sweet peas and then, quietly, of chervil, mint, and cream. One cook, one stove, one evening. Watch the water around the molds more closely than the clock; that gentle poach decides everything.