Chef Juliette
Suet Dumpling
Boulettes au suif, poached beside salt beef, turn equal weights of flour and finely chopped suet into tender, rich dumplings. Keep the beef liquor at a bare tremble and the old garnish works beautifully at home.
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Crosnes au Velouté
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 2129, Crosnes au Velouté, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Knotted crosnes, cooked tender and wrapped in ivory velouté scented with mushroom essence: a small French side dish that teaches the difference between sauce poured over vegetables and sauce made to belong.
Side Dishes
French
Dinner Party
Comfort Food
Special Occasion
20 min
Active Time
20 min cook•40 min total
Yield4 servings
Crosnes au Velouté (Japanese artichokes bound in mushroom-scented velouté) teaches a quiet point made throughout the classical canon: a sauce must cling, not merely sit underneath. The one true thing to know before touching a pan is that the mushroom essence is the dish. Without its concentrated savor, Velouté gives body but has very little to say.
The source assumes a saucier on staff, a stock never off the fire, finished Velouté waiting, and mushroom essence already reduced and ready. At home, keep that sensible division of labor across time: arrive with those two finished components, then use one saucepan and one wide pan for four portions. I have changed only the scale and the holding. Brigade quantities and prolonged hot holding are scaffolding and can go; cooking the crosnes completely, draining them well, and binding them with mushroom-scented Velouté are the dish and must stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.
Done properly, each pearly coil stays whole and tender, wearing a thin ivory gloss that settles into every notch without puddling in the serving dish. Drain with conviction before the crosnes meet the sauce. Water caught in those rings will silence the mushroom essence and turn a delicate liaison into soup.
Crosnes take their French name from Crosne, a commune southeast of Paris where this East Asian member of the mint family was cultivated commercially for the French table. The small ivory coils traveled from market gardens into bourgeois dining rooms and grand-kitchen garnitures, where finished sauces gave dignity to their delicate, faintly nutty flavor. Despite the English names Japanese artichoke and Chinese artichoke, the plant is neither an artichoke nor a true root; the edible pieces are tubers formed on underground stems.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
fresh crosnes (Japanese artichokes)
Quantity
About 4½ cups (1⅓ lb / 600 g)
cold water
Quantity
8 cups (1.9 L / 1.9 kg)
fine sea salt
Quantity
1 tablespoon (15 ml / 18 g)
finished Velouté
Quantity
1 cup (240 ml / about 250 g)
kept warm
mushroom essence
Quantity
1½ tablespoons (22 ml / about 22 g)
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| fresh crosnes (Japanese artichokes) | About 4½ cups (1⅓ lb / 600 g) |
| cold water | 8 cups (1.9 L / 1.9 kg) |
| fine sea salt | 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 18 g) |
| finished Veloutékept warm | 1 cup (240 ml / about 250 g) |
| mushroom essence | 1½ tablespoons (22 ml / about 22 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •3-quart saucepan
- •10-inch wide sauté pan or saucier
- •Fine-mesh colander
- •Soft vegetable brush
- •Fine skewer or paring knife
Instructions
- 1
Clean the crosnes
Rinse the crosnes in several changes of cold water, rubbing their ridged coils gently between your fingers. Trim away hairlike roots and use a soft vegetable brush on any crevice holding soil. Do not peel them. Their fine skin is part of their character, and trying to pare every ring wastes half the vegetable.
Keep the cleaned crosnes in cold water only while you finish the batch. A long soak softens their delicate surface without improving the cleaning. - 2
Cook them completely
Bring the water and salt to a full boil in a saucepan. Add the crosnes, let the water return to a boil, then lower it to a lively simmer. Cook for 8 to 12 minutes, testing the thickest coil after 8 minutes. A fine skewer should enter with little resistance and find no chalky core, but the crosne must remain whole. Lift out smaller pieces as they finish rather than letting them split. Reserve ½ cup (120 ml / 120 g) of the cooking water, then drain the crosnes thoroughly and leave them in the warm colander for one minute so trapped water can escape.
- 3
Flavour the Velouté
Warm the Velouté in a wide sauté pan over medium-low heat, whisking until smooth. Stir in 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 15 g) of the mushroom essence, taste, then add the remaining essence. The sauce must smell distinctly of mushroom before the crosnes arrive, because the vegetable will soften its voice. Bring it only to a bare simmer. It should nappe, coating the back of a spoon in a thin, even film. If chilled Velouté has tightened or formed small lumps, whisk in the reserved cooking water one teaspoon at a time; if a skin refuses to disappear, pass the sauce through a fine sieve. Ça se rattrape.
- 4
Bind, do not drown
Add the hot, well-drained crosnes to three-quarters of the flavored Velouté. Turn them gently with a spoon for 1 to 2 minutes, adding only enough of the remaining sauce to cover every ridge with a light ivory gloss. Lier, to bind, is the aim: the sauce belongs on the vegetable rather than collecting beneath it. If a watery puddle forms, lift out the crosnes, reduce the sauce alone for 30 to 60 seconds, then return them. If the coating becomes too tight, loosen it with a teaspoon of reserved cooking water.
- 5
Serve without delay
Taste the sauce and adjust only if its finished seasoning requires it. Spoon the crosnes into a warm serving dish, keeping the coils intact and carrying over just enough Velouté to bind them. No parsley, pepper, lemon, or decorative flourish is needed; the mushroom essence supplies the voice the pale vegetable lacks alone. Serve beside roasted poultry, veal, or ham while the sauce still gleams. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Choose crosnes that are firm, pale, and crisp-looking, with no damp brown patches. They are a cold-season vegetable and do not store gracefully. If the market has none, choose another dish; substituting a different tuber and keeping this name would miss the whole point.
- •Mushroom essence is not ordinary mushroom broth. It must be concentrated enough to announce itself from the spoon, yet clean enough not to muddy the pale sauce. Soy sauce, truffle oil, and dried mushroom powder all push the dish somewhere else.
- •Use a finished Velouté made with real butter and properly seasoned in its own preparation. The source treats it as a component, and so should you. Butter, not margarine. A substitute weakens both the flavor and the smooth way the sauce coats the coils.
- •This is excellent beside roast chicken or veal because the crosnes bring texture while the Velouté joins the plate's juices. A dry, rounded white wine suits the mild vegetable and mushroom finish without crowding either.
Advance Preparation
- •The finished Velouté and mushroom essence may be prepared up to 2 days ahead and refrigerated separately. Reheat the Velouté gently before beginning, loosening it only if it has tightened in the cold.
- •Clean the crosnes earlier on the day of serving, dry them well, and keep them wrapped in a barely damp towel in the refrigerator.
- •For a dinner party, the crosnes may be boiled up to 2 hours ahead. Cool them promptly, cover, and refrigerate if they will wait longer, then warm them gently in the flavored Velouté.
- •Once bound, serve the dish within 10 minutes. Velouté thickens as it cools, and long holding makes the coating heavy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 210g)
Calories
165 calories
Total Fat
4 g
Saturated Fat
2 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
2 g
Cholesterol
10 mg
Sodium
500 mg
Total Carbohydrates
28 g
Dietary Fiber
4 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
5 g
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