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Purée de Pimentos
Created by Chef Juliette
Purée de Pimentos turns red peppers and precisely measured rice into a loose, butter-glossed accompaniment for poached fowl, proving that a purée succeeds by how it moves, not how high it stands.
Purée de Pimentos (silken red-pepper and rice purée) teaches a precise lesson: a purée meant for poached fowl must flow. The rice gives body, but the finished purée should settle into a glossy pool rather than stand in a mound. Keep it thin. That is the one true thing to know before the pan comes out.
The old entry assumed a saucier, a broad tamis, and a quantity measured by the quart; a stockpot never off the fire might have supplied braising moisture without even being named. This version uses water because the entry calls for no referenced stock, a 2-quart saucepan in place of the brigade pot, and a sturdy fine-mesh sieve in place of the tamis. A salamander has no work here, because nothing is browned. The batch is reduced to 225 grams of trimmed pepper and 150 grams of rice, preserving the original ratio exactly. The scale changed, not the method.
The broad tamis and brigade volume are scaffolding and can go. Braising the pepper with two-thirds its weight in rice, rubbing the whole through a sieve, and monter au beurre (finishing by whisking in butter) at two ounces per quart are the dish and must stay. The decisive moment is the final thinning: if the rice turns it pasty, ça se rattrape with hot water, spoonful by spoonful, until the purée flows again.
Ingredients
red bell peppers
Quantity
1 large and 1 small (about 2 cups / 225 g trimmed)
stemmed, seeded, and thinly sliced
plain white rice, preferably short-grain
Quantity
¾ cup (180 ml / 150 g)
water
Quantity
2 cups (475 ml / 475 g), plus up to ½ cup (120 ml / 120 g) as needed
additional water kept hot
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| red bell peppersstemmed, seeded, and thinly sliced | 1 large and 1 small (about 2 cups / 225 g trimmed) |
| plain white rice, preferably short-grain | ¾ cup (180 ml / 150 g) |
| wateradditional water kept hot | 2 cups (475 ml / 475 g), plus up to ½ cup (120 ml / 120 g) as needed |
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