Purée de Flageolets, otherwise Musard

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •4-quart heavy-bottomed saucepan with lid
• •Food processor or food mill
• •Fine-mesh sieve and flexible scraper
• •Small saucepan for the milk
• •Small skillet for the bread dice

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the beans

   For the overnight method, cover the dried flageolets generously with cold water and soak them for 8 to 12 hours, then drain. For one-evening cooking, cover the unsoaked beans with water, boil for 2 minutes, cover, and leave off the heat for 1 hour before draining. Fresh flageolets need no soaking; their quantity is twice the dry volume, preserving the source's proportion.

2. 2

   Cook until collapsing

   Put the flageolets in a heavy saucepan with the 10 cups of water, onion and clove, carrot, bouquet garni, and 1 teaspoon of the salt. Bring slowly to a boil and skim away the first froth, then lower the heat, partially cover, and maintain a quiet simmer. Fresh beans may need 30 to 40 minutes; soaked dried beans usually need 60 to 90 minutes. Add boiling water whenever the beans threaten to rise above the liquid. They are ready only when one crushes into cream between your tongue and palate, with no firm or chalky centre.

   The clock reports, but the bean decides. A variety that has spent longer in storage may need another 20 minutes, and giving it that time is simpler than fighting a gritty purée later.
3. 3

   Drain and reserve

   Set a sieve over a heatproof bowl and drain the flageolets, reserving at least 1 cup of their cooking liquor. Remove and discard the onion, clove, carrot, and bouquet garni; they have given what the soup needs and should not be ground into it. Keep the beans hot, because warm starch passes more willingly than cold starch.

4. 4

   Pound and pass

   Transfer the hot beans to a food processor and add ½ cup of the reserved cooking liquor. Process to a thick, even paste, adding more liquor a tablespoon at a time only if the blades struggle. Force the paste through a fine-mesh sieve with a flexible scraper while it is still warm. Do not skip this passing; removing the skins is what separates Musard from an ordinary blended bean soup. If the paste feels gritty or refuses to pass, stop. Return it to the pot with another splash of cooking liquor, simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, then process and pass it again. Ça se rattrape. Forcing harder cannot cook an unripe starch.

   Work in small batches and scrape the underside of the sieve into the bowl. That pale, smooth paste clinging underneath is the part you want.
5. 5

   Rectify the consistency

   Bring the milk just to a boil in a small saucepan, then remove it from the heat; this is the boiled milk specified by the source. Warm the white consommé or pale chicken stock separately. Put the passed flageolet paste in a clean saucepan and whisk in the hot consommé a little at a time, followed by the hot milk, stopping to judge the texture between additions. The finished purée should coat a spoon lightly, then slide from it in a broad sheet. If it is too thick after the measured liquids are added, loosen it with a little more hot milk; if it is too thin, correct it during the gentle simmer that follows.

6. 6

   Despumate gently

   Bring the purée only to a bare simmer and hold it there for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring across the bottom often. As foam or a thin skin gathers, lift it away with a shallow spoon; this despumating gives the soup its clean finish and lets the bean taste sweet rather than dusty. An overly thin purée can reduce here until it lightly coats the spoon. If the bottom catches, do not scrape the scorched layer into the soup. Pour the clean upper portion into another pan and continue gently.

7. 7

   Fry the bread dice

   Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a small skillet over medium heat. When the foam subsides, add the tiny bread dice and toss them until every side is crisp and evenly golden. Lift them onto a small plate and keep them separate from the soup until serving, or they will surrender their crisp edges.

8. 8

   Mount with butter

   Remove the purée from the heat. Montez au beurre, finish by whisking in the remaining 3 tablespoons of cold butter one small piece at a time, allowing each piece to disappear before adding the next. Taste and correct the salt. Do not boil the soup after the butter goes in; if butter beads appear on the surface, pull the pan fully off the heat and whisk in a spoonful of hot milk until the sheen returns. Ladle into warm bowls and scatter the butter-fried bread dice over each serving at the last moment. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Plain dried flageolets are the honest pantry choice and give a round, nutty soup. Fresh shelled flageolets are sweeter and greener, but they belong to their short season; use them when they are truly fresh, not merely expensive.
• •A true white consommé gives the deepest, cleanest result. Good unsalted pale chicken stock is the sensible home equivalent because the soup is passed and opaque; dark roasted stock muddies both its colour and its delicate bean flavour.
• •The sieve is not brigade theater. A blender breaks the skins small, but it does not remove them, and Musard depends on that final passing for its silk. Cooking well is not cooking fancy.
• •Chervil pluches are the small tender leaf shreds named in the source. They accompany its fresh-bean velouté or cream variation with a few tiny flageolets; Musard itself keeps the simpler garnish of bread dice fried in butter.
• •The finishing butter rounds the bean starch into a soft emulsion and gives the surface its gloss. We don't apologize for butter, and margarine has no useful work here.

Advance Preparation

• •Soak dried flageolets 8 to 12 hours ahead. If that window has passed, use the 1-hour quick-soak method in the first instruction and allow the full cooking time afterward.
• •The beans can be cooked, passed, cooled, and refrigerated in a covered container for up to 2 days. Reheat the paste gently before adding the hot consommé and boiled milk.
• •The finished soup keeps for up to 3 days in the refrigerator. Reheat it over low heat without boiling, loosening it with hot milk as needed, and fry fresh bread dice for serving.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 240g)