Potage Montespan

Potage Montespan (Argenteuil asparagus cream with tapioca and fine peas) teaches one true thing: tapioca must become completely translucent before it meets the soup. A chalky centre cannot be disguised later. Cook the pearls patiently and they give body without adding another roux, leaving the asparagus clean and distinct beneath the cream.

The book’s kitchen assumed a saucier on staff, Crème d’Asperges, otherwise Argenteuil (No. 697) prepared in one pan, somewhat thick tapioca waiting in another, and white stock never far from the fire. Your honest equivalent is the finished referenced soup, small pearl tapioca cooked in one saucepan, and a single pot for assembly. I’ve kept the prescribed three-to-one ratio exactly and made about two quarts for a home table. The separate holding pans were brigade scaffolding; fully cooking the tapioca and finishing the peas à l’anglaise are the dish and must stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.

When it is right, the Potage pours in a broad ivory-green ribbon, the tapioca felt more as silk than as pearls, with sweet buttered peas giving each spoonful a little freshness. Before you touch the heat, remember the deciding step: no opaque centre may remain in the tapioca.