Game Purée (Purée de Gibier)

Ingredients

• 650–700 g game (raw weight)
• 200 g lentils
• 1 litre game consommé (stock)

Instructions

1. Roast the game as you would for a salmis (game stew). If the garnish requires quenelles, extract the necessary raw fillets before roasting. If the garnish is to be diced or made as a royale (aspic mold), extract fillets only after the game is cooked through.
2. Once roasted, finish cooking the game with the lentils and game consommé until tender. Bone the cooked game and pound the meat together with the drained lentils until smooth. Thin the purée with its cooking liquid, pass it through a fine sieve (étamine), and heat to a rolling boil.
3. Unlike other purées, this game purée is not skimmed. Finish it with butter (monter au beurre) at the last moment.
4. Garnish as appropriate: either small croûtons made from the reserved fillets, or convert them into a royale (molded aspic); alternatively, make small quenelles from the reserved raw fillets.