Thrush Soup Ardennes Style (Potage Purée de Grives à l'Ardennaise)

Ingredients

• 10 thrushes (grives)
• 8 thrush fillets
• 750 ml consommé (cooking stock)
• 200 g lentils
• 250 ml game bird consommé
• 100 ml thrush fumet with juniper
• 200 ml heavy cream
• 100 ml white Bar currants, drained

Instructions

1. Roast 10 thrushes in butter and set aside 8 fillets. Finish cooking the remaining birds with three-quarters of a litre of consommé and 200 grams of lentils.
2. Pound the birds and lentils together finely, then thin the purée with the cooking liquid. Pass through a fine sieve (étamine).
3. Relax (dilute) the purée with 250 ml of game bird consommé.
4. Heat gently without boiling. Just before serving, finish with 100 ml of thrush fumet with juniper and 200 ml of heavy cream.
5. Garnish: white Bar currants, carefully drained of their syrup, and the reserved fillets cut into thin matchsticks (julienne).