Potage à la Cherville (Soup with Game and Mushrooms)

Ingredients

• 1 whole young wild rabbit (garenne)
• 25 grams flour
• 1.5 deciliters Champagne
• 1.5 deciliters Chablis white wine
• 750 milliliters consommé (clear meat stock)
• 1 bunch bouquet garni (herb bundle)
• pinch fresh thyme
• pinch marjoram
• 50 grams wild mushrooms (morel or mousserons preferred)
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 3 to 4 deciliters consommé
• 75 grams butter
• pinch Cayenne pepper

Instructions

1. Trim one fillet from the rabbit (garenne) and reserve it for garnish. Cut the remaining rabbit into small pieces.
2. Heat butter in a heavy pot and sauté the rabbit pieces briskly until lightly colored. Dust with flour and allow it to color lightly, stirring constantly.
3. Déglacé (deglaze) with the Champagne and Chablis wines, then add the consommé. Season with a bouquet garni (herb bundle), a pinch of fresh thyme and marjoram, the wild mushrooms (morilles or mousserons), and a small amount of crushed garlic.
4. Simmer gently and thoroughly until the rabbit is completely tender and the flavors are fully developed.
5. Remove the bones from the meat, then pound the cooked rabbit flesh and mushrooms together into a fine paste. Thin the purée with the cooking liquid, then pass it through fine cheesecloth (étamine) to create a smooth soup.
6. Adjust the consistency with additional consommé as needed (3 to 4 deciliters), then heat gently without bringing to a boil. Finish the soup by monter au beurre (mounting with butter)—whisk in the 75 grams of butter off the heat—and season with a pinch of Cayenne pepper.
7. For the garnish: finely slice the reserved morels and stew them gently in butter. Poach the reserved rabbit fillet at the last moment, then slice it into thin escalopes (thin scallops). Distribute the mushroom slices and rabbit escalopes into each bowl as garnish.