Chaudrée Charentaise — Charentes Butter-Poached Fish Chowder — Cook

Ingredients

80 g unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces — first addition
4 onions, sliced
6 garlic cloves, crushed
500 ml dry white Charentais wine, Colombard or Ugni Blanc
500 ml water
1 bouquet garni, thyme and bay
Firm fish — first stage
200 g small whole sole, cleaned
200 g cuttlefish or squid, cut into rings
200 g skate, cut into chunks
Soft fish — second stage
150 g whiting, cleaned
150 g small sea bream, cleaned
150 g eel, cut into pieces
To finish
40 g unsalted butter, cold — for monter au beurre
1 bunch flat-leaf parsley, generous amount, finely chopped
To serve
4 slices pain de campagne, day-old, one slice per bowl

Method

1
Melt 80 g butter in a heavy pot over moderate heat. Add the sliced onions and crushed garlic. Sweat without colour for 10 minutes, until the onions are fully soft and translucent — they should yield without resistance to a spoon.
2
Add the wine and water. Drop in the bouquet garni. Raise the heat and bring to a calm simmer — never a rolling boil, which will cloud the broth and break the fish.
3
Add the firm fish: sole, cuttlefish or squid rings, and skate. Maintain a gentle simmer and cook for 10–12 minutes. This is where the dish lives or dies: the two-stage addition is the whole architecture of chaudrée — add everything at once and the soft fish disintegrates while the firm fish is still raw. The broth should remain barely trembling throughout.
4
Add the soft fish: whiting, sea bream, and eel. Continue at the same gentle simmer for a further 6–8 minutes. The stew is ready when all fish is just cooked through — the flesh at the thickest point separates into clean flakes under light pressure — and the broth has thickened perceptibly from the natural fish gelatin.
5
Remove and discard the bouquet garni. Take the pot off the heat and swirl in the 40 g cold butter in pieces — monter au beurre — until fully emulsified into the broth. The surface should appear glossy and unified, not oily or broken.
6
Scatter a generous quantity of chopped flat-leaf parsley over the surface. Lay a slice of day-old pain de campagne in each deep bowl and ladle the chaudrée over it. The bread should begin to absorb the broth immediately — the scent at this point is briny, buttery, and herbaceous.