Consommé Brunoise

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Sharp chef's knife and stable cutting board
• •4-quart heavy saucepan with lid
• •2-quart saucepan for heating the final consommé
• •Fine-mesh skimmer or slotted spoon
• •Fine-mesh sieve and clean muslin for clarity rescue
• •2½-quart heatproof soup tureen

Instructions

1. 1

   Cut the brunoise

   Trim the carrots into lengthwise slabs, using only the outer orange-red flesh and reserving the pale cores for another pot. Cut the carrot, turnip, prepared leek, celery, and onion into even 3 mm planks, then matchsticks, then cubes. Aim for disciplined uniformity, not ornament. If some pieces run large, stop and recut them now. Ça se rattrape on the board; once the pan starts, large turnip cubes and tiny leek pieces will never finish together.

   Dry the rinsed leek thoroughly before cutting. A wet leek slides under the knife and carries enough water into the pan to dilute the butter before the vegetables have softened.
2. 2

   Keep greens vivid

   Fill a bowl with the ice and enough cold water to move the cubes freely. Bring the measured blanching water to a brisk boil with 1 teaspoon of the salt. Add the diced French beans for 45 seconds, then add fresh peas for the final 20 seconds. Lift both immediately into the ice bath. If using frozen peas, don't blanch them; rinse them briefly in cold water instead. Drain the greens thoroughly and hold them cold. This separate blanching is how a home cook fulfills the book's instruction that they be kept very green.

3. 3

   Stew without colour

   Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat. Add the carrot, turnip, leek, celery, and onion with the remaining ¼ teaspoon salt and the pinch of sugar. Cover and stew gently for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring twice, until the vegetables begin to soften and smell sweet. They must not fry or brown. If the butter starts taking colour, lift the pan from the heat, add a tablespoonful from the first measure of consommé, cover, and lower the flame before continuing. The butter's sweetness belongs here; browned flavour does not.

   Listen to the pan. A quiet murmur is right. Sharp sizzling means the heat is too high or the vegetables need that spoonful of consommé.
4. 4

   Moisten and cook

   Add 1⅓ cups (320 ml / 320 g) of the ordinary consommé to the butter-stewed brunoise. Bring it only to a bare tremble and cook uncovered for 10 to 15 minutes, until the carrot and turnip are tender at the centre but their square edges remain distinct. Never let the liquid roll. If it boils and turns hazy, remove the pan from the heat for 2 minutes and skim away the butter that rises. If necessary, lift out the vegetables with a slotted spoon, pass the broth once through a dampened fine sieve, and reunite them gently.

5. 5

   Join the consommé

   Five minutes before serving, bring the remaining 5⅓ cups (1.28 L / 1.28 kg) ordinary consommé to a full boil in a second saucepan. Pour it into the cooked brunoise, add the drained peas and French beans, and return the soup only to a quiet simmer. Hold it there for 5 minutes. Stir once with a light hand so the vegetables remain intact and the consommé stays lucid.

6. 6

   Finish the tureen

   Warm the soup tureen with hot water, then drain and dry it. Taste the consommé before adding anything; it should be clearly seasoned but never aggressively salty. If a commercial consommé has tightened too far, loosen it with hot water a tablespoon at a time. Pour the soup into the warm tureen and add the chervil pluches at the final moment so their delicate fragrance remains. Serve at once. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Begin with ordinary consommé clear enough that you can see the bowl of a spoon through it. Plain stock is not interchangeable here. Homemade or bought is acceptable, but taste a commercial consommé cold before seasoning the vegetables because many are already quite salty.
• •A ruler beside the board is useful for your first brunoise. Three millimetres is smaller than most cooks imagine, but don't chase mathematical perfection. What matters is that the pieces cook together and sit comfortably on a soup spoon. Cooking well is not cooking fancy.
• •The instruction to use only the red part of the carrot protects the soup from a pale, coarse core. Slice around that core and save it for stock. If your carrots are orange and tender all the way through, very little needs removing.
• •Frozen peas are an honest choice and often greener than tired fresh ones. Fine fresh French beans hold the neatest dice; out of season, cut frozen whole fine beans while barely thawed and shorten their blanching to 15 seconds.
• •Chervil is delicate and turns dull under prolonged heat. Pick the pluches shortly before serving and add them only after the consommé reaches the tureen.

Advance Preparation

• •The prepared ordinary consommé can be chilled for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. Bring the final portion to a full boil before it joins the brunoise.
• •The carrot, turnip, leek, celery, and onion may be diced up to 4 hours ahead. Keep them covered separately in the refrigerator so the onion and leek don't perfume the roots.
• •The brunoise may be stewed in butter and cooked with its first measure of consommé a day ahead. Cool it promptly in a shallow container, chill, then reheat gently before adding the boiling final consommé.
• •The peas and French beans may be blanched and chilled up to 8 hours ahead. Drain them very well, keep them covered and cold, and add them only for the final 5 minutes.
• •Leftover soup keeps for up to 2 days under refrigeration, though the vegetables soften and the chervil fades. Reheat at a bare simmer, never a hard boil.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 315g)