Consommé Printanier aux Quenelles

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •6-quart heavy stockpot
• •Fine-mesh sieve and cheesecloth
• •Food processor with chilled bowl and blade
• •12-inch wide sauté pan for poaching
• •Two teaspoons and a small fork
• •Instant-read thermometer
• •2-quart soup tureen

Instructions

1. 1

   Raise the clarification raft

   Combine the cold stock, ground chicken, four egg whites, minced onion, carrot, celery, tomato, thyme, bay leaf, and peppercorns in a 6-quart stockpot. Stir thoroughly while everything is cold, then place the pot over medium heat. Scrape the bottom steadily as the liquid warms so the proteins don't catch. Once they rise and knit into a raft across the surface, stop stirring, open a small chimney in its centre, and reduce the heat until the liquid barely trembles beneath it. Simmer undisturbed for 45 minutes. A rolling boil breaks the raft and throws its impurities back into the broth.

   If the raft begins to fracture, lower the heat immediately and leave it alone. The proteins often gather themselves again once the liquid settles.
2. 2

   Strain to clarity

   Dampen a double layer of cheesecloth and lay it in a fine sieve over a clean pot. Ladle the consommé slowly through the raft's chimney and then through the cloth, never tipping the pot or pressing the solids. Reduce the strained consommé gently to 8 cups (1.9 L), skimming away any surface fat, then season lightly. If it remains cloudy, cool it completely, whisk in the two optional egg whites, and repeat the gentle clarification for 20 minutes. Ça se rattrape. Hold the clear consommé just below a simmer until service.

3. 3

   Make the chicken forcemeat

   Chill the food processor bowl and blade. Process the cold chicken breast with 3/4 teaspoon of the salt, the white pepper, and nutmeg until it becomes smooth and sticky. Add the egg white and process only until absorbed. With the machine running, pour in the ice-cold cream in three additions, stopping to scrape the bowl between them. The forcemeat should be pale, glossy, and firm enough to hold on a spoon. If it turns grainy or greasy, it has grown too warm; stop, chill the bowl over ice for 15 minutes, then pulse briefly until smooth. Don't force a warm emulsion.

   Poach a teaspoon of forcemeat for four minutes and taste it before shaping the batch. Adjust the seasoning now. If the test spreads, chill the mixture for another 20 minutes and make the quenelles slightly smaller.
4. 4

   Shape eighteen quenelles

   Set the finished Ordinary Meringue (No. 2382) beside you only as the book's model for the little grooved silhouette; it never enters the soup. Dip two teaspoons in cold water and pass a rounded tablespoon of forcemeat between them to make a compact oval. Draw the damp tines of a small fork once along the top to leave shallow grooves. Make exactly eighteen quenelles, arranging them on a cold parchment-lined tray, then refrigerate them while the printanier cooks.

5. 5

   Cook the printanier

   Melt the butter in a wide sauté pan over gentle heat. Add the carrot, turnip, leek, and a pinch of salt, then cook for two minutes without allowing any colour. Add 1/2 cup (120 ml) of the consommé, cover, and simmer gently for four minutes. Add the green beans, cook for two minutes, then add the peas and cook until every vegetable is just tender, another two minutes or so. Lift out any piece that finishes early and return it at service; patience, not vegetable collapse. Drain the garnish well and keep it warm.

6. 6

   Poach and assemble

   Ten minutes before serving, warm a soup tureen with hot water and bring the poaching water, seasoned with the remaining salt, to 180°F (82°C) in a wide pan. Slide in all eighteen quenelles and hold the water between 175°F and 185°F (79°C and 85°C) for 10 minutes, without boiling, until the quenelles feel lightly resilient and reach 165°F (74°C) at the centre. If one frays, lower the heat at once and leave the others untouched; the loose edge will drain away, and the quenelle beneath remains sound. During the final minute, bring the consommé to a brisk boil. Drain and dry the tureen, add the printanier and drained quenelles, then pour the boiling consommé over them exactly as the entry directs. Serve at once. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Begin with stock that tastes distinctly of chicken when cold and sets softly in the refrigerator. Clarification removes particles, not weakness; a thin stock becomes a beautifully clear thin stock.
• •Keep the forcemeat, cream, processor bowl, and blade cold. The chicken and cream form a mousseline, a fine meat emulsion, and warmth is what makes it separate or turn coarse.
• •Frozen peas picked at their peak are better than tired fresh ones. Add them directly from frozen and give them only enough time to heat through; their colour and sweetness should remain alive.
• •The vegetables are deliberately restrained to make room for all eighteen quenelles. This is the source entry's change to the ordinary printanier, not a suggestion to omit the garnish.
• •A dry Champagne or a quiet, mineral white wine suits this first course. Avoid anything heavily oaked, which overwhelms the clear broth and delicate chicken.

Advance Preparation

• •Clarify the consommé up to two days ahead. Cool it quickly, cover, and refrigerate; lift off any set fat before reheating it gently.
• •Cut and cook the printanier up to one day ahead. Chill the vegetables separately from the broth and warm them in a spoonful of consommé before service.
• •Prepare the chicken forcemeat up to eight hours ahead and keep it tightly covered in the cold. Shape and poach the quenelles only for service, preserving the entry's exact ten-minute timing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 320g)