Consommé Souveraine

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Food processor with metal blade
• •Fine-mesh sieve and flexible scraper
• •Two dessertspoons
• •30 cm (12-inch) wide sauté pan
• •Slotted spoon
• •1.5 litre soup tureen or four warmed soup plates
• •Instant-read thermometer

Instructions

1. 1

   Cook the brunoise

   Put the extra ¼ cup of chicken consommé in a small saucepan and add the carrot, turnip, and leek cut brunoise-fashion. Hold them at a bare simmer for 4 to 5 minutes, until tender but still distinct beneath the teeth; a hard boil frays those tiny edges. Drain thoroughly through a fine sieve, spread the brunoise on a cold plate, and chill it completely. Wet or warm vegetables will loosen the forcemeat from inside, so do not shape the quenelles until the brunoise is cold and dry.

   The dice should be no larger than 2 mm. A coarse centre tears the thin forcemeat shell and turns a precise quenelle into a vegetable parcel.
2. 2

   Make the forcemeat

   Chill the food processor bowl and blade for 15 minutes. Add the cold chicken, salt, and white pepper, then pulse until the meat becomes very fine and tacky, scraping down the bowl twice. Add the cold egg white and process just until absorbed. With the motor running, pour in the cold cream in a thin, steady thread; stop as soon as the farce mousseline, the silky cream-bound chicken forcemeat, looks smooth, glossy, and softly firm. Press it once through a fine-mesh sieve, set the bowl over ice, and chill for 20 minutes. Poach a teaspoonful in barely trembling water: it should hold cleanly and feel tender. If it feathers, leaks fat, or slumps, it became warm. Stop, chill it thoroughly over ice, pulse it two or three times, and test again. Ça se rattrape.

   Cold is part of the formula. Warm chicken fat smears instead of emulsifying with the cream, so return the bowl to the cold whenever the mixture loses its satin sheen.
3. 3

   Mould ten quenelles

   Butter a wide sauté pan lightly. Keep the forcemeat bowl over ice and set a cup of hot water beside you. Line a dessertspoon with a thin, even coat of forcemeat, leaving no bare patch. Put about ½ teaspoon of cold brunoise in the centre, keeping it clear of the edges, then cover it with another layer of forcemeat and shape a smooth dome. Dip a second dessertspoon into the hot water, slide it beneath the quenelle, and transfer the quenelle to the buttered pan. Repeat until you have ten large quenelles. Patch any exposed brunoise with cold forcemeat; the seal must be continuous. If the mixture begins to slump, return the whole pan and bowl to the cold for 10 minutes. Patience, not flour.

   The first quenelle teaches your hands the pressure. By the third, the two spoons will begin doing the work for you.
4. 4

   Poach eight minutes

   Heat the water until it barely trembles, about 82 to 85°C (180 to 185°F), then pour it carefully down the side of the sauté pan so the quenelles are covered without being disturbed. Set the pan over low heat and poach for 8 minutes, maintaining that gentle tremble throughout. Do not boil them. Boiling can split the seams and toughen the forcemeat; if the water surges, lift the pan off the heat and add a splash of cool water before continuing. A quenelle whose seam starts to open can still be saved: stop moving it, lower the heat, and let the chicken set around the opening. At 8 minutes the quenelles should feel lightly springy, and the centre of a test quenelle should reach 74°C (165°F). Lift them out with a slotted spoon and drain well.

   Keep the quenelles similar in size so the book's eight-minute poach remains true. An oversized one needs another minute or two and leaves the smaller ones waiting.
5. 5

   Ready the tureen

   Fill the soup tureen with hot water, let it stand for a minute, then empty and dry it. Blanch the petits pois in the quenelle poaching water for 30 seconds if frozen or up to 1 minute if fresh, then drain them. Arrange the ten quenelles and peas in the warmed tureen. Meanwhile, bring the full quart of chicken consommé to a clean boil in a separate saucepan. Skim the surface rather than stirring it; if a few fat beads appear, touch them with the corner of a clean paper towel and lift them away at once.

6. 6

   Pour and serve

   Pour the boiling chicken consommé over the quenelles and peas without splashing the sides of the tureen. Add the chervil pluches at the last moment so their fragrance stays bright, then carry the tureen straight to the table. Give each guest two or three quenelles and enough clear consommé to surround them generously. À table!

Chef Tips

• •This formula begins where the source begins, with finished chicken consommé. Ordinary stock will make soup, but it will not make Consommé Souveraine; the clarity and concentrated chicken flavor are the foundation, not decoration.
• •Use chicken breast with every strip of sinew removed. The lean flesh makes a pale, delicate forcemeat, while sinew winds itself around the processor blade and leaves stubborn threads in the quenelles.
• •Fresh peas are lovely in their brief season. At any other time, use small frozen petits pois picked at their peak; the classical pantry has always understood that an honest preserved ingredient beats a tired fresh one.
• •Two dessertspoons are the proper tools here. Warm them in hot water between quenelles, but shake them nearly dry because water trapped against the forcemeat can prevent a clean seal.
• •For a celebration, pour a dry Champagne or a restrained Chablis. The wine should refresh the palate without laying oak or sweetness over the consommé's delicate chicken flavor.

Advance Preparation

• •Prepare and clarify the chicken consommé up to 2 days ahead. Chill it promptly, remove every trace of set fat, and reheat only the quart needed for service.
• •The brunoise can be cooked, drained, and chilled up to 1 day ahead. Keep it covered so its tiny dice do not dry out.
• •The forcemeat can be made up to 6 hours ahead and held thoroughly chilled with food-safe wrap touching its surface. Shape the quenelles close to poaching time.
• •For calmer dinner-party service, poach the quenelles up to 3 hours ahead, cool them promptly, and refrigerate them covered. Rewarm them for 2 minutes in separate barely simmering water, never in the serving consommé, so the broth remains clear.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 370g)