Consommé Vert Pré

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •3-quart heavy saucepan
• •Fine-mesh skimmer or small spider
• •Medium bowl for iced water
• •½-inch plain metal piping tip or small round cutter
• •2½-quart heatproof soup tureen

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the green garnish

   Set a bowl of iced water beside the stove. Bring a 3-quart saucepan of water to a brisk boil and add the salt. While it heats, trim the asparagus heads and cut the French beans diagonally into neat lozenges. Keep the peas separate, and leave the lettuce and sorrel whole for now. Each garnish cooks on its own clock; mixing them in one batch gives you hard beans beside tired peas.

2. 2

   Blanch each vegetable

   Blanch the French beans until bright and barely tender, about 1½ minutes, then lift them directly into the iced water. Let the water return to a boil and repeat with the asparagus for 45 to 60 seconds, then the peas for 30 to 45 seconds. Frozen peas need only about 20 seconds. Drain each vegetable separately and dry it well, then measure 2 tablespoons of each. If a batch goes olive and soft, don't put it in the tureen. Ça se rattrape: save it for a purée and blanch a fresh spoonful. The quantity is small, and the colour is part of the dish.

3. 3

   Poach the lettuce

   Slip the whole lettuce leaves into the same simmering water for 15 to 20 seconds, just until supple and brilliantly green. Chill them at once, drain, and press them completely dry between clean towels. Lay the leaves flat and stamp out small roundels with the narrow end of a plain metal piping tip. Stamp matching roundels from the raw sorrel and measure 2 tablespoons of each. Poaching the lettuce is not dispensable brigade ceremony; it softens the leaf without letting it collapse in the consommé.

4. 4

   Bind with tapioca

   Empty and rinse the saucepan, then add the finished consommé and bring it to a full boil. Stir gently while sprinkling in the seed tapioca in a thin, steady rain. Lower the heat at once and cook at the gentlest simmer for 15 minutes, stirring along the bottom occasionally so no pearls catch. The tapioca is ready when nearly transparent and tender, and the consommé has gained only a light, flowing body. If the pearls gather into a lump, take the pan off the heat and tease them apart with a fork. For a stubborn cluster, lift it into a fine sieve, rinse briefly with hot water, separate the pearls, and return them to the broth. Never whisk hard, which clouds the consommé.

5. 5

   Arrange the warmed tureen

   Fill the soup tureen with very hot water, leave it for a minute, then empty and dry it thoroughly. Arrange the asparagus heads, peas, French-bean lozenges, sorrel roundels, and poached lettuce roundels across the bottom. Keep them loose rather than piled, so every ladle receives a little of the whole garnish. A cold or wet tureen steals heat and dilutes the broth, two small indignities easily avoided.

6. 6

   Pour and serve

   Bring the tapioca consommé back just to the boil and taste it; correct the salt only if the finished broth requires it. Pour it immediately over the garnish in the warmed tureen, then add the chervil pluches. Carry the tureen straight to the table and ladle gently so the transparent pearls and green garnish remain evenly distributed. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Begin with finished, properly clarified consommé, not ordinary stock. The recipe deliberately leaves that foundation whole, as the source does; the tapioca and green garnish can refine a clear broth, but they cannot clarify a cloudy one.
• •Look for seed tapioca or the smallest pearl tapioca available. Instant tapioca disappears into uneven thickening, while large pudding pearls overwhelm the restrained garnish. The right pearls become almost transparent after their gentle quarter-hour simmer.
• •Frozen peas are an honest choice and often greener than tired fresh ones. Asparagus and French beans must be firm and sweet. If the asparagus is poor, make Consommé Brunoise instead and let root vegetables carry the garnish; Vert Pré truly belongs to the green season.
• •Keep the stated garnish proportions. This is consommé with a composed green garnish, not a vegetable soup. Its pleasure lies in seeing the clear broth, translucent tapioca, and each precise shape in the same spoon.

Advance Preparation

• •The finished consommé may be prepared up to 3 days ahead. Cool it promptly, cover, and refrigerate it; remove any set fat before reheating.
• •Blanch the asparagus, peas, and French beans, and poach the lettuce up to 8 hours ahead. Dry them carefully and refrigerate each garnish separately in a covered container. Cut the sorrel and prepare the chervil pluches shortly before serving.
• •Cook the tapioca only during the final 20 minutes. Left in the broth overnight, it continues swelling and steals the consommé's light texture. With the broth and vegetables ready, the dinner-party finish requires one saucepan and little more than a quarter-hour.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 250g)