Beef Consommé with Deslignac Royales

The consommé is the evolution or shall I say transformation of  freshly made broth (usually beef or chicken) into a clear soup that is actually called a consommé. Consommé in Escoffier cuisine can be served with various garnish such as pasta (vermicelli’s and the sort) croutons, vegetables and also with Royales which is the garnish we will discover today.

Let’s start by making the consommé.

Here are the ingredients you will need to make a consommé:

• 1.2 litre of homemade broth – Beef chicken or fish (once reduce it will yield one litre or 4 cups or consomme)
• 200 grams of beef mince
• 50 grams of finely chopped Leeks ( only the green part)
• 20 grams finely chopped Celery
• 80 grams of chopped Tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon of sherry or port . (this is optional and has to be added during the broth clarification.)
• 50 grams of finely chopped carrots
• 2 tablespoon of finely chopped coriander ( 1 for the clarification and one for the final filtering)
• 1 Egg whites
• 1 teaspoon  of crushed  black peppercorn ( for the final filtering)

ingredients for the royales:

3 eggs yolks

1 whole egg

100 ml of pure cream with 32 percent fat minimum ( heavy whipping cream)

100 ml of Consommé

a pinch of white pepper

1 pinch of grated nutmeg

1 teaspoon of soften butter ( to butter the moulds)

utensils

stockpot

chinois

cheese cloth

Dariole mould

Food preparation:

Start by washing peeling and cutting all of the vegetables: finely chop the leeks, carrots, and celery tomatoes and coriander. (if you use fresh pieces of beef chop them now too). Once done gather all the vegetable in one bowl and the meat and egg white in a separate recipient.

Broth clarifying process:

Add all of the chopped ingredient (including the meat) in a large enough pan nd mixed them well. Once done add the egg whites and mix well.

Next pour all of your cold broth on top and give it a good (but gentle) stir so that all of the ingredients blends with the broth.

Put the pan on your stove on medium to high heat and warm up that mixture until it almost reach the boil. Make sure you continue stirring gently all the ingredients from time to time to wile it is warming up to avoid that the egg white accumulate and coagulate at the bottom of the pan.

As soon as you have reached the near boil stop stirring reduce the heat under the pan to a simmer and leave to cook for 45 minutes. During that time a small opening should form at the middle of the “Egg Raft” with white foam coming out and do not panic about this as this is part of the process.

After 45 minutes turn the heat of and very gently with a spoon, make an opening in the centre of the raft (as shown in the video) to reveal what should be now a crystal clear broth.

Final Broth filtering

Once the broth is clarified you still need to filter it once more, You can do that by using a clean large container with a sieve on top which has to be covered with a cheese cloth or a clean thin white kitchen towel. (if you don’t have that you can use coffee filter like I did in the video)

Once you sieve is ready add in 2 tablespoon of chopped coriander and a few black peppercorn and start passing your clear broth delicately through your sieves. Remember that to get the clear broth out of your pan you should make an opening in the raft and scoop out the clear broth with a soup ladle bits at the time. DO not try to pour out the whole pan over or you will cloud your broth again.

Once filtered your consommé is ready to be used.

Making the Royales

The Royales are garnishes are savoury custard flavoured with cream and beef consommé.

• In a bowl beat the full egg with the eggs yolks, add the 100 ml of cream and mix well. Straight after add 100 ml of beef consommé followed by a pinch of white pepper and a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg.
• Brush the inside of the moulds you have chosen to use with butter.
• Pour the custard in your moulds and fill the moulds only three quarter of the way up. (Ideally you want to use dariole moulds, but you can use mini charlottes mould or any other small mould you have that can go in the oven.)
• Next, cover the moulds that contains the custard with foil and place at the bottom of another larger recipients that will be used to create a Bain Marie (warm water bath)
• Boil some water using a kettle or using a saucepan on your stove.
• Place the recipient with your mould in a preheated oven at 140 c /180 F (on the middle shelf.)
• Pour water in the recipient until the water reach 3 quarter of the way up the top of the mould that contains the custard  (it sounds a bit confusing with my own word so please watch the video for more details)
• Close your oven and leave the custard cook for 20 to 30 minutes (time may vary depending on the amount of custard you are cooking) usually the best thing to do is to keep an eye on your custards from time to time. As soon as they are set take them out of the oven.
• Once set, leave the Royale to cool down totally before removing them from their moulds
• To un-dish the Royales turn the mould upside down and tap it once or twice on a chopping board covered with plastic wrap or baking paper to have the custard comes out. ( as shown on video) You may have the run small knife along the edges of the custard they are not coming out easily.
• Once out the mould you can cut and details the custard the way you like using cookie cutter of different size of just a knife.

Serving the consome:

Serving the consommé can be tricky because it must remain as clear as possible once it is serve. When served with solid element like vermicelli or pieces of boil of hard vegetables such as carrot, turnips or asparagus it is fine but when serving with the Royales that are pieces of custards. Things can get pretty messy very quick.

In terms of portions size, the consommé should always be served in small quantity as this is just a small appetizer or light soup that is aimed at “waking up the taste buds” and not to fill you up. The consommé has to be served hot and can be served in small plates or bowl.

Bon appetit

Video tutorial

Stephane