Asparagus Velouté Soup
New Years eve last year Susan and I had a number of friends over. The meal itself was quite good, but one dish in particular stands out: The Asparagus Velouté soup from Larousse Gastronomique (the World’s Greatest Cookery Encyclopedia). It was so good, in fact, that my brother still talk about it to this day. It isn’t really Konfusion Citchen, but it’s so good I don’t care. I promised over at Sci-Fi Hi-Fi that I would blog the recipe so here you go.
The recipe consists of two parts, making a chicken consommé and making the velouté itself. I start with the velouté, since that is what the recipe is all about. There goes quite a lot of butter into the recipe, instead of summing up the amount just to have you divide it out again, I have included it several times in the amounts that are needed. The ingredients are listed in the order they are used.
Asparagus Velouté
Ingredients:
40 g butter
40 g flour
750 ml chicken consommé
400 g asparagus
40 g butter
3 egg yolks
100 ml double cream
75 g butter
parsley and asparagus tips (heads) for garnishing
Directions:
Prepare a white roux. Moisten with the chicken consommé. Cut the asparagus into pieces, blanch for 5 minutes in boiling water, drain and then simmer in melted butter for about 10 minutes. Purée in a blender or food processsor and add to the consommé. Remove from the heat and thicken the soup with a mixture of the egg yolks and double cream. Finally whisk in the remaining butter. Reheat but do not boil. Garnish with cooked asparagus tips and parsley.
Chicken Consommé
Ingredients:
One small chicken
3-4 giblets, browned in the oven
800 g veal knuckle
7 litres cold water
3-4 large carrots
400 g turnips
100 g parsnips
350 g leeks, tied in a bundle
2 celery sticks, sliced
One medium-sized onion with 2 cloves stuck in it
A sprig of thyme
Half a bay leaf
Directions:
Cut up chicken, giblets, and veal knuckle and put into a big stockpot. Add the water. Bring to the boil and carefully remove the scum that forms on the surface. Season with coarse salt (it is better to adjust seasoning at the end than to add too much at the beginning). Add the vegetables and herbs. Simmer very slowly so that boiling is hardly perceptible, for 4 hours. Remove the meat and very carefully strain the stock. Remove surplus fat carefully.
If you got this far, you can surely look forward to a delicious soup. As an added bonus you have the meat used for making the consommé.