Food Friday : Appreciating Simplicity.

Have you ever gone to a really expensive and exclusive restaurant with excited anticipation only to have a seemingly boring and unassuming plate laid out in front of you?

You made the reservations weeks ago.  You scanned the posted menu and have conjured up flavors and textures that made your taste buds tingle. You’ve been imaging not only well-planned cuisines with complimentary flavors, but also expertly displayed artistry and craftsmanship. To say the least, you are excited for the adventure.

Then, that first dish arrives and you gaze at it puzzled. You smile at the waiter. Accepting the it dish with nod to portray not only casual familiarity, but also amazement in an effort to not appear to be naive about the dish. But at the bottom of your gut you feel your excitement evaporating with the knowing wonder of ‘Is this all there is to this?’

I’ve been there. I understand your pain. I am here to help.

So, on the fourth day of culinary school, I learned to appreciate that seemingly boring dish for its beautiful simplicity. It is ironic that as a reformed techie who worked in consumer products, greatly appreciated full feature products with simple and intuitive industrial design and would spend top dollar for sleek, minimalist products that I didn’t fully appreciate a full flavor dish presented in need simplicity. I get it now. I can be just as impressed at the effort and skill that goes into making a beautiful, full-flavor dish that is simple and presented it all its nakedness as I can a product with the same characteristics.

Day four was soup day. We made a Cream of Broccoli, a Miso and a French Onion soup, but the Chicken Consomme stood out for the time required, the quality of ingredients, the attention to nuance, the tender-loving and its ultimate simplicity. At first blush, Chicken Consomme comes off as a soup of clear chicken broth with lightly tented chicken broth with some artfully displayed garnish. Perhaps the wide availability of cheap, canned broth with extra flavorings has cheapened the appreciation for something like Chicken Consomme.

The making of Chicken Consomme started on day three with stock making. Making Chicken Stock required simmering chicken bones, mirepoux and a sachet of herbs for two hours. It is relatively easy, but to really make good chicken stock, the pot requires a continuous presence and as much attention as a sleeping baby (again with the children simile). Skim the scum. Maintain the level. Check the bones. Test the flavor in case the sachet should be removed.

To take stock from stock to consomme is like taking a car from a simple drive through washing to hand washed and mirror polished waxing. It goes from slightly cloudy with a slight hint of chicken flavor to a crystal clear, pale-ale amber with a full-flavored, rich chicken profile. The stock is first cooled to room temperature then it is added to a mash of ground chicken, egg whites, tomatoes and mirepoix and by mash, I do mean taking the ingredients and getting personal with it by mashing it together into a goo. The cool stock is slowly added to the mash while continuing mashing it together. In the end, you end up a soupy, snotty goo of ingredients, but I do promise, it will make an amazing, yet simple consomme.

Stick this on the stove with a new sachet of herbs. Now, it is time to simmer and watch and simmer. Get that goo to a boil and adjust the heat to a light simmer. As the meat, veggies and eggs start to cook, they will coagulate with the proteins and particles that made the original stock cloudy. As the solids and proteins come together they form what is called a raft. Yep, a raft of cooked meaty, eggy, veggie goo. This raft acts as a filter, cloud collector and flavor enhancers. Interestingly, this is very similar to the techniques used to make beers very clear. A gelatin is used as the raft to collect proteins clouding the beer. The raft too needs careful attention and frequent basting to achieve maximum flavor extraction.

After and hour of rafting and basting, start salting and salting and salting. Seriously, you would be surprised at how much salt to add. While you wait, prepare a garnish. There are lots of traditional French Consomme garnishes. Personally, I opted for maximum simplicity with carefully julienned then blanched carrots, leeks and celery.

After about 1-1/2 to 2 hours, time to filter. Careful not to break up the raft, filter the liquid through a chinois/ fine mesh strainer. The result should be a beautifully clear and amber chicken stock.

Now, the moment of truth. Carefully ladle hot liquid over the garnish. Breath in the deep chicken aromas. After you take a deep, flavorful breath. . .

Open your eyes. . .

Take in all the crystal clear simplicity of Chicken Consomme. . .

Relish in the fact a day ago it was simply bones.