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Consomme with Asparagus Tips
To 3 pints of hot consomme add 1 cup of asparagus tips cooked in salted water until tender, but not broken. Color a delicate green with spinach juice. Serve with soup sticks, roll them the size of the forefinger, cut six inches in length, and bake a number of rings made by joining the ends of these pieces to make a circle, bake and serve one ring to each plate, filled with as many of the sticks as the ring will hold easily.
A garnished clear soup rather than a dish in its own right: the work is in keeping the consomme bright and the asparagus intact.
- YieldThree pints serves six as a first course, about 8 oz each. The asparagus tips are a garnish, not a body ingredient.
- Asparagus tipsUse the top 1 1/2 to 2 inches of thin spears. Two to three minutes in well-salted boiling water is enough; the instruction "tender, but not broken" is the hinge, since overcooked tips shed into the broth and cloud it.
- Add them at the last momentDrop the drained tips into the hot consomme off the heat, or into the warmed bowls, and ladle over. Holding them in the soup turns them olive-drab.
- Spinach juiceSpinach green was commonly made by pounding raw leaves and pressing out the liquid. A tablespoon or two of juice from a handful of raw leaves blitzed and strained through muslin will tint three pints. Add it off the boil: sustained heat dulls the color and may leave green flecks in what should be a transparent soup.
- Keep the consomme clearReheat gently and never let it boil once garnished. If the stock has been clarified, boiling will lift sediment and undo the work.
- Soup sticksThese are baked sticks of dough. Roll a lean bread dough into ropes the thickness of a finger and six inches long, and shape some into rings by pinching the ends together. The recipe gives no oven setting; bake in a moderate oven until dry and crisp, and check early, as thin sticks color fast.
- AssemblyOne ring per plate, laid beside or on the rim of the soup plate, filled with as many sticks as it will hold easily. A presentational flourish, and optional.