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Royal Custard with Chestnuts
3 large chestnuts 3 tablespoons white broth 3 egg yolks 1/4 teaspoon salt few grains cayenne Boil chestnuts until mealy, pound and crush to a paste, mix with the broth. Beat eggs and seasonings and combine with broth mixture, pour in greased molds, place in hot water, bake until firm. Cool, remove from molds and cut into fancy shapes.
This is a royale — a savoury baked custard, unsweetened, set firm enough to be turned out and cut into shapes for floating in clear soup. The recipe makes a very small quantity, which is deliberate: it was written as one portion of an invalid or convalescent diet.
- The hinge: gentle heatA royale must set without a single bubble, or it curdles and weeps in the soup. Bake at 300-325F in a water bath, and keep the water hot but never simmering — pour in boiling water and it will stay in range for the 20-30 minutes a small mould needs.
- White brothA pale, unbrowned stock — veal, chicken or a mixture, made from bones that were blanched rather than roasted. A light unsalted chicken stock is the modern stand-in. Avoid anything dark or heavily reduced; the point of the custard is that it stays ivory.
- ChestnutsFresh chestnuts, scored and boiled or roasted until the shell and inner skin come away, then simmered until mealy. Vacuum-packed cooked chestnuts work and save considerable time; three large ones is roughly 1 to 1.5 oz of peeled nut, so about 2 to 3 tablespoons of paste.
- Pound and crush to a pasteThe original calls for a mortar. A small food processor or a stick blender does it faster, but push the puree through a fine sieve afterwards regardless — any grit of chestnut skin will show in a clear soup.
- Moulds and depthShallow is better than deep. Use a small greased ramekin or a buttered shallow tin so the custard sets in a slab about half an inch thick; that is what makes it possible to cut clean diamonds, rounds or stars once cold.
- Turning outCool completely before unmoulding — warm royale tears. Run a thin knife round the edge, invert onto a damp plate, and cut with a small knife or aspic cutter dipped in hot water.
- SeasoningA quarter teaspoon of salt against three yolks and three tablespoons of broth is assertive if your stock is already salted. Taste the broth first and adjust down. The cayenne is meant to be undetectable as heat, only a lift.
- Yield and serviceEnough garnish for two or three cups of consomme. Add the shapes to the hot soup at the last moment; they are already cooked, and long standing in hot liquid softens the edges.