Garniture Brunoise
Cut vegetables into tiny dice and follow the cooking directions for garniture julienne,
Garniture de Tomates
Peel and Seed ripe tomatoes and Cut in small dice or julienne. Poach for a few minutes in a little consommé.
Pasta
For each quart of consommé cook about 3 tablespoons vermicelli, noodles or other pasta in salted water until tender and drain.
Garniture Chiffonnade
Parboil finely shredded sorrel or lettuce leaves in boiling salted water for 1 minute and drain.
Plunches
Shred some leaves of chervil, parsley or tarragon and add them to the soup just before serving.
Viveur
Prepare 2 quarts consommé an fumet de celeri and. after removing the celery, add ½ cup beet juice and ½ cup julienne of cooked celery.
Royale
Combine lightly 2 eggs, 2 egg yolks, and 1 cup chicken stock or milk which has been heated with a little chervil. Strain into a buttered straight-sided mold and set the mold in a shallow pan containing a little hot water. Bake in a moderate oven (350° F.) until the custard is set. Cool, remove from the mold, and cut into dice or small slices.
Egg Files
Break up, but do not whip, 2 eggs and stir in ½ teaspoon flour. Bring 1 quart consommé to a boil and strain the egg mixture into the consommé through a fine sieve, stirring the consommé vigorously. This is called consommé Windsor.
Garniture Célestine
Combine 2 tablespoons Hour, 1 egg, ½ cup milk or chicken stock, and ½ teaspoon chopped parsley or chervil. Pour the batter by the spoonfuls on a buttered skillet to make small thin pancakes. Brown them lightly on both sides, then cut them into fine julienne or squares and add to but consommé at the moment of serving.
Croutons
Cut crusty French rolls lengthwise and remove the soft crumbs. Cut the crusts into 1-inch pieces and put in a warm oven to dry out. They may be spread with melted butter before being put in the oven. Serve in croûte an pot (see January, 1955).
Sliced: Slice crusty French rolls from 1/8 to ¼ inch thick, brush the slices with butter, and toast in the oven. Serve with petite marmite (see February, 1955) and potage santé (see page 32).
Parmesan: Slice crusty French rolls ¼ inch thick. Sprinkle the slices with grated Parmesan cheese and melted butler and brown in the oven, either in the soup itself or separately. Serve in onion soup and pepperpot.
Diced: Cut bread ¼ inch thick, discard the crusts, and cut the bread into ¼-inch cubes. Sautés in butter until golden or sprinkle with melted butler and brown in the oven. Serve in cream soups and bisques.
Diablotins
Slice small French rolls ½ inch thick and spread the slices with 1 egg yolk mixed to a paste with 1 teaspoon sweet butter, 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese, and a dash of cayenne pepper. Toast the slices under the broiler flame or in a hot oven until golden. Serve in consommé or pass separately.
Diablatins Garbure
Cut carrot, turnip, celery, leek and a little cabbage into small pieces and braise the vegetables in butter with a little consommé When soft, rub the vegetables through a fine sieve to make a puree and add an equal quantity of puree of peas. Slice crusty French rolls ½ inch thick and spread the slices with the puree, mounding it up in the center. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese and a little butter and brown under the broiler flame. Pass with consommé.
Petites Profiteroles
Drop pâte à cboux (sec page 48) in tiny mounds the size of a pea on a cooky sheet and bake until browned. Or bake slightly larger chotix, slit them and fill with chicken puree. Serve in the soup or pass separately.
Garniture Infante
Add petites profiteroles sniffed with chicken purée and diced royale to hot consommé just before serving.
The cream soups—or as the French say, les crèmes offer about as versatile a group of dishes as one can find in the whole gamut of culinary achievements. There are few vegetables that don't lend themselves to this kind of cookery and in many cases the flavors of several are Combined. Furthermore, the several flavors are often combined in different proportions. The liquid in these soups is either chicken stock or water in combination with milk or cream or both. Then, as these soups must have a characteristic body, or thickness, it is customary to add something starchy unless the ingredient that provides the flavor also acts as the thickener For example, in leek and potato soup, potato thickens the mixture; in Saint-Germain, peas do it. On the other hand, tomatoes, water cress, carrots and shellfish have no thickening quality of their own, so soups made with them are thickened with flour (either wheat, rice or barley) or with whole-grain rice or potato since these become soft enough during cooking to be put through a sieve.
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