Consommé à la Bohémienne

Consommé à la Bohémienne (clear chicken consommé with foie-gras royale, a savory foie-gras custard, and crisp soup profiterolles) teaches separation. The broth receives its tender royale squares only at service, while the profiterolles arrive hot and apart, because the instant crisp choux sits in broth it begins to surrender. Keep that contrast and the dish lives. Lose it and you have soggy pastry in very fine soup.

The old entry assumes a saucier beside a stockpot never off the fire and dariole-moulds lined up by the rank; a salamander has no part in this particular service. At home, begin with finished chicken consommé, set the royale in one shallow cake tin instead of six little moulds, and use damp muslin in a fine sieve where the brigade used linen. Those moulds and extra hands are scaffolding. The clear consommé, its measured tapioca body, the neat royale, and the dry choux carried separately are the dish, so none of those goes. This version makes six generous first-course portions for one cook, one stove, one evening.

The step that matters most is straining the tapioca-bound consommé without squeezing the cloth. You want the delicate body released by the tapioca, never crushed pearls or cloudiness. If the cloth blocks, wait and replace it rather than forcing the liquid through. Ça se rattrape.