Consommé, the challenge taken and conquered!

Well, the Wikipedia description of consommé is:
In cooking, a consommé is a type of clear soup made from richly flavored stock or bouillon that has been clarified usually through a fining process involving egg protein. It usually requires an advanced knowledge of cooking and past experience to create a high quality consommé. Despite, or perhaps because of, these limitations, consommé has maintained its place as one of the most highly regarded and appreciated soups in the world.

Does this mean that I am....one who has an advanced knowledge of cooking. Why, is it possible? I think it might because today, I made consommé for the first time in my life and voila, I got it right on the first try. I was amazed at myself even.

It all started last night because of my friend Scotty. How, you ask, does this have ANYTHING to do with Scotty? Well, I was going to make slow-cooked oxtails in the southern style, but Scotty wanted to take me to dinner. Now, I had already defrosted the oxtails (yes, I had them in my freezer from when I made them at New Years) so what to do with them.

Consommé was not even on my mind at this point. I decided to make beef stock with those oxtails. Which on it's own came out beautiful. Some shallot, garlic, herbs and the oxtails simmered for 3 hours. Then, strained twice through a very fine sieve.

And today, I decided to take the challenge, armed with the stock and 2 egg whites and it came out BEAUTIFUL. Very exciting stuff.

Also made a beautiful fig and olive tapenade (thanks David Lebovitz) which was fantastic on chicken cutlets.

And then blackberries mascerated with vanilla sugar and lemon juice over lemon squares with brown sugar ice cream.

If it all sounds delicious, it was and I would definitely make it all again.

Wow, the consommé was well worth the effort and everything else excellent.

So now, I've conquered another recipe (the first one was baked cucumbers, remember) from the unforgettable Julia Child on my way to Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Here's hoping in 2010, there are more successes to come, and not just in the kitchen.

Bon Appetit!