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Strawberry consomme


Maggs

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Hi everyone! I'm trying to make a new dessert for work that brings out the flavor of the season's strawberries. Does anyone have a good recipe for a strawberry consomme?? I want the soup as clear as possible, and therefore thought a consomme would be the best bet!

Thanks in advance for all your help! :biggrin:

"That's the problem. If you're slower than me, stupider than me and you taste good...tough shit."

- Anthony Bourdain

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Stressed spelled backwards is desserts. Coincidence? I think not!"

~Author Unknown

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place cleaned straws, good sprinkle of sugar and vanilla bean pod in microwaveable bowl. seal tightly with plastic wrap. microwave a few minutes at a time, making sure juice does not boil over, until plastic wrap seals to strawberries. strain but do not press on berries, just let juices run out.

Edited by nicolekaplan (log)
nkaplan@delposto.com
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I recently came across a strawberry consomme recipe (on a blog I think) that, if I remember correctly, used freezing as part of the clarification process. I didn't try it but had intended to give it a try at sometime just out of curiosity. Unfortunately, I either forgot to save the link or have no idea where I saved it and can't find it. I've been considering ordering the lab equipment (vacuum pump, filtration flasks) like the Duby's use for clarifying "consommes" that won't get any real benefit (or may even suffer) from the traditional long cooking process just for fun and experimenting but that doesn't help with your question either so I guess this is just useless rambling unless you have better luck than me searching out that recipe I mentioned or someone else that has seen it get's their memory jogged from me mentioning it.

EDIT: Found it! It has some savory components you may not want for what you're doing but they could easily be left out and sugar/vanilla/etc. substituted in with a little experimenting. I haven't tried this yet but it sounded interesting to me.

Freeze Filtered Cold Strawberry Consomme

Edited by Tri2Cook (log)

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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thank you so much for your help everyone:)...ill try both and see which one works best!!!

"That's the problem. If you're slower than me, stupider than me and you taste good...tough shit."

- Anthony Bourdain

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Stressed spelled backwards is desserts. Coincidence? I think not!"

~Author Unknown

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The "freeze filter" phenom is actually a result of a process called "syneresis" which occurs when you stress gel matrices. for a very short and layman's explanation: Think of it this way, anytime you have a gel, you have very few of proteins hooked together, like a structure, and a ton of water just kind of sitting in between the bound proteins. This water really isn't bound to anything, its just there. When you stress the gel with temperature, the water molecules will expand/contract, when frozen, the expand a lot. While the gel matrix may remain (for the most part) intact, the water will "rip out", creating pathways and openings. When thawed, the gel stays together, and the water filters out. This technique will clarify almost anything, including fats and oils emulsified into water, and leaves you with a consomme with a clean taste. This will increase the yield of some clarifications (I've heard it works well with tomatoe water).

Note: This explanation isn't entirely correct, but it makes a little more sense than the closest explanation I could find that actually tells you what is going on.

The process:

infuse water with whatever ingredient you want the flavor of.

add gellan/knox to create a .5-.7% gel solution (experiment with it a little)

let set, then freeze.

once frozen, remove to a collander lined with cheesecloth, and let thaw. depending on what you are clarifying, you may want to do this in the refridgerator.

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I finally had some free time to play last night. I roasted ~500 g of strawberries sprinkled with a little sugar and salt at 300 f. for an hour, added 17 oz. water (~5 dl as called for in the recipe) and moved it around a little to pick up all of the syrup. I dumped it in a pan, added a few shreds of lemon zest and a vanilla bean and simmered it gently for an hour. I then strained it, passed it through a coffee filter and added soaked gelatin (1/200 by weight, didn't seem like enough but I'm following the process as written first time through), chilled it and put it in the freezer. I'll dump it in a filter-lined strainer today and leave it in the fridge for a day or two and report back on what I end up with. The flavor was very nice before it went in the freezer. I still have a feeling it needed more gelatin, it didn't set very well, so I may have to do the filtering part again. I probably should have went with my gut on that one but we'll see.

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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Don't use too much gelatin because then the yield will go down as the water is more tightly held by the gel. You want a very delicate gel, something that will create something like the rafts used in traditional stock clarification.

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Maybe I'll be ok then, although it was a very, very delicate gel. A good breath or two on it probably would have melted it. It's in the fridge now so I'll know in a day or two.

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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I'm definitely looking forward to seeing your results. I think it is entirely possible to create a strawberry flavored somewhat clear liquid without this clarification process, but I think the yields are better, and result clearer (even if it takes a little longer)

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So after a couple nights I was left with this sludge in the filter...

gallery_53467_4795_48433.jpg

...which actually surprised me a bit because it looked pretty clear before I did the filtering. The resulting liquid is very fragrant and tastes like pure strawberry. Not particularly sweet, just a strong hit of strawberry in the nose and on the tongue. I'm very happy with the results and plan to put this technique into regular use. I'm going to play with some other fruits and a few veggies using this technique just to see what I can come up with. Below are a few pics of the final result. I'm not a good photographer but you can see that it clarified nicely using the gel and freeze method.

gallery_53467_4795_30764.jpg

gallery_53467_4795_26337.jpg

gallery_53467_4795_56966.jpg

Edited by Tri2Cook (log)

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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That looks beautiful! (Forgive me for saying so, but I think it would also be neat if you added some gelatin, to make your own strawberry jello with real strawberry flavor, not that artificial stuff.)

MelissaH

MelissaH

Oswego, NY

Chemist, writer, hired gun

Say this five times fast: "A big blue bucket of blue blueberries."

foodblog1 | kitchen reno | foodblog2

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That looks beautiful! (Forgive me for saying so, but I think it would also be neat if you added some gelatin, to make your own strawberry jello with real strawberry flavor, not that artificial stuff.)

MelissaH

Thanks! The "jello" idea sounds good actually. Unless you upped the sugar level from what I did, it would probably be more of an adult jello though. The "consomme" is flavorful but it's not sweet. After I took the pictures, that glass received a splash of Bombay Sapphire and no longer exists... which was tasty enough for the rest to receive the same so I have none left to jello with right now.

I should probably mention that the return on my investment of 500 g of strawberries, 17 oz. water and maybe 30 minutes of hands on time was ~9 oz. of liquid. Also, the quantity I was working with gave up all it was going to yield after 24 hrs. in the fridge. I left it for 2 days but moved the filter to another bowl after the first day and there was essentially no additional liquid in the new bowl after another 24 hours. The very minute amount that did appear had a bit of a metallic taste so I think I'll want to use cheesecloth or a plastic strainer with the coffee filter if doing a larger quantity has to filter for more than 24 hrs.

Edited by Tri2Cook (log)

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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