Consomme & Chinese New Year

By Allan Yap & Nigel A. Skelchy

My family and I had lunch at Lai Poh Heen in Mandarin Oriental as well on the 3rd day of Chinese New Year and as part of their Visit Malaysia Year activities they had a Lion Dance and a Dragon Dance. Unfortunately, I was a little too late to catch the actual dancing but there were some yummy types with tight sweaty bods running around, I tell ya! ;-)


If you've never made Consomme, you have to try it at least once in your life. Gorgeous crystal clear soup. Literally. But BOY was it hard work. First I had to make the stock. Any good stock will work. But make sure you don't take any short cuts. I used lots of oxtail (about 2kg's worth), aromatics (carrots, celery, onions), some peppercorns, bouquet garni, and lots of water to cover the oxtail. Boil then simmer for 3 to 4 hours. After which, you plonk it in the fridge and chill it overnight. Make sure you make space in your fridge for the pot BEFORE you start anything. The fat will float to the top and you will be able to skim it off. Fat is the enemy of consomme; it must be skimmed off as MUCH as possible. And there'll be a lot of it from Ox Tail. The reason why I chose oxtail is there's meat on the tail which you can use to garnish and lots of bone to make the consomme slightly gelatinous. Yum!

After that I found this clarifying technique using a "raft." Here's the link, complete with pictures. I'd suggest you print it out if you're truly interested. It's very good and takes you step by step.

The raft truly floats to the top and your resulting consomme glows like a jewel with the same clarity. The word "crystal" comes to mind. I had to dilute the stock as it was soooooo rich. The best part was when I refrigerated it and it gelled (as the pic above). It's delicious served cold or warm.