Consommé aux Nids d'hirondelles (Chicken Consommé with Swallows' Nests)

Ingredients

• Chicken Consommé
• Swallows' nests
• Cold water

Instructions

1. Prepare a chicken Consommé for which the nutritive elements are tripled.
2. Soak the nests 2 hours in cold water, to swell the mucilaginous element and make it translucent.
3. Clean the nests meticulously with the point of a small larding needle, removing the debris of feathers, shells and the rest from the agglutinated mass.
4. Blanch the nests 5 to 6 minutes, then drain them and plunge them into the boiling Consommé.
5. Keep the Consommé at a slow, well-regulated boil for three quarters of an hour, until the nests disaggregate and only the filaments remain, the mucilaginous element having dissolved into the Consommé.