Velouté à l'Orléanaise

Ingredients

• 1 litre Velouté clair (clear velouté sauce)
• 1 whole boned chicken (poultry)
• 1/4 litre chicken consommé (consommé de volaille)
• egg liaison (liaison)
• butter (beurre)
• small quenelles (petites quenelles)
• white quenelles (blanches)
• pink quenelles (roses)
• green quenelles (vertes)

Instructions

1. Poach the boned chicken (500–600 grams) gently in 1 litre of velouté clair (clear velouté sauce, a mother sauce made with a light stock and roux blanc).
2. Pound the cooked chicken meat to a fine paste. Thin the purée with the remaining velouté and pass through a fine sieve (étamine) to achieve a smooth, homogeneous texture.
3. Loosen the velouté further with 1/4 litre of chicken consommé. Heat gently without allowing it to boil.
4. Just before serving, finish the soup with a light egg liaison (liaison) and a spoonful of butter (monter au beurre), stirring gently off the heat.
5. Serve garnished with small fluted quenelles (petites quenelles de forme cannelée) made from three varieties of poultry forcemeat (farce de volaille): plain white, pink (tinted with crayfish butter / beurre d'écrevisse), and green (tinted with herb purée / purée d'herbes).
6. This soup may also be made with cream added instead of consommé.