I like butter. I like pecans. The two go hand in hand. I have eaten my fill of butter pecan ice cream. I have eaten more than my fill. The toasted aroma and rich sweet decadence blended with brown butter is what sparked my recent travels into the land of butter pecan consomme. Again, the question begins with the idea. Once I had butter pecan on the mind I started wondering what is possible? What can we do with butter pecan? Really, I am not sure. I started with butter pecan broth which then became butter pecan consomme.
As what I not consider normal we faced a few road blocks in the process of trying to make butter and pecans clear. I made a broth. I strained the broth. I added gelatin. I froze the broth. I thawed the broth. The broth was cloudy. At this point I had several options. Actually, as far as I was concerned I had two options. I could find a use for a cloudy broth, or I could try and re-clarify the broth. I chose option two. I added a bit more gelatin to the broth and low and behold, after following the freezing and thawing steps I had clear butter pecan.
Of course once I had clear butter pecan on hand I had a few more things to think about. The first thing on my mind was now what?
We had some great vegetables on hand and the consomme on hand, why not weave the two together? And we did. Our first use of clear butter pecan was that simple. I wish we had flashes of brilliance to show off the fact that the pecans were clear. Yet, at days end the dish was tasty, the broth was clear, and now I can look for some other paths to walk down.