What is Shrimp Consommé?
Shrimp consommé is a clear and flavorful soup made from shrimp stock, strained to achieve a pristine, translucent broth. This delicate and aromatic consommé showcases the essence of shrimp, capturing its natural sweetness and umami flavours. The broth is often enriched with aromatic vegetables, herbs, and spices, enhancing the taste profile. Served as an appetizer or a light meal, shrimp consommé offers a refined and elegant dining experience, allowing the delicate flavours of the seafood to shine through.
What does Shrimp Consommé Taste Like?
Salty is one of the five main tastes. It has a satisfying and addictive quality with hints of sourness. Salty foods include cheeses, cured meats, chips, and olives. It is used in almost every dish and prepared food. Salt is added to enhance flavor and offer a distinctly salty taste.
Umami is one of five main tastes. It is savory with a depth of flavor. Umami is a taste in many foods, including meat, seafood, beans, and nuts. It is both naturally occurring and created through the specific use of ingredients to create a satisfying taste. Umami is characteristic of proteins and savory dishes.
Ingredients
Water is a substance and chemical compound made up of hydrogen and oxygen. It is clear, fluid, flavorless and odorless. Water is a necessity in nearly every aspect of life, including cooking, baking and hydrating the human body. Water can be served as a cold beverage, or at any temperature comfortable to the mouth and skin.
The shrimp is a sea dwelling crustacean with a shelled body. The shell is removed and not eaten. The shrimp is curved like a C when cooked and its slender body is a few inches in length when raw. The texture of shrimp is firm and has a juicy crunch when chewed. The color is a pinkish white and the flavor is mild, a bit salty sweet and ocean-like.
Botanically speaking the tomato is a fruit, but in the culinary world it is used almost strictly as a vegetable. Tomatoes are a nightshade plant that grow on tall, thick sturdy stalks. There are many varieties of tomato, but the most common type is round and red. It has a thin skin that covers its extremely juicy and soft flesh. The center contains seeds wrapped in a gelatinous film. The tomato is sour with a hint of sweetness. It can be sliced into rounds and wedges or diced into small chunks and is eaten raw or cooked.
The onion is a bulb vegetable, meaning its bulb and not its leaves are eaten. Onions come in many varieties, including white, yellow and red. Shallots are small and mild onions. Vidalias are sweet, while red onions are strong and sharp. The onion is usually round and has a thin dry skin around its juicy layers. This skin depends in the color of the onion, as does the flesh. The flesh, or body of the onion is made of multiple round layers, that get smaller towards the center. The flavor of onions are sharp and sweet when raw, with an astringent taste. When cooked, these flavors mellow and the sweetness emerges. Onion are a very common flavoring and ingredient for many savory dishes.
Wine is a fermented alcoholic drink with a long history. Today specific varieties of grape are cultivated specifically for wine. There are many kinds of red wine, including Merlot, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon. Red wine has a dark red color and a thin water-like viscosity. Some types are darker or lighter in color. Each type of wine tastes different. In general, the flavor is a bit sour and may include hints of oak, fruit, citrus and minerals, among other notes. Some red wine is heavy and full of tannins, while others are light and have a milder taste. Red wine is commonly served as a drink and can be used in cooking to add a full depth of flavor.
Cream is the fat derived from milk. Other milking animals can produce cream, but it is most commonly obtained from cows. The cream can vary from an off white to a pale golden color. The texture is smooth and can be thick, like a high fat yogurt, or thin, as is often seen in store bought cartons of whipping cream. The flavor is delicate, milky and buttery. Cream is used in a huge variety of food items and dishes, from baked goods, to curries, as glaze for scones, or a flavoring for tea and coffee.
There are many varieties of chili sauce, varying in color from green to shades of orange and red. Textures range from thin and watery to a thick paste. Chili sauce can be sweet, some are simply savory, while others are mildly spicy or searingly hot. There are many flavors in chili sauce, a number of these include tomato, garlic, sesame and smoky notes.
Salt is a mineral composed mostly of sodium chloride. It is the main flavoring used in food and is naturally occurring in certain foods, such as cheese, beets, meat and celery, plus many others. Salt is white and has finer granules than sugar. Many commercial salts include iodide, while others exclude it. Most salts are white, while some are naturally pale pink with minerals. Salt brings out the flavor of something and can create a tangy mouthfeel, if used in excess.
Parsley is an aromatic herb with slender green stalks and sturdy, small green leaves. There are two common types of parsley, curly parsley and Italian flat leaf parsley. Italian parsley has a more robust flavor than curly parsley. Though each type tastes green, spicy and vegetal, with a hint of bitterness. Parsley is used as and herb to flavor dishes and as a garnish.
There are many varieties of curry powder. One of the most common ones is made from a mixture of coriander, cumin, black pepper, turmeric, mustard and cinnamon. The spices vary, but the first four of these spices are almost always present in a curry powder. The powder is fine and light and ranges from golden to brown or orange. The flavors are spicy, bright, earthy and sometimes sweet. Curry powder is added to many Indian dishes to give a delicious complexity of tastes.
Thyme is an herb used in various cuisines for its gently sharp and cool pungency. A minty edge is present in its flavor. It grows on thin stalks and has very small tapered green leaves with a hint of white at the edges. The herb is often dried and takes on a muted green color. It goes well in soups and with meats, grains and vegetables.
