Variation on Heston Blumenthal's Filtered Consomme

I love Heston's series "How to cook like Heston". The problem I found with the recipe on his consomme with the chicken was - frankly - that unless you buy yourself an expensive chicken and don't mind shelling out at LEAST 15 - 20 euros/pounds for the ingredients - you end up with a consomme which is more salty than "chickeny" - and - frankly - rather uninteresting. The touch of a jasmine flower helps hide this fact.

A beef shank with the marrow add so much flavour, you'll never think again about Heston saying that you'll never think again about consomme.




Ingredients:

1 beef shank
1 chicken
250 grams button mushrooms (wild mixes if you really fancy an extra kick - shitake work too)
1 leek
4 - 6 carrots
salt
water
pressure cooker
bowl
coffee filters
sieve

Method:

1. Brine the chicken and beef in 60grams of salt per litre overnight.
2. Chuck the chicken and beef without the brine into a pressure cooker and add the rest of the chopped ingredients.
3. Cover with water - ideally 1 litre per kg of meat - if you go over this amount, don't worry, you can reduce it afterwards.
4. Put in a pressure cooker and leave for at least 2 hours.
5. When the cooking is done, scoop out the ingredients and leave the stock.
6. Freeze the stock overnight in batches
7. Place Coffee filters over a bowl or jar and put the sieve over the filters. Put the frozen stock into the sieve and allow to drip thaw for about 24 hours in a fridge.
8. You should be left with golden liquid in the jar and gelatine in the sieve.
9. Heat and drink the consomme. The gelatine can be kept for aspic or other uses, if not, throw away.