Veal and Sago Soup

Ingredients

• 2.5 lb veal
• 0.25 lb pearl sago
• 300 ml milk
• 4 eggs
• 1.4 litre water
• salt
• pepper

Method

Blanch the veal first. Cut it into 5cm chunks, place in cold water, bring to a rolling boil, then drain and rinse under cold running water. This removes the scum and myoglobin that would cloud your stock and leave a metallic aftertaste. Return the blanched meat to fresh water — 1.4 litres — and simmer gently for 90 minutes to 2 hours. You want a bare whisper of movement on the surface, not a vigorous boil; the gelatin extracts steadily at a low temperature without breaking down into bitter compounds. When the veal falls apart at the lightest pressure, strain the broth through fine muslin. You should have roughly 800ml of clear liquid; if you've lost more, top up with hot water. Discard the meat — it has given everything it has.

Prepare the sago while the stock cooks. Rinse it thoroughly in several changes of cold water until the water runs clear; this removes the talc-like starch coating that causes clumping. Soak it in 300ml of warm water for 30 minutes to begin hydration. Stir the soaked sago directly into your strained broth — no draining — and return to a moderate boil. Stir constantly for the first 10 minutes, then every 30 seconds thereafter for 20 minutes total. The sago pearls will shift from opaque to translucent and slightly swollen. This constant movement prevents them from bonding to the pot bottom or clumping together.

Heat the milk almost to a simmer — you want steam rising but no bubbles at the rim. Whisk the egg yolks until pale and thick, about 3 minutes by hand. This incorporation of air stabilises the emulsification that follows. Pour the hot milk onto the yolks in a thin stream, whisking constantly. This is a boiled custard technique: the gradual tempering prevents the eggs scrambling.

Once the custard is smooth, pour it into the simmering soup in a thin stream while stirring. The heat must stay just below a rolling boil — if it boils hard, the eggs will scramble into flecks. After 1 minute of gentle stirring, bring it to the gentlest boil for 10 seconds to set the eggs fully. Season with salt and white pepper. If the soup is thicker than single cream, thin it with boiling water. Serve immediately.