Stocks
Every cookbook worth its salt has at least one stock recipe in it. Stock is maybe the most important thing you can make in your kitchen, not just because it serves as a delicious base for your food, but also because it’s how you can reduce waste. I have a stock back in my freezer where I toss wilted herbs, limp carrots, 90% of the celery I purchase, parmesan rinds, the tough skins on pancetta and guanciale, mushroom stems, etc. I also carve my own chickens and store the carcasses. Once you make a couple stocks you’ll see how easy it is. Toss a balanced mix of vegetables (celery, carrot, onion) into water with a few peppercorns, some fresh herbs. If you’re using chicken or another meat, roast it for a dark stocks or throw it in raw for a lighter stock. Skim off the crud on top. After about an hour you can taste it and see how you like it. Keep simmering and reducing until you’re happy. Strain through a cheesecloth and you got stock, baby!
If you want a recipe, though, these are my favourites.
BEST CHICKEN BROTH
Nham Soup Gai
from Kiin by Chef Nuit Regular
In a medium pot, combine 1 lb chicken bones, 1 tsp white peppercorns, 5 cilantro roots, 1/2 cup garlic, 1 yellow onion, and 1 stalk celery. Cover with 4 cups water and bring to a boil over high heat.
When the mixture is boiling, reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes. Skim off any scum that forms. Strain the broth through a fine-mesh sieve into one or more clean containers. Use a large spoon to press the soft vegetables through the sieve for more flavour.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month.
You can turn this broth into a soup with a splash of soy sauce and a pinch of salt.
This yields a delicate and fragrant stock.
The cilantro roots and that pile of garlic are the key.
BEST VEGGIE STOCK
A Brown Vegetable Stock
from Greenfeast: Autumn, Winter by Nigel Slater
Peel and roughly chop 2 medium onions (save the peel). Separate a large head of garlic into cloves. Roughly chop 300g carrots and 2 stalks of celery.
Set the oven to 180˚C. Place onions, celery, and garlic in a roasting tin along with the onion skins. Mix together 3 tbsp light miso paste with 80ml water, then stir into the vegetables, coating them lightly. Bake for about an hour, tossing the vegetables once or twice during cooking, until everything is brown and toasty.
Transfer the roasted vegetables to a deep saucepan. Add 75g dried shiitake mushrooms, 6 sprigs of rosemary, 15 sprigs of thyme, 4 bay leaves, 18 black peppercorns, and 15g dried kombu. Pour a little reserved water into the roasting tin and scrape to remove all the sticky caramelized bits. If the tin is flameproof, you can heat it on the stovetop to help get those bits off. Pour them into the saucepan. Add 4.5 litres of water. Bring to a boil, and then lower the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 50 minutes to an hour.
When you have a deep brown, richly coloured broth, tip through a sieve into a heatproof bowl and leave to cool. Store in the fridge. I like to store in large mason jars.
BEST MEAT STOCK
Lamb Stock
from Dishoom by Shamil Thakrar, Kavi Thakrar, and Naved Nasir
Add 1-1.5kg lamb bones to a slow cooker and cover completely with cold water. Put the slow cooker on low for 8 hours. Transfer the stock and bones to a stock pot. Bring the stock to a boil over high heat and boil steadily for 20 minutes. Remove the bones and reduce the stock by half.
What? That’s it? Yup.
You can see this isn’t just bones. I took the bones, leftover meat, and scraps from a roast leg of lamb and made this stock. The slowcooker is a handy shortcut but you can also make this stovetop or in the oven.