Vegetable, Chicken and Beef Stock Recipes

"The wonderful flavor of good... food is the result... of the stock used for it's cooking." Julia Child

Happy new year, my trusty followers! I hope your holidays were lovely!
Now, I have decided to kick off 2011 with a bit of fun. I recently looked at my recipe page and realised I have hardly any soup recipes. Geez Sarah, it's cold out there and we need soup! Don't you agree? So, to fix this problem, I am proclaiming this month 'Soup Month!' Remember how exciting 'Salad Week' was this past summer? I've decided to begin 'Soup Month' with a lesson in making stock. Just thinking of stock takes me back to my good ol' days at Chef school. At Stratford, there are dinners in which a student Chef is in charge. The rest of us in the group make up the brigade, each with tasks to do in order for the meal to be prepared. For one such dinner, I was the saucier and was in charge of making a vast amount of beef stock. Let's just say that it took a couple of days and the stock pots were probably about as tall as me! Recently, while recipe testing for a magazine, I had a run in with store bought stock. Yuck! The organic vegetable broth tasted like dirty old cabbage water!! Making stock is super easy, costs next to nothing and it fills your home with the loveliest scent (cold Sunday mornings are my fave time to put on a stock!). Today we will cover a basic vegetable, chicken and beef stock (my recipe for turkey stock is listed on my 'Recipes' page). Let's do this!

Simple and Tasty Recipe:

Vegetable Stock

1 onion, peeled, quartered
2 carrots, quartered
2 celery stocks, quartered
1 leek green, quartered
*1 bouquet garni
6 cups of cold water

.throw everything into a pot, bring to a boil, immediately reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered for 30 to 45 mins
.strain through a fine sieve, discard the boiled veggies (or load them up with sea salt and butter and eat em' like i do! Tee hee!)

**Roasted Vegetable Stock (for stronger flavour):
.keep the skins on the onion and toss it, along with the carrot, celery and leek, in a bowl with a dash of olive oil
.spread the veggies onto a tray and roast at 400 degrees for 20 to 25 mins, turning over once, until the onion skins are charred and veggies are browned
.continue with the vegetable stock recipe from the beginning...

Chicken stock

1 onion, peeled and quartered
2 carrots, quartered
2 celery stocks, quartered
1 leek green, quartered
*1 bouquet garni
chicken bones and other bits that equal 1 carcass, raw or leftover form roasting
8 cups of cold water

.throw everything into a pot and bring to a boil, immediately reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered for about 4 hours, occasionally skimming away any foam, fat or impurities off with a spoon or small ladle
.strain through a fine sieve, discard the boiled bits (or eat em'!)

Beef Stock

2 onion, skin on and quartered
2 carrots, quartered
2 celery stalks, quartered
*1 bouquet garni
1 tbsp tomato paste
500gr to 1 kg beef bones and beef pcs (cooked or raw)
8 to 10 cups cold water

.throw the raw beef bones and pcs into a 400 degree oven until they are darkly browned (about 45 mins), add in the veggies and tomato paste for 20 mins more (if the beef is already cooked, roast for about 30 mins with the veggies and paste)
.toss the roasted beef and veg into a pot, add the bouquet garni and cold water, bring to a boil, immediately reduce to low heat and simmer uncovered for 4 to 5 hours, occasionally skimming away any foam, fat or impurities off with a spoon or small ladle
.strain through a fine sieve and discard the boiled bits (or eat em!')

*Bouquet Garni

1 pc of rinsed leek green
1 sprig of fresh thyme & parsley
1 bay leaf
4 - 5 peppercorns
(place thyme, parsley, bay leaf and peppercorns inside the leek tie with butchers twine)

Stocks are made differently from one kitchen to the next, so as always, I ask you to simply use my recipes as helpful guidelines. Boiling your stock will result in cloudiness. Putting the strained stock back on the stove to simmer will reduce it and intensify the flavour. Now, I have made beef stock from the odd leftover steak, fat trimmings and the bones left from a prime rib roast. I have made chicken stock from raw bones and bits of fat, and also from leftover roasted thighs and breasts. I collect the odd bits from here and there and freeze them, until I accumulate enough to make a batch. I pour my cooled stock into containers and freeze them, thus making one's life much easier whenever a soup or sauce needs to be made. Please try making your own stocks. It takes little effort and the difference in flavour as opposed to store bought will be well worth it! 'Soup Month' will continue next week, followers! Till then!

P.S. Look what my sweetie Kevin got me for Christmas! An 8 quart Le Creuset French oven! It's my pride and joy and I roasted us a lovely herbed chicken in it the other night! It turned out so
scrumptious and I promise I will share the recipe with you soon!