Wednesday 7 March 2012

How to: DIY vegetable stock



This is a simple one, but good to know how, when you run out of the powered cubes. I've been there, where I started to make a soup or risotto, I reach for the handy stock cubes and ...whoops we're all out.

You can add really any selection of vegetables you want, though I've found to stay away from brassicas in a stock i.e broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage etc. They make the stock bitter and it justs tastes off. Other than that, you can throw almost any vegetable in there. If you make a huge pot, use what you need and freeze the rest, you won't run out again, and the taste is so much fresher. 


Recipe

I found the tip for using prunes in Yotam Ottolenghi's book, Plenty. They really do give more body and a fully rounded flavour.

For this stock I used

2 carrots
2 sticks of celery
1 medium white onion
1 medium red onion
1 tomato
4 garlic cloves
2 prunes
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 sprig of thyme
1 small handful of parsley
1 tsp salt


Add everything to the pot with 1 1/2 litres of water. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 1 hour. Let the stock rest for 15- 20 minutes before using so that it really absorbs all of the flavours.

2 comments:

  1. Nice tips! The addition of the prunes are interesting :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah they make a dark and silky stock. Thanks for the comment :)

    ReplyDelete

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