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| Chicken stock |
We've started making soup in the bakery for lunch and we sell out everyday. You would think that soup is quite a strange thing to eat in a hot climate, but it's actually very popular here and in the Caribbean in general. I'm not sure why it should be so much part of Island life, possibly because of an English heritage (our most popular soup is Pea & Ham) also maybe due to the simple one-pot type of cooking that prevails. Whatever the reason, we eat a lot of soup here.
As we make everything from scratch in the bakery, we roast several chickens everyday and I always have lovely bones for stock-making. It's only now that I make stocks everyday that I've had a little stock 'breakthrough' with consistently delicious results. Seemed like a good time to start sharing some recipes again on the blog and less time spent moaning about the children.
Family Chicken Stock
Half fill your saucepan with cold water
Two chicken carcasses
About 10 black peppercorns
Salt to taste
Small bunch parsley & stalks
Small bunch of thyme
3 celery stalks and leaves, chopped up
1 onion, skin off and roughly chopped up (skin makes the stock dark)
3 carrots, skin off & roughly chopped
- The most important thing is to not let the stock boil (this makes it cloudy). Just bring it to a gentle ripple and leave it simmering away for about 1.5 hours.
- Let the stock cool down on the stove and then using a colander, decant the broth into a Tupperware. We use the leftover sludge in Flora's (the dog) supper, which she loves but be careful of little bones
- Leave the Tupperware overnight in the fridge and skim the oily surface in the morning
- Makes about 1 litre. Can be easily frozen. We pour it into large Ziploc bags (remember to name or risk a UFO - unidentified freezer object) which takes up less space in the freezer.
- Good for soups. Essential for risotto's.
We've made some really great vegan and vegetarian soups as well, with vegetable stocks. I've started keeping all the stalks of broccoli and other vegetable trimmings that I'd normally chuck away to put in the veg stocks. Just follow the same procedure as above but obviously leaving out the chicken and bumping up the herbs.
My absolutely favourite food at the moment is roasted cauliflower. We made a lovely Roasted Cauliflower and Coriander soup last week. It was heaven in a bowl.
My absolutely favourite food at the moment is roasted cauliflower. We made a lovely Roasted Cauliflower and Coriander soup last week. It was heaven in a bowl.
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