Stock management

On a dry winter weekend, with my mornings set aside for the boys’ soccer, and my arvos free - it was a good opportunity to stock up.

One of my local butchers is the Chop Shop at Hurlstone Park. I also like Mick’s Meats on New Canterbury Rd.

With local butchers you have the advantage of knowing a few things. You just ask. When does the meat come in? Where is it from? How was it fed? The chop shop saved me a lovely piece of point end brisket for a steak and mushroom pot pie, also used for pulled beef burritos.

For the pie, and for this week’s ragu, I also asked for bones for stock. Leg bones, rib, neck, all make good stock.

The equation is 1 kilo of bones for 2 litres of water, to yield .5 litres of stock.

So, the way I generally do it is 2k bones, 4l water, yielding 2 litres of brown stock.

Roast the bones with some olive oil, a couple of onions, a couple of mushrooms, carrots and celery sticks - 180º. 15 minutes, turn, then another 10.

While this is happening, bring 4 litres of water to the boil. My pots have handy litre measurements - but that’s not essential here.

What you do is take note of how far the water is up the pot - use a wooden spoon for instance. Then add the roasted bones and veggies. Then simmer back down to the level before you added the solids.

Remove most to the solids with tongs, the strain the rest into another saucepan, keeping just hot enough to make the mixture even, then ladle into containers for storage or freezing.

That’s about 5 family meals worth, right there.