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.

Happy soup

Lately I’ve been trying to perfect a roast chicken meal based on Heston Blumenthal’s method of very slow, followed by very fast. So far, so good - but not yet ready for its Bachelor Food debut.

As I write this, the chicken is brining ahead of picking up my boys for an atheist Good Friday dinner.

While I’ve been experimenting, I’ve had lots of leftover chicken to make use of. And lots of beautiful stock to cook with!

I can tell I’m making progress with the roast chicken, because the last school morning the boys were with me, after breakfast, they smelled the chicken out of the fridge in the kitchen and lined up at my shoulder saying - can I have a slice now? - as I carved for their sandwiches.

But back to the soup…

Of the Chinese staples it’s the breakfast stuff I like the most. A Chinese omelette is hard to beat. Even better is the chicken and corn soup.

My bachelor food rebrands for chicken lately have been laksa, tom kha gai - and this one. So simple. And guaranteed to make you smile.

This is a bachelor food version - meaning it is more a main meal rather than an entrée or breakfast. So noodles and sliced veggies make their appearance. The dried and fresh chillies can easily be omitted if you or your kids don’t like it hot.

Chicken and corn soup

Serves two

Ingredients

• .5 chicken breast already roasted, and shredded
• 2 cups strained chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon chopped ginger
• 2 dried chillies
• 1 teaspoon corn flour
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil
• .5 cup sliced mushrooms
• .25 cup sliced cherry tomatoes
• .25 cup sliced carrots
• 1 small can creamed corn (310 grams)
• 2 birds eye (or similar) chillies, sliced
• 2 egg whites, beaten
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons light soy sauce
• Garnish with drizzle of 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce, some sliced shallots
• Handful of rice noodles

Method

Dissolve cornflour in water.

In a deep saucepan, sauté ginger and dried chilli until ginger softens. Then add carrots, sauté for 5 minutes, then and mushrooms for another 5.

Cook noodles in plenty of boiling water until soft, but not mushy. Err on the side of firmness, because you will be adding it to the hot soup, where it will cook further.

Add stock and raise heat to highest. Add tomatoes, creamed corn and shredded chicken. Add sesame oil and light soy.

Once the soup comes to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, and stir in the cornflour mixture (you will probably need to give the cornflour a last stir to that the mixture is even). The soup will thicken after a couple of minutes.

Then drizzle in the beaten egg whites. They will form lovely white strings through the soup.

Serve into noodles into each bowl, add enough soup to almost cover. Garnish with shallots and a drizzle of dark soy.

Bachelor stockings!

There is something about the very small effort over a very long time when making stock that just works!

With my under–9 football team’s game rained out (go the mighty Wanderers!) - and a rainy weekend ahead of me - I took the opportunity to go to my local butcher and spend a couple of bucks on bones. I already have three chickens worth of backs and wingtips in the freezer. So: Saturday is beef stock; Sunday is chicken stock.

For beef stock, the best bones to choose are marrow and chuck bones - the leg and the neck.

My meal plans for the beef stock I’m making today are: slow-cooked rendang danging (Indonesian beef curry), slow-cooked osso bucco with citrus and, for when my children come back from a holiday with their mother, spaghetti bolognese. I’ll have enough for another two meals at least, but don’t want to give myself a headache from thinking too far ahead!

For this recipe, which yields 2 litres of stock, you’ll need an 7 to 8 litre stockpot.

Recipe - brown beef stock

Ingredients

• 2 kilogram beef bones
• .25 cup olive oil
• 2 carrots
• 2 onions
• 2 stick celery
• 2 portabella mushrooms
• 2 medium tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 4 litres water
• 5 black peppercorns (lightly crushed)
• 2 bay leafs
• 2 sprigs oregano

Method

1. Have your butcher cut the marrow and chuck bones into pieces. At home, remove any excess fat
2. Preheat oven 200°C (fan-forced) and place bones in a large baking tray, drizzle with olive oil. Roast for 15 minutes. Turn, then roast another 15 minutes
3. While the bones are browning, chop vegetables into chunky pieces
4. Heat for litres of water in a stock pot
5. When bones are done, remove them to the stock pot and add some water to the roasting pan to deglaze. Add bay leafs, oregano sprigs and pepper corns
6. Place chopped vegetables into the pan and return to oven. Cook for a further 15 minutes
7. Place vegetables into the stock pot and bring to boil for about 10 minutes. Reduce to simmer a slow boil - you need more of a boil than a simmer to make sure you extract all the marrow and other goodness from the bones
8. Over the next few hours, come back every 30 minutes or so to enjoy the aroma, and to skim the froth can scum that rises to the top. A slow boil for 4 hours is best, or a little higher for 2 is also ok.
9. When you’re ready, remove the big bits from the stock pot with tongs
10. Skim and strain through a muslin lined sieve into a clean container, before dividing, stir to get an even consistency at the end
11. Cool quickly by dividing stock into small containers - about 2 cups is good, and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
12. Remove layer of fat, under which you will have fantastic, jelly consistency, super-tasty beef stock!Reseal
13. Label and date stock and freeze for up to 3 months