Playing the stock market – Taste the Scene

This might sound a mite strange but sometimes – just sometimes – I feel disappointed when I don’t have to cook.

Say I’d roasted a chicken on a Sunday for example; come Monday evening, I find that I’m almost regretful that cooking is minimal due to an abundance of leftovers. On those occasions there’s not much you can do except have the same dinner two days in a row – unless you’re up for a bit of innovation such as making a roast chicken dinner pie with puff pastry or roast chicken dinner pasta bake with cheese. Have you seen any of those videos where so-called chefs use fast food take-aways and pimp them up into fancy meals? I saw one recently where an American chef (of course he was an American) used a KFC take-away to make a chicken roulade with a cola reduction.

Talk about making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. If I’d been looking through this guy’s window at the time I’d have banged on the glass and told him, “Just eat the damn burger!”

But then again, maybe the man in question was having the same disjointed feelings of no-cook disappointment that I experience on Left-over Mondays. Maybe he was and maybe I shouldn’t be so judgemental.

To combat the disappointment generated by no-cook evenings, I have discovered that soups and stocks and anything that takes a bit of simmering works well. There’s something infinitely comforting about having a pot bubbling away in the background, filling the house with mouth-watering aromas. The same could be said of a stew in the slow cooker or a pie in the oven or even bread.

Now that working from home looks like a semi-permanent way forward, I’ve also found myself making bread a lot more. With proving and waiting for a rise, bread is a time consuming process, especially if you’re using a sourdough starter, which I invariably am. And yet it is also super rewarding, especially if you’re eating the bulk of the sourdough bread, which I invariably do.

But the best antidote for the disappointment of no-cook evenings, I have found, is stock. Or to be more exact, chicken stock.

I have taken to making stock once a fortnight, the reason being is that a). we only roast a chicken once a week and b). two carcasses are required for The Best Chicken Stock Available to Humanity. I keep the first carcase in the freezer until I have the second ready to go.

Now, obviously this stock isn’t as handy as a stock pot or stock cube BUT, with a little effort and patience, the end product here is sooooo much better.

You may be wondering why there’s a picture of a loaf on here and another picture of risotto. Well, the risotto was what I done with the stock and as for the loaf of bread, there’s no reason really – except that it was a cracker loaf and I wanted to show it off. It’s actually a honey and olive oil soft sourdough loaf which was baked in a tin. If you’d like the recipe drop me a line via m.devlin@wearetyrone.com

Anyways, as for the stock, follow this plan and you will create the most aromatic and deeply flavourful stock you’ve ever tasted. Honestly, it’s so tasty, you could basically just drink a mug full of it. Which, admittedly, sometimes I do.

INGREDIENTS

2 chicken carcasses, skin removed (leaving the skin on will result in a fattier stock)

lots of water

2 bay leaves

1 onion, quartered

2 carrots, halves

1 stick of celery, quartered

1 leek, quartered

5 or 6 black peppercorns

2 or 3 cloves of garlic, bashed

2 sprigs of thyme

1 sprig of rosemary

pinch of salt

THE PLAN

Dig out your biggest pot or at least one big enough to accommodate the two chicken skeletons. Place the carcases in the pot and then fill it will fresh, cold water. You want enough water to cover the chickens.

Place the pot on the hob and bring to a roiling boil.

As that’s happening, prepare the veg and herbs etc and dump all of this into the pot.

When the water boils, reduce to a simmer and let it rip for three hours, skimming any froth which appears on top.

After that time, strain the stock through a sieve and it’s done. Give it a taste test and possibly add a touch of salt if needed.

You can use this right away or it’ll live happily in the fridge for a week.

If you’re going to freeze it, you could return the stock to the pot and boil some more to reduce. This results in a more intense flavour and an old fashion ice-cube tray works well as storage.

Personally, I’ve never kept the stock in the freezer for any longer than a week or two but I’d say it would be good for a month.

Incidentally, if you want the recipe for the chicken and pea risotto in the picture, send me an email.

And yes, it tastes as good as it looks.