Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Home Made Beef Stock

I love my own home made stock, whether it be Chicken or Beef or Pork.   There is just nothing that can compare to this for making your own soups.   I was rummaging around in the freezer, and found lots of good stuff that could be used for soup makings, including two rib bones from a rib roast I made a few months back.   I'd labeled them to use for stock, but then it got warm outside and soup and stock were far from my mind.

But since I only had two rib bones, I wanted to get the maximum flavour out of them.   So I used a trick I learned when I worked as a waitress in an all night diner.   The cooks there would make gravy out of roasted bones.   They would literally roast the beef bones until they almost looked charred, then soak them for awhile, cook them up and let the stock reduce and use that for the gravy.  And it was good.   They didn't use a whole lot of pre-prepared stuff in that place, everything was from scratch that they could make from scratch.   From the pastries (I still dream about them) to the gravy on the meat, it was good food, simple but good.  Sorry I got side tracked there.  

I took my two bones and placed them on a baking tray along with a couple of carrots, cut into chunks, some onions, garlic and celery, drizzled a little olive oil over them all and threw them all in the oven at 400 degrees.   I would have liked to have roasted them a little more, but got into a time crunch so had to pull them out a little earlier than I would have liked. 
Roasted Beef Bones and Veggies for Stock





 And see the brown stuff on the pan, I poured a cup of water over it, and put the whole pan back into the oven to let it soak off and then added that to the pot as well.  That fond has some serious flavour in it.
 
Put them all in a large pot and put in enough water to cover them all, and let it simmer.   I also had some frozen bits and pieces of leftover tomatoes so I threw them in as well.   Plus some onion skins, but they are for color, not the flavour so much.

Stuck the lid on and let them simmer for a couple of hours, then took the lid off and let it simmer for another half hour before I took out the vegetables and bones and let the stock reduce a little more.

I didn't salt the stock because I want to be able to season it to taste later on.  I also didn't add any herbs because I wanted to have a blank slate to work with when I make soup later on.   All I wanted was that wonderful beefy stock.    I'm planning on making some Albondigas soup later on this week, so I can then add the herbs I want as well as salt.   
Sidsel Munkholm - Author
Sidsel Munkholm - Author

Sid loves to cook, feed people and have fun in the kitchen. She shares her successes and the involuntary offerings she sometimes gives the kitchen goddess as well. And she's still looking for the mythical fairy to help her clean the kitchen after a marathon cooking session. Currently working on a cookbook showcasing the recipes from her Danish heritage.

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