Chicken & Celery Stock

This time I made a chicken stock.  Rather than having all sorts of aromats and vegetables in with the chicken, I used just the top half of a head of celery (including the leaves), some peppercorns and a couple of bay leaves.

I bought some chicken carcasses from the supermarket – if I was better organised (and had a bigger freezer) I would have saved them after roasts.

I roasted the chicken carcasses (which I tried to cut in half) with a splash of oil until the bones were a bit golden but not burned.  This took about 45 minutes in a moderate oven.

I 2/3^rd filled a large stock pot with filtered water and put it on to heat.  As it was warming I put in the roasted chicken bones and the celery, bay leaves and peppercorns.  I did not add any salt.  You have to remember this and compensate with salt when you use the stock in dishes.

I simmered this for just under 24 hours – on the lowest setting possible.  I didn't skim it or use an egg white to clarify the stock so maybe the end result wasn't perfectly clear – but it doesn't seem to affect the flavour.

When the stock is cool enough to handle, strain it and put it into clean jars – for what you'll be using quickly – and freeze the rest.  For once I remembered to label and date it!

Chicken Potatoes

Chicken Potatoes is my name for cubed potatoes cooked in homemade chicken stock.  There was no salt in the stock so I added some together with a splash of Chinese cooking wine. 

Chinese cooking wine in small quantities adds a pleasant savoury sharpness to many dishes – and it is cheap as chips to buy.

I also added a splash of Worcestershire sauce and towards the end some gravy powder (in this case a light brown vegetarian one)

The results were good – delicate and not too strongly flavoured with the benefit of being another way to take in the health giving properties (or so they say) of chicken broth.

Asian Chicken Noodle Soup with Baby Silverbeet

I was inspired to make this simple but healthy Asian Chicken Noodle Soup by my having just made some Chicken & Celery Stock.

This stock formed the base of the soup.  For flavouring I added fish sauce/salt (no salt in the stock), pepper and Chines Cooking Wine (if you don't have that some sherry would be just fine).

When the soup is simmering add your egg noodles – they'll need around 5 to 6 minutes to cook (more or less depending on their thickness).  4 minutes before the end add your washed baby silverbeet.  Because it is baby silverbeet you don't need to de-stalk it.

Simple but satisfying.

Chicken and celery stock

I apologise if you are tired of me banging on about the joys of home-made stocks!  This time I made a chicken stock.  Rather than having all sorts of aromats and vegetables in with the chicken, I used just the top half of a head of celery (including the leaves), some peppercorns and a couple of bay leaves.

I bought some chicken carcasses from the supermarket – if I was better organised (and had a bigger freezer) I would have saved them after roasts.

I roasted the chicken carcasses (which I tried to cut in half) with a splash of oil until the bones were a bit golden but not burned.  This took about 45 minutes in a moderate oven.

I 2/3^rd filled a large stock pot with filtered water and put it on to heat.  As it was warming I put in the roasted chicken bones and the celery, bay leaves and peppercorns.  I did not add any salt.  You have to remember this and compensate with salt when you use the stock in dishes.

I simmered this for just under 24 hours – on the lowest setting possible.  I didn't skim it or use an egg white to clarify the stock so maybe the end result wasn't perfectly clear – but it doesn't seem to affect the flavour.

When the stock is cool enough to handle, strain it and put it into clean jars – for what you'll be using quickly – and freeze the rest.  For once I remembered to label and date it!

Scalloped Potatoes & Kumara using Pork and Celery Top Stock

Recently I made some nice jelly like Pork and Celery Top stock (or broth) which I forgot to post about.  I thought it would be nice to see if it would give some scalloped potatoes a nice flavour.

First I put on the oven to heat.  I then oiled a pie dish with

Olive oil and a little mustard oil.

I sliced up some kumara (sweet potato) and potatoes quite thinly – by hand since I don't have a mandolin.

I put them into the pie dish in layers, seasoning each layer with salt and Pepper as I went.  There was no salt at all in the stock so I didn't have to worry about that.

I poured over the stock (in this case a thawed ice cube tray full) and added a splosh of sherry for luck.

I thought about putting cheese on the top but decided not to and just popped on a few knobs of butter.

This took under an hour to cook.  Because I didn't have the oven up high the colour was a subtle golden rather than very brown.

The potatoes were tasty – and I think were enhanced by the quality home made stock.