Accompaniments
Basic chicken stock
Time: 3½ hours
Ingredients:
- 1 chicken carcass, preferably from a roasted chicken
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 1 onion, peeled
- 2 carrots, peeled
- 1 leek
- 2 celery stalks
- 3 cloves garlic
- sprig of parsley
- sprig of thyme
- 3 cloves
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp black peppercorns
Method:
- Coarsely chop the vegetables, put all the ingredients into a large pan and cover with 2 litres of cold water. Bring up to the boil and simmer very gently for 3 hours.
- Strain off the solids and boil fast until the liquid has reduced to a manageable quantity – around 1 pint? (I usually do this bit the next day).
- Then, either use it straight away or freeze it.
This recipe is not for purists. Notice I say nothing about skimming off any scum — I’ve never found a good way of doing it, and anyway, who cares if the stock is a bit cloudy? I certainly don’t.
