Stock

The definition of stock as a noun according to the wonderful Dictionary.com, is:


General:
1. A quality of something accumulated, as for future use
Stocks:
1. a former instrument of punishment consisting of a framework with holes for securing the ankles and,sometimes, the wrists, used to expose an offender to public derision
And lastly relevant in its wholesome cooking sense
Cookery:
The liquor or broth prepared by boiling meat, fish,chicken, etc., with or without vegetables or seasonings, and used especially as a foundation for soups and sauces.


How do these definitions even link together? And why am I even bothering to start a post like this? Well last night I was eating a chicken and peanut soup for dinner, the recipe for which is at the bottom of this page, anyway my friend saw it and she asked if she could have some. She has her own recipe and apparently made this recipe all the time and wanted to see what I had done with it. She said it was much than hers, sweeter from the sweet potato and a lot creamier too. I also mentioned that the recipe was super weird, cause it specified that you had to use chicken on the bone for the extra added flavour or more specifically a stewing hen. That's where the trouble started.0


She was grossed out and said that she had no idea why I would eat something made out of bones, blood and other gross stuff. Whilst I argued why WOULDN'T you eat that, its freaking delicious. Where is the delicious in soups and junk, IN THE BONES. THE BONESSSSS. It got pretty nasty.


After we came back to work, I wrote her the recipe and then we started asking other nurses what they did. We ended up having about half, half of opinions, with half the nurses using real store bought stock, stock powder and then the fancy people like me, making their own stock from bones.The fight was intense and took most of the rest of the shift in between actual working. All the nurses were asked, and some of the patients too. H-Dizzle said he used bones, N. used store real stock, B. used store stock, Angie used real stock as did her patient, I use my own stock and lastly Di who I was arguing with, used organic stock cubes.


This is my mega rant on why stock is amazing though.


Your basic home made stock is the wonderful foundation for all your cooking, a good bit of well made stock is perfect for extra flavour in soups, sauces, stir fries, risottos, stews. casseroles, anything in your slow cooker and much more. Stock can be used anywhere in a recipe where it would call for water to top up in a savoury dish. Your stock adds a superb depth of flavour and mellow mouth feel to your dishes, whilst intensifying the flavour due to the concentration of your stock without having to resort to adding other things. Without a good foundation, how can you make anything delicious?


Stock is easy to make, although some argue it can be time consuming. For a basic white stock from uncooked bones, you basically collect a whole bunch of bones over time or purchase chicken frames or carcasses, necks or feet. Just remember to wash them off, defeather and clip the nails on feet. Collect all the weedy vegetables in your fridge, top and tail and scrub them, onions, your choice of seasoning hard herbs and plunk them into water. Simmer in a large stock pot for at least 3 hours, or over days. Skim off the scum and fat as needed, either whilst cooking or when its cooking down and solidifying into white fat. Feel free to stop and start as required if heading off to work, just watch out for hot weather where all your stock could sour quite quickly. Alternatively for brown stock, roast the bones for extra flavour and do all the above. The longer you simmer the richer and more intense the flavour.


However some may argue making stock is a form of torture. The smell of your house is inundated by the rich, savoury odours of your fragrant stock, weirdly delicious I know, but each to their own. I actually have a a work friend who can't stand her slow cooker as she finds it distracting to be a house that smells like food, if she can't eat it for several hours. Some of my friends also complained that it took too long to do, which is weird considering that you just ignore stock until it cools down.


Chicken and peanut soup


Ingredients:
500g chicken


1L of CHICKEN BONE stock


100-500g of sweet potato


Optional: 100-200g of spinach


Optional: 50-100g of red capsicum


Optional: 1-2 carrots


Optional: 100-200g potatoes


1 can of diced tomatoes

2 large brown onions


2-4 cloves of diced garlic


1 cup of peanut butter


1 cup of roasted peanuts


1 hot chilli


Lots of white/black pepper






1. Brown off chicken. Put elsewhere.


2. Brown onions and garlic


3. Add in chicken, and then all your veggies.


4. Skim off scum and fat. Discard


5. Add all the peanuts and peanut butter once the vegetables have cooked


6. Add the chillis and white pepper to taste. It should be a really 


spicy/peppery soup!