Stock

Nigella makes no secret of her use of stock cubes, and she reassuringly encourages us to do the same. However, she does have some crackin' recipes for home-made stocks and broths.

204. Italian Broth
209. Consommé

I suppose it might seem strange to make the complex stock recipes before making the basic one, but oh well.

329. Stock (Basics etc.)

Nigella suggests making a basic stock out of leftover carcasses from roast chickens. I fossicked around in my freezer, and found both a chicken carcass, and a goose carcass, which looked pretty good. So, you get your carcasses, put them in a pot with carrots, celery, an onion stuck with 2 cloves, peppercorns and parsley stalks. Then you cover it with cold water, bring it to the boil, skim the scum off the surface, and let it simmer for about 3 hours.


stock

I found that the goose/chicken combination resulted in a very golden, gelatinous broth. At this point, Nigella says to let it cool, strain it into measured containers, and then freeze it. I didn't want to make this stock, only to have it languish, forever forgotten, in my freezer, so I thought I'd use some straight away. (And besides, it smelled way too good not to eat!)

I couldn't think of any How to Eat recipes that needed stock, and for which I had all the remaining ingredients close at hand, so I looked to Giorgio Locatelli, and made his Radicchio and Red Wine Risotto. This also enabled me to use the sole radicchio which I'd bought at Leo's last week.

So basically this risotto is a very normal one, except that you sautee thinly sliced radicchio with the onion at the start, and use red wine instead of white. Then it's just a matter of gradually ladling in hot stock until the rice is cooked.


stock + risotto

Giorgio says to serve the risotto with a couple of grilled wedges of radicchio on top, which I did.


red wine and radicchio risotto

It was lovely! And a good, simple dish to show off the fabulicious stock. I have heaps of stock left... can't wait to use more of it!