Now that you’ve taken the first step and made up some gloriously nourishing stock, it’s time to put it to use. Fortunately there is no shortage of recipes out there to try.
I am not a great formulator of recipes, but I do think I am pretty good at sourcing and recognising a great recipe when I see it. I have a healthy (or unhealthy perhaps?!) collection of cookbooks, and a terribly organised ‘bookmark’ bar containing a great number of delicious, and soul nourishing recipes. I am hopeless at photographing dishes I cook and serve up – firstly our dining room is centrally located and does not have any immediate windows to outside light, secondly I am too hungry and desperate to eat to want to pause a moment to take a photo before devouring, and thirdly I don’t really possess any great food photography skills! But I will try my best!
Three days ago I started a batch of chicken stock which after a day of languid simmering yielded 2, 7 cup pyrex containers worth of golden goodness. The first container I simply brought to the boil, salted, and added finely diced carrot and zucchini. In a separate pot I cooked up some pasta. Once the pasta was cooked, and the veggies tender, I poured a couple of ladlefuls of the simple soup over each serve of pasta and served up with a spoonful of pesto and homemade tomato chutney, and a generous sprinkling of a hard sheep’s pecorino. This was a simple and very quick to prepare meal.
The second container I used in lieu of water in a dish by Tessa Kiros in her book ‘Apples for Jam’, Lamb and Green Bean Casserole. I doubled the recipe, and added about 5 med-lge potatoes to the dish where I added the beans, and substituted chicken stock for the water. It was delicious and simple and needed nothing more than perhaps a bit of bread to mop up the juices. You will find the recipe posted on some websites, so just do a search, otherwise I highly recommend you buy her book. It is a fantastic read, beautifully colourful, and includes whimsical and heartfelt anecdotes from the author’s childhood and musings on the lives of her own children. The recipes are all winners and entirely just a fun, delicious book.
So one batch of chicken stock has created two deliciously nourishing meals. Once you start making stock you will be finding excuses to use it. Fortunately, some of the best recipes out there ask for stock so there will be no risk of it going to waste.
simple living 