Basic Fresh Vegetable Stock
At it’s most basic, stock is just water that has been infused with flavour. How you make your stock is as individual as you like. I will tell you how I make mine, then you can adapt it to your own taste.
You will want your stock to be
- Flavourful: Make sure you get the ratio right between the ingredients and the water. As a rule of thumb you can assume a 2:1 ratio, that is twice the volume of water to stock ingredients.
- Clear: Clear stock is pure stock. This achieved by simmering ever-so-gently. Boil your stock and you will boil the impurities into it making your stock cloudy.
Ingredients for a basic fresh vegetable stock
To make a basic, fresh vegetable stock – the base for almost all variants of stock you will need to prepare (what the French call) Mirepoix. This is a mixture of onion, celery and carrot. The ratio for your Mirepoix should be:-
- 50% Onion
- 25% Carrot
- 25% Celery
- 200% water
Method for a basic fresh vegetable stock
- Chop your Mirepoix into approx 1cm pieces and place them in a pot.
- Add the cold water and bring to a very gentle simmer.
- Simmer, partially covered for 45 minutes
- Simmer uncovered for 30 minutes
- Drain.
As you simmer your stock, the impurities will rise to the surface in the form of a thick(ish) foam. Skim this off and discard.
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