Makes: 8 cups
Ahhhh WINTER. You are here and you are glorious! Here in Auckland we’ve not had weather this good since 2022. With a week of cloudless blue-sky days rolling into each other one could be forgiven for thinking that winter is now the new summer. But a quick search on Google Weather indicates it’s about to get a little gloomy.
So. How do we cook ourselves happy as we slide into the next few months? Let’s start with stock. It fills the kitchen with sizzle and steam and an unbelievably delicious aroma for hours on end. Nothing beats the smell of onions roasting and they’ll get your whānau’s puku’s rumbling long before there’s anything to eat, and that’s ok because a little bit of aroma torture makes everything taste that much better when you sit down together to eat.
Whether your stock is destined for soup or risotto or stew or a sauce or noodle broth, there really is nothing better than a steaming pot full of healthy stock, made at home, and filled with your love.
Making stocks, broths and soups is an ancient and global culinary tradition. No matter where you’re from, your grandmother made a version and so did your great grandmother and even your 7th great grandmother twice removed had some kind of “throw everything in a pot and cook the delicious out of it” recipe. Change out the herbs to suit your own tastes and enjoy channeling those who came before you.
Love Felicity
INGREDIENTS
3 medium onions
2 bulbs garlic
5 small to medium carrots
1 swede
4 sticks celery
1 leek green end
8 bay leaves
1 large stick rosemary
2 t salt
¼ c extra virgin olive oil
½ c dried mushrooms of your choice
8 cups boiling water plus more
METHOD
Stock is a fabulous way to make sure nothing goes to waste in the kitchen. Keep leek ends, that half onion you forgot to use, carrot tops, peelings and the celery gone bendy, in a bag in the freezer and pull it all out when you have enough to get a stock pot on.
Because I wanted to use some of the cooked stock ingredients in a soup recipe, I made this stock using whole veg. I removed the cooked swede, carrot, onion and garlic from the stock before straining it. Then added these veggies to a big pot of hearty Kale Chickpea Tahini and Lemon soup. I’ve strained the other half to clear, and frozen it for future use.
Heat oven to 220°C.
Leave the onion* and garlic skins on and cut whole garlic bulbs in half. Cut onions into quarters and roughly chop the rest of the vegetables.
Fill your Old Dutch with all of the vegetables and herbs, except for the dried mushrooms. Drizzle with oil, sprinkle with salt and roast** in a hot oven for 45 mins, turning every 15 mins. OMG the aroma - you’ll want to eat it all just like that!
Fill the pot full of roasted goodness with boiling water, add the dried mushrooms and simmer the stock on the stove top for 1 hour. Replenishing the water to 1cm below the rim of the pot every now and then.
Remove the garlic, swede, carrots and onions from the stock, squeezing the onions and garlic out of their skins. Drain the remaining stock vegetables through a sieve into a large bowl, squashing out the tasty goodness with the back of a spoon. If you are happy with a more opaque “broth” it’s ready to use right now but if you want a clear stock, strain it through muslin or a tea towel to achieve this.
*the onion skins add a lovely colour to the stock, but you can remove them if you want it to be a lighter colour.
** Roasting the vegetables adds another layer of umami. You can skip this part if you want.
