INGREDIENTS:
5kg of veal bones
5 onions
½ a head of celery
5 large carrots
3 leaks
½ a head of garlic?
10 pepper corns
3 to 4 cloves
½ a star anise
½ a bottle of red wine
1 bouquet garnis:
thyme, parsley stalk and a bay leaf, wrapped in leak
the vegetables
seasonal vegetables
of your choice chopped into a mirepoix and heated through in the stock
Spring Bouillon
Bouillon. The spelling, the sound the word makes and the feeling it creates as you move your mouth to pronounce it… The translucent amber colour and that marvellous re-invigorating flavour with all those perfectly chopped vegetables cocooned within it says one thing to me – La Belle France.
SERVES 10
This will take around two days to make and you will need a large stock pot, a chinois, a large ladle and a fine sieve to make the stock. You’ll need fifteen to twenty minutes to chop the vegetables and actually prepare the bouillon to serve.
TOP TIPS:
Try to get a knuckle bone and veal bones with the marrow bone still inside. Ask the butcher to cut them up into small pieces. To keep the translucency it’s important that the stock never boils and that you keep skimming it throughout the cooking process. Use a mix of peppercorns which give an extra depth to the flavour of the bouillon.
STEPS
Place the bones in a roasting tray and roast in a hot oven, turning them every forty minutes or so until they are well roasted and have a beautiful colour.
Whilst the bones are roasting prepare the vegetables, chop them into large pieces and brown them in a little extra virgin olive oil in the stock pot on the hob.
Drain the fat from the bones into another container and add the bones to the vegetables. Deglaze the roasting pan with the red wine, scrapping the bottom of the roasting tray to extract the maximum flavour. Pour the wine mixture into the stock pot, bring to the boil and reduce the right down. Add the herbs and spices, cover the bones with water and bring to the boil. Turn the heat right down and simmer for two days. Don’t let the stock boil and periodically skim off any sediment as it comes to the surface.
Once finished, remove the bones and carefully drain the liquid into a container through a fine sieve. Taste and if you want a stronger flavour return the liquid to the cleaned stock pot and reduce.
This recipe is for a spring bouillon. I have used the same vegetables and recipe for the Vignarola salad, also in this blog.
