INGREDIENTS:
5kg
5 onions
½ a head of celery
5 large carrots
3 leaks
½ a head of garlic
10 pepper corns
¾ cloves
½ a star anise
½ a bottle of red wine
a bouquet garnis:
thyme, parsley stalks, a bay leaf, wrapped in leak
the vegetables
seasonal vegetables
of your choice chopped into a mirepoix and heated through in the broth
Bouillon Primavera
Bouillon. The way it is spelt, the sound the word makes, the way one has to move ones mouth to say it, the clear amber colour it has and that marvellous reinvigorating flavour with all those carefully chopped vegetables floating in it signifies one thing for me – La Belle France.
SERVES 10
This will take around two days to make. You will need a large stock pot. A chinois and large ladle and a fine sieve to make the stock. Then fifteen to twenty minutes to cut the vegetables and actually prepare the bouillon to serve.
TOP TIPS:
Try and get the veal bone with marrow bone in them and the knuckle and get the butcher to cut them up into small pieces. It is important that the stock doesn’t boil 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 the bones every forty minutes or so until they are well roasted and have a beautiful colour.
While the bones are roasting prepare the vegetables, chop them into large pieces and then brown them in a little extra virgin olive oil in the stock pot on the stove.
Add the bones to the vegetables. Drain the fat which the bones gave off into another container and then deglaze the roasting pan with the red wine, scrapping the bottom of the roasting tray to extract the maximum flavour.
Now pour the wine into the stock pot and bring to the boil and reduce the red wine right down. Now add the herbs and spices and cover the bones with water and bring to the boil and then turn down and simmer for two days.
Don’t let the stock boil again and skim off any sediment as it comes to the surface.
When done remove the bones and carefully drain the liquid through a fine sieve into a container. Taste and if you want a stronger flavour you can then return the liquid to the cleaned stock pot and reduce.
This recipe is for a spring bouillon and I have used the same vegetables and recipe as for the Vignarola salad also in this blog.
