Chicken Stock

Running out of stock is almost as bad as running out of coffee. It is the basis of many of our dishes, including our own very special steamed cauliflower. Without chicken stock we're stuffed, and I get twitchy if there are not at least three containers of stock in the freezer.

Really simple to make, so don't waste money buying something inferior. In a five litre pot put in one-and-a-half to two kilos of chicken wings, a half onion, a stick of celery a a handful of green pepper corns.

Note: don't add salt. Stock is an ingredient.  If you add salt to it you are going to have too much salt in the final dish, what ever that may be.

Cover with water and bring to a very, very gentle simmer. I leave it for a couple of hours with the lid on. Cooking stock slowly results in rich, flavoursome stock. It's all about contact time.  The longer you cook, the more flavour can be infused in to the water.  Don't boil the bejeezus out of it.

The wings become very, very tender but still remain whole so the stock is clear and golden. The meat from the wings can be shredded by hand, the bones discarded and the meat can be used for any number of dishes, or frozen. Put the stock in small container in the freezer.