Читать книгу German Cooking Today - Dr. Oetker - Страница 6

Soups are becoming increasingly popular because the word is spreading like wildfire that no dish is so tasty and at the same time so low in calories. In addition it gives you that wonderful feelingthat you have actually eaten your fill. Completely safe for your figure! Whether thin or more like its “big brother” the stew or casserolewhich can form a main meal in itself, soups have become very trendy. They may be clear soups, cream soups, vegetable soups or sweet soups. The basis of a good soup is a good quality stock(bouillon), if possible home-made, such as chicken, vegetable, beef or fish stock. When you make fresh stock, you should make enough for several meals because it can be frozen and will be very useful when you feel like having a little soup again.

This is what you need to make stock (broth):

Regardless of whether you make stock with bones, fish, beef, veal, poultry or venison and vegetables –there is something which you can never do without: the standard soup vegetables(photograph 1). These always include 1–2 carrots, a piece of celery and one or two leeks. Depending on the season and region in which you live you can also add a little parsley, parsley root, cauliflower, kohlrabi, bay leaves or thyme and lovage. The broth will be particularly aromatic if you first fry(sauté) these ingredients for a short time over a high heat.

Bouquet garni

A bouquet garni is a bunch of herbs consisting of parsley, thyme and bay leaves that is used to season all kinds of dishes. But you can also add other herbs or make your own selection to make your bouquet garni. By tying the herbs together with cooking string, you can easily remove them from the pan when the stock is ready.

An onion stuck with cloves

(photograph 2)

Using a small knife, remove the dry, outer leaves of an onion. Make a slanting incision about 2 cm/³/₄ in deep and slide 1 bay leaf into the cut. Then push a few cloves into the onion, stalk first.

Starting the stock from cold

When making stock, always put the vegetables in the cold water. The vegetables will yield more flavourand the stock will have a more intense taste.

Exception:In the case of meat stock, if you are using meat youwant to use afterwards, for instance as boiled fillet, it is best to wait until the water is boiling before adding the meat.

Degreasing the stock

If you want to use the hot stock immediately, you can remove the fat by skimming it off with a kitchen paper towel (photograph 3). Pull a paper towel over the surface of the stock so that it absorbs the fat. But if you have enough time, it is easier to leave the stock to cool down and refrigerate it. The fat which has risen to the surface will solidify so that it can simply be removed with a spoon (photograph 4).