Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Tues 13 July

~  Despite the palaver involved, I like making chicken stock.  This morning I strain an especially rich batch, made using an extra carcase from the freezer.  I remember reading a preview of a TV programme where Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall was encouraging hapless urban youngsters to learn to cook from scratch.  One very unimpressed youth said of the chicken-stock-making process 'It's what they did in the stone age, innit, boil up a load of bones in a pot...'

~  It's easy to overdo petunias in town plantings, but the deep violet ones in abundance in the containers in Moncontour spread a most voluptuous scent, reminiscent of jasmine, all around the town.

~


Upside-down trees at the watermill.

6 comments:

HLiza said...

I only use commercial chicken stock cubes!

herhimnbryn said...

Stock making (although no meat stock for me as I don't eat the stuff) is a pleasure. Slow cooking at it's best. Like making soup, chop, dice, sprinkle, simmer, simmer, simmer.

Thankyou for reminding me.

Lucy said...

Thanks.

Hliza - don't worry I use those too!

HHB - I think making good veg stock is even more of an art, though I must say I don't do it. I tend to stuff the chickens with lots of herbs and garlic and celery and things when I cook them, so that all goes in.

Zhoen said...

I always imagine that tree roots and the visible tree mirror each other, so that if a rock changes the root below, it causes a strange twist above. This is almost certainly not true, but it comforts me to think so.

Unknown said...

The smell of chicken stock is in itself a delicious thing and makes you want to lick the air in which it is floating.

HKatz said...

That's a magical photo; and I love the description of the petunias.