Tips and Tricks from the Professionals
Stock
As a retired chef (13 good restaurants over 3 global sites)..with no illusions, I have an ‘essential’ view. It’s easy. Save ALL cut-offs from vegetables except cucumber, celery leaves (bitter), potato peels (rot) , or anything you don’t want to ‘enhance’ you flavor with….say, cinnamon. Save ALL bones, no matter what carcass – they will …
Say you take two deciliters of chicken stock in two different pans. You reduce one down quickly, the other slowly. The taste of each stock is completely different because if you reduce something rapidly, you retain the flavour. By reducing it slowly it stews and you lose freshness and sharpness. If you’re making a stock, …
Chef and owner Alan Cohen (aka AJ), a WCC graduate and the former owner of the Original Wedge Inn, told us the secret to his tasty and fabulous gravy. He roasts root vegetables in the pan with the turkey as many of us do. Instead of straining out the vegetables, he blends them with the …
For a quick and easy consommé take a flavourful stock, season, mix one part egg white to three parts stock, seal without air in a heavy duty sandwich bag, tie the top with string, simmer in a pan of water for around half an hour, then pour the entire contents through a cloth. Steve Groves …
In recipes that call for milk or water, try substituting more flavourful liquids. Try adding some stock instead of water, or even the water your cooked veggies in. Sour cream, buttermilk and yoghurt make good milk substitutes. Changing up the liquids in your recipes can add nutrition, while livening up a standby dish.
Lemongrass. Just a couple stalks. Fish em out afterwards. Makes the stock more aromatic. Johnathan Law, Restaurateur
Poach chicken in chicken stock to add flavour.
Have pesky bubbles or film on top of your consommé (filtered stock)? Just drag a folded paper towel across the top to clean it up.
Always make stock in a large quantity and freeze it in plastic bags. That way, when you want to make a nice soup or boil veggies, you can simply pull the bag out of the freezer.Charlie Trotter – Charlie Trotter’s, Chicago
I call this the lazy stock. Our restaurant kitchen is mini, and having only two induction hobs means that having a massive stock pot ticking over all day is an impossible dream. But since we use lots of trotter and smoked ham stocks in the sauces we had to find a way. We now cook …