Brown stock or demi glace

Brown stock or Demi glace

The secret to a good soup, sauce or stew is the stock. I developed this stock 20 years ago and we have used it pretty much every day since then.The secret to developing the flavour and umami is in slow cooking everything - from the sauteeing of the vegetables to to the simmering of the stock.

Ingredients
50ml (2floz) olive oil
2 leeks
1 large onion
2 stix of celery
2 small carrots
mixed herbs i.e. rosemary, thyme, oregano and sage, fresh if possible.
3 cloves garlic
1 glass of red wine
1 x 450g (1/2lb) tin of tomatoes or passata
Handful dried porcini mushrooms or dried mixed mushrooms
2 tbsp Swiss vegetable bouillon or two stock cubes
1200ml (2½ pints) water
2 tbsp dark soy sauce


Method
Heat the olive oil in a large pan and start to sauté the leeks, onion, celery, carrots, garlic and herbs. Do this very slowly and for about one hour stirring regularly. The idea is to slowly caramelise the vegetables and develop as much flavour as possible. Take your time as the end result is worth it.
After about an hour add the red wine and reduce most of the liquid out. Then one by one add the remaining ingredients except the soy sauce.Simmer slowly uncovered for one and a half hours. The stock will slowly concentrate and extract the flavours from its constituents. Add the soy sauce for extra colour and umami.

Pass the stock through a sieve pushing as much as the vegetable sludge through as possible and then it is ready to use. This stock keeps very well in the fridge and freezes for weeks so it's probably best to make a double or triple batch and save some for future use.It takes more or less the same time to prepare no matter how much you make.

Umami stock

Quick umami stock

Umami is defined as the fifth flavour or taste…not sweet, sour, salty or bitter but
a 'meatiness' that is just there. It is the flavour that makes us want to eat more 
and more. Chemically it is the glutamates that are found in meat seafood,
mushrooms,  tomatoes and other foodstuffs. That is why Chinese takeaway
food can be so moreish - it contains monosodium glutamate. Umami can also
be thought of as depth of flavour.

With vegetarian and vegan cuisine we don't have the meat to create the umami so we
have developed ways to introduce it into our Cooking.

Usually in the café we make a brown stock or Demi glace made from slow sauteeing
vegetables, and slow boiling them with herbs, dried wild mushrooms and tomatoes.
The result is a deep flavoured stock that when used in a Soup, stew or a sauce can
create a well rounded and tasty result. This process take a few hours and one doesn't
always have enough time to devote to it.

This umami stock recipe was created to transform soups, sauces and stocks into
something delicious with minimum effort. I use brown stock alot in my recipes so this
is well worth getting to know.

The recipe

1 litre Water

100ml Tomato sauce (Use any commercial pasta sauce, passata or sofrito)

Few Dried wild mushrooms

2 Vegetable stock cubes

Splash of red wine (optional)

Dash of Worcester sauce (veggie) or Soy sauce or brown sauce

Method

Place the water into a pan with the wild mushrooms and crushed stock cube and bring it slowly to the
boil. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Store in the fridge for up to two weeks. Use wherever a recipe requires a stock or the addition of a
liquid.