La Chatte Gitane (or The Gypsy Cat) was the name we chose for our cottage in France at the time. We chose it while on the road, moving house the first time round, from Ireland to France with 2 dogs and 7 cats in the car.
This blog began its insignificant life as a recipe book for friends and family who would ask me repeatedly for a recipe of this, that and the other.
Since then it has taken many different directions, like we did and like gypsies tend to do. Sometimes making a U-turn and revisiting familiar roads and taking a break when necessary.
You'll find recipes here, but also musings about the places we've called home, the gardens that we've established, not always successfully, the homes we've improved and the environments we've lived in. Currently, after yet another stint in Ireland, we're back in France @ Le Mas d'Ayen

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Chicken Stock

A simple chicken stock that I loosely followed from Jamie Oliver's recipe.
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chicken-recipes/easy-chicken-stock

My ingredients
  • Carcasse of 2 chickens, neck and giblets included. I used raw carcasses, but, as you well know, you can also make a terrific stock from the carcasse left over from a roast chicken.
  • 2 onions, roughly chopped
  • 3 large garlic cloves, unpeeled and squashed
  • 4 carrots, roughly chopped
  • 6 celery sticks, roughly chopped
  • 2 large bay leaves
  • A bouquet of fresh thyme
  • A bouguet of parsley
  • 3 sprigs of rosemary
  • 10 black peppercorns 
  • 5 liters of cold water
Preparation
  • Use your largest, deepest cooking pot for this.
  • Throw all your ingredients in and cover with cold water.
  • Put on the hob and bring to the boil.
  • Turn back the heat and leave to simmer for 4 hours, skimming when necessary.
  • Take it off the hob and drain through a colander or sieve, saving the liquid in a clean pot or bowl.
  • Leave the liquid to cool as rapidly as possible. I was lucky that it was freezing so I left it (covered up) outside near the backdoor for a couple of hours.
  • Once cool, you can divide into small containers and freeze for later use.
  • Meat can be picked of the carcasses for any kind of use. I used it in my chicken soup.
My recipe for chicken soup coming to this blog soon.


I love reading comments (mainly when they're nice ;) ) so please, feel free...
Patricia xxx...x

    No comments:

    Post a Comment

    Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...