I usually make risotto with chicken stock, but I read recently that the original recipe (whatever that means) used beef stock.
So I decided to try it and see. Making beef stock is surprisingly easy, but it’s worth understanding some of the principles involved. Here’s my bluffer’s guide to beef stock.
The beefy risotto was very different to my usual, chickeny version, but very good nonetheless.
Beef Stock
2kg beef bones (rib, leg marrowbones - you can get these from your butcher, but it’s worth asking in advance – often they give them all to the “bone man” quite early in the morning)
1 onion
bouquet garni of parsley, sage and thyme
1 carrot, cut in half
1 stalk celery, including the leaves, roughly chopped
1 tsp salt
Preheat the oven to 200C. Chop the bones into manageable pieces with a cleaver. (Be careful of splinters flying all over the place). Place the bones in a large roasting tin.
Cut the onion in half and add it to the tray with the bones, skin and all. Roast in the oven for 40-45 minutes, turning after 20minutes, until browned all over. Carefully pour away any excess fat from the roasting dish, and chuck in a cup of water. With a wooden spoon scrape all the burnt, meaty bits from the pan – there’s loads of flavour there so don’t waste it.
Put the bones, the onion, and the juice from the roasting tin inno a large saucepan with 8 pints of cold water. Bring up to a slow simmer. What you’re trying to do here is to diffuse as much of the flavour out of the bones (and other ingredients) into the water. This works best at lower concentrations so you need to start with loads of water and draw as much flavour into it as possible, then reduce the dilute stock down to concentrate the flavours. Don’t be tempted to start with less water if you only need a small amount of stock. It just won’t work.
Add the bouquet garni, carrots, celery and salt. Gently simmer the stock, covered, for 4-6 hours, or even longer if you have time, topping up with water if necessary. Six hours will give you a good strong stock to work with.
At the end of cooking time, strain the stock of all solid ingredients and discard them.
Reduce the stock: pour the liquid stock back into the pot and turn the heat up to medium. boil until the liquid is reduced by half, which will take about one hour, perhaps longer. The further you reduce the stock, the stronger and more intense it will be.
The stock can be used as is, or can be reduced further or frozen for future use.
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