Broth the Soup Base
This article starts with vegetable broth because most non-vegetarian broth will use some amount of vegetables as well, to add depth to the flavor, so this information is useful for all types of broths.
The basic ingredients for a vegetable broth are onion (with skin), carrot and tomato. They are the classic ‘backbone’ of making broth and almost all vegetable broths will contain at least two of them. Other ideas for vegetables are:
- Bell pepper
- Cauliflower or broccoli
- Any kind of mushroom will greatly enhance the aroma and flavor. Mushrooms are good for enriching a stock, it is also possible to make the mushroom the main or even the only ingredient of a stock. For this you would need about 200 grams of mushrooms and an onion per liter of broth.
- Garlic with skin
- Green chili
- Do not use beet roots, because they will turn your stock black.
- About 750 grams of vegetables per liter of broth should suffice.
To ’round off’ the flavour of the stock some herbs and spices are usually added. Some of these will dissolve (like salt), for others it’s best to create a little ‘bag’ of cotton cloth, so you can easily fish them out later. Some good herbs to use are:
- Bay leaf (about 3 per liter of broth)
- Black peppercorns (about 6 per liter of broth)
- Cinnamon (about half inch per liter of broth)
- Salt (a pinch, you can add salt to taste later, this is essential for most stocks. Rock salt is good option.)
Important Tip: Do not chop ingredients too finely. Just halve or quarter them, so the water can reach the inside of the vegetable as well as the outside.
Put the peels of onion and garlic in the stock as well. This will help with the color of the stock.
Preparing broth is as simple as putting the ingredients in a pot (preferably large and thick). Pouring over cold water (it needs to be cold). Bringing the water to a simmer and waiting anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. Do not let vegetables simmer for more than an hour or the flavour will become wilted and sour.
Chicken and mutton broths are made by slowly simmering meat (do not remove gristle – it contains collagen) with vegetables and flavourings. In Non-veg broth DO NOT add salt at this stage, it should only be added when the stock is being used in a recipe. Use cold water and warm slowly – this prevents the meat from sealing.
If bones are used in stock they may be roasted and cracked before simmering.
If you use a pressure cooker cook at pressure for 30-40 minutes. Put whisle on but DO NOT let the coocker whisle. For that keep flame low to medium, so that the pressure in the coocker will be sufficient to cook ingredients well but it won’t let the steam go out.
A pressure cooker is ideal for broth making – the cooking time comes down from several hours to about 30-40 minutes, with considerable saving of time and energy.
When broth is ready, pass it through a sieve to get rid of the large ingredients. You can use the stock immediately, or cool it as quickly as possible (keep the broth container in a bowl of cold water).
Once Broth cools down it should be stored in a airtight container in the refrigerator.
Now you can enjoy soups everyday with quick recipes by just adding this homemade broth.
