Basic Soup Stock

The secret of making good soup is using a good quality vegetable or meat stock. In my family’s restaurant (Vietnam Little Home), every week my mother made 40 quarts of meat stock. She was so proud of her stock that she believed no restaurant could serve delicious soup or stir-fried dishes like hers. It is quite simple for restaurants to make a good stock because they use the bones left from the preparation of beef, chicken or pork dishes as the base for making good meat stock. My restaurant always had two kinds of stocks, meat stock and vegetable stock, so vegetarian customers had the option to choose. However, the best way to make a delicious soup stock depends on the amount of attention to details and the patience required, such as washing meat bones very well with vinegar and salt, controlling the temperature, skimming the froth, scum, or fat during the simmering stage. Today, commercial stocks are very well made, but in just a minimal amount of time required to make stocks at home, these homemade stocks always taste better. I use my mother's stock recipe, but I made some changes to suit the small kitchen. The way I make basic stock is so easy and without flavoring so that it can be used to make dishes of different cuisines. I believe that cooking should always be simple and fun. In the Vietnamese cuisine, the well-known soup for Westerners is beef or chicken noodle soup (pho bo, ga), which for beginner cooks is often too intimidating for them to try to make at home . To get over this fear, the first thing is to make a good beef or chicken stock. This stock is not just for making Pho but also is the foundation of all kinds of recipes for soups, stews or stir-fried dishes. Last but not least is kombu stock that is the Japanese 's basic stock, and it became the secret of Japanese cooking. What follows is the unveiling of all the stocks with a very simple way to make them.
Basic Meat Stock:
4 lbs. of beef or pork bones Or flank steak
4 lbs. chicken bones or chicken legs and thighs
4 quarts of water (16 cups)
1 oz salt
2 oz rock sugar
1 large onion
2 carrots, cut up


Directions:
Soak bones in a large container filled with 12 cups of water, 1/2 cup vinegar and 1/4 cup of salt for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, wash and dry the bones.
Bring 16 cups of water to a boil. Drop the bones into the hot water and let cook for 5 minutes. This procedure will help to reduce the time necessary for skimming the scum or fat during the simmering stage. Pour the bones into and wash again in cold water.
Bring 16 cups of water to a boil and drop the partly cooked bones into the boiling water. Turn heat to medium low. Skim off the froth, scum, or fat until the broth is clear (about 10 minutes). Add salt and rock sugar and continue to simmer the broth for 3 hours.
Discard the bones. Let the broth cool. Then strain broth through cheesecloth to remove any residue still remaining. Ladle the broth into a container. Cover with lid and freeze for later use.
This basic stock is perfect for making beef noodle soup, also called Hanoi beef noodle soup (Pho bo Hanoi). For healthy version of meat stock, use the meats instead of bones for both of beef and chicken

Chicken stock:
4 to 7 lbs. of whole chicken or the chicken parts, like wings, necks, legs or bones
1 large onion
1 oz fresh ginger, smashed
4 green onions, sliced into 3 inch lengths or 1 large leek
2 carrots, cut up
2 oz rock sugar
1 oz salt

Directions:
In a large soup pot, about 8 quarts, bring 14 cups of water to a boil. Put all the ingredients into the boiling water . Skim off scum and fat . Reduce heat to simmer for 2 hours. Discard the cooked meat and strain stock through cheesecloth. Let it cool off and store broth in refrigerator or freezer.
This stock is used for making chicken noodle soup or Pho Ga, Mien ga.

If making seafood soup or stews, the basic fish stock is made as follows:

4 lbs of fish bones and heads, rinsed, dried and cut into pieces (use white fish, such as cod, milkfish, sole, or pike)
3 tbs butter
2 leeks, white part only
2 carrots, sliced
2 stalks celery, sliced
2 oz mushrooms, sliced
Fresh parsley sprigs with stems, fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1 tbs white peppercorn, crushed
Peel of 1 lemon
2 cups white wine
6 cups water

Directions:
Melt butter in a heavy 8 quart pot over medium heat. Add fish and all the vegetables. Cook until the vegetables are translucent, about 7 to 10 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients into the pot. Bring mixture to a slow simmer. Reduce heat to where the liquid barely simmers. Do not let liquid boil, because the broth will be cloudy. Continue skimming foam that rises to the surface as necessary until the stock is rich in flavor, about 30 minutes.
Strain stock through cheesecloth and let it cool off before freezing.


For vegetable and kombu stock as posted on January 2, 2012