Before I give out any recipes, I want to talk about stocks.  The reason being that so many dishes rely on a stock – soups, stews, casseroles, sauces, purés, even some curries.  And for all these dishes, the quality of what you get out is very much dependant on the quality of the stock you put in.

I’m not going to say you shouldn’t use stock cubes or other commercial “stock” products, but I really want to get across how easy it is to make your own and that if you have some freezer space you don’t have to make stocks very often.

A stock is just vegetables, meat/bones/fish (depending on the stock), herbs and water simmered together.  And most meat/fish stocks are pretty much based on a vegetable stock any way, so once get used to making that, the others aren’t far away.

And you can make them very economically.  Whenever I do a fish or meat dish, I keep the leftover bones and pop them in the freezer until I have enough to make a good stock.  And if I am in the supermarket at the end of the day I also look out for any stock veg that is on offer as it reaches its sell-by date (onions, celery, carrots and leeks) as in a stock you don’t need the absolute freshest vegetables.

So look out on the blog for my stock recipes coming soon.  And in the meantime don’t throw away your bones – freeze them!