I always make my veal stock from scratch when I make certain dishes like Rendang (Indonesian Beef dish). It takes a lot of time to make veal stock but it is so much better than buying veal stock in the supermarket. It usually takes me 1 day to prepare the right stock.
Ingredients
- 3-4 kgs. Veal bones
- ±2-3 liter water
- Vegetables like winter carrot, leeks, celery, onion, tomato
- Laurel leaves
- Tomato paste (small can)
Preparing
Use as much vegetables as you want and as your pan can handle. I normally use about 2-3 winter carrots, 2 leeks, ½ bunch of celery, 1-2 onions and 5-10 tomatoes.
Place the veal bones in a preheated oven (200-250 degrees Celsius) for 20 minutes. I turn them during the time they are in the oven, so the fat melts and the bones became equally brown.
Fill a large pan with water and place the baked bones in the pan together with the cut and cleaned vegetables.
Bring the water and vegetables to boil and reduce the heat till the water is almost boiling. I never skim the water because most fat was melted in the oven, but if you have a lot of skim, skim the water regularly.
After about one hour I insert the tomato paste, however you can also do this at the start of the boiling.
Let the broth draw for about 6 hours, be careful not to cook the entire time, but draw it!
After 6 hours remove the bones and most of the vegetables. Strain the broth with a thin strainer. No vegetables or meat may go through the strainer and fall in the broth.
Bring the strained broth back to boiling and let it reduce till about 1/3 of the starting quantity. Keep in mind that reducing too fast and too much will burn the stock. Be careful.
This reducing can take between 1 and 4 hours, depending on the water level, depending on how high the temperature is etc.
The stock has to be full of flavor. When it is not full enough you used too much water of too little vegetables / bones.
When the stock is cooled you can freeze it. Note that you freeze it in several portions so you do not have to unfreeze all the stock at the same time.