Homemade natural broths and aromas, recipes

Don't feel like eating a thick soup? The solution then is the broth! Full of flavor and very light, a good broth is the detox and tasty dish par excellence. Chefs also use it as a stock or to cook certain preparations, and it then takes on a refined air. You can also immerse ravioli, meatballs … the possibilities are endless. How to give flavor to your dishes? What is the secret of a broth rich in flavor?

By adding broth or stock to its preparations, it is the best solution to enrich your dishes, while remaining light. This soup-made infusion fills the plates without weighing down the stomachs, and that's why we love it!
The broth regains its letters of nobility and that it is vegetable, beef or poultry broth, it can be used as it is, as well as to prepare a risotto or to accommodate the ingredients of a stew.
But the broth can also take on more exotic flavors, and cooking Thai, Japanese or Vietnamese knows how to offer us recipes of aromas and various broths, adopting sweet, spicy, vegetable or more tangy notes.

And since we prefer natural, homemade broth to store-bought broths doped with flavor enhancers, here are all our recipes and tips for mastering this fundamental recipe in the kitchen.

How to define a broth or an aroma?

  • A broth is a cooking liquid, in which will have simmered and "infused" meat, fish or vegetables, even aromatics and herbs. Delicate, low in calories, clear, it exudes its subtle notes. Some refined recipes filter the broth which then bears the somewhat obsolete name of "consomme".
  • A aroma meanwhile, it is a broth that has been reduced over the heat, to obtain a more concentrated preparation and therefore stronger in taste. It is also found under the name of stock: "poultry stock" https://www.aufeminin.com/ "veal stock" …

Most of the time, broths and broths are used as bases to prepare accompanying sauces, to flavor a jelly dish such as an aspic, or to cook while delicately adding additional flavor.
But you can also eat them as they are. Our grandmothers used poultry or beef broth as tonics, some even added a diluted egg. Vegetable broth is ideal for a detox meal, with whole vegetable pieces.
For a more gourmet broth, you can add croutons, melted cheese or dip in ravioli …

Trick : Some festive recipes just flavor a broth with truffles or scallops, in order to give it a chic flavor without the recipe costing too much by using the ingredients as they are.

Broths on the market: Dehydrated formulas are available commercially in the form of powder or cubes, very concentrated. These preparations are often enriched with flavor enhancers of the glutamate type, or even worse, not very recommended.
However, one brand stands out from the crowd and many chefs praise its flavors and compositions: Ariaké. Especially since organic broths have just been marketed.

How to make broths yourself?

The other advantage of broths, apart from their flavor, is that they allow collect your leftovers. Soak your leftovers in water, which soaks up the flavors and filter before serving.
The best known example is fish broth, made from the bones and heads of fish. We do the same with the carcass of a poultry, or beef bones that your butcher gives you. Vegetables, aromatics, spices are sometimes added to it … Not very inviting, of course, but it allows you to enhance the flavors without spoiling.
It also works very well with your vegetables at the end of their life, or with their tops, or even aromatic herbs. But be careful not to use the potato or the white beans (cook them separately and add them at the last moment), because they cloud a vegetable broth.

The recipe for a broth always includes vegetables, and sometimes spices. Be careful, however, not to mask the taste of the fish or the meat, if you are making a non-vegetarian broth.

The top ingredients of the broth

Don't forget to skim your broth (and even degrease it if you are preparing it with meat). This involves removing the foam that forms on the surface, so that your broth remains tasty but clear.

Good broths most often include a bouquet garni: bay leaf, thyme and you can add an onion. Some recipes will preferably use leek for a less pronounced result than onion. A broth made from shellfish will support a piece of lemon or Thai lemongrass very well.

Those in a hurry and broke can also heat salted water with marrow bones and a branch of laurel, they will obtain a clear and fragrant broth.

In Asia, the broths are usually quite spicy. If you also like spicy dishes, you can add fresh ginger very well. in pieces, a few cloves to prick in the onions (be careful, their flavor is very frank, stay parsimonious), lemongrass stems, a small pepper.
As always with spices, have a quick hand when it comes to the dosage …



© Istock

How do I store my broth?

A broth is theoretically a fragile preparation: it can be stored in the refrigerator imperatively and not more than 3 days.
However, a good idea is to freeze it in ice cube trays so that you can use it in the right quantities, according to your needs. To you the risottos on the fly!

Some broth recipes:



Tasty broth for seafood soup

© Istock

The chicken broth recipe

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 chicken carcass,
  • some carrots,
  • a few stalks of celery,
  • a leek white,
  • 2 large onions,
  • 1 bouquet garni,
  • salt and pepper.

PRODUCTION :
Step 1: Clean, (peel if they are not organic) and cut all the vegetables into pieces. Rinse the bouquet garni and peel the onions.
Step 2: Place everything in a large saucepan, Dutch oven or pressure cooker, add the chicken carcass and cover with 1.5 liters of water. Adjust the amount of water according to the size of your container. Add salt and pepper.
Step 3: Bring to the boil, then lower the heat to just simmer for at least 1 hour.
Step 4: Let cool, then degrease with a skimmer and filter.

Our advice: you can also use a hen, a guinea fowl, a turkey, a capon or a duck.

Beef broth recipe

INGREDIENTS:

  • 500 g of lean beef (pot-au-feu meat for example),
  • some carrots,
  • 1 stalk of celery,
  • 1 leek,
  • 1 bouquet garni,
  • 1 onion,
  • pepper.

PRODUCTION :
Step 1: Wash and cut the vegetables into pieces, you can keep the skin if they are organic. Peel and cut the onion.
Step 2: Put everything in a pressure cooker, with the bouquet garni, the meat and the pepper. Cover with 1.5 liters of water.
Step 3: Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to keep a slight simmer for 30 minutes.
Step 4: Let cool, degrease and filter.

The recipe for traditional vegetable broth

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 assortment of vegetables for stew (carrots, leeks, turnips, onion),
  • some salad leaves,
  • a stalk of celery,
  • a bouquet garni,
  • coarse salt and pepper.

PRODUCTION :
Step 1: Rinse, peel (if they are not organic) and cut all the vegetables into pieces.
Step 2: Place them in a pressure cooker, cover with at least 1 liter of salted water.
Step 3: Bring to a boil and when it boils, reduce the intensity of the heat to just simmer for 1 hour 30 minutes.
Step 4: Filter (and reserve your cooked vegetables that you can eat or mash) and adjust the seasoning.

advice : To choose the right vegetables, also see all of our monthly seasonal vegetables files.

And also on aufeminin:
30 detox soup recipes
How to prepare a tasty stew?

How to prepare a fish stock?

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 kg of fish bones and / or heads,
  • some carrots,
  • 1 onion,
  • 2 shallots,
  • 1 bouquet garni.

PRODUCTION :
Step 1: Sweat the onion and the chopped shallots in a little butter. Break off the bones and add them to the onions and shallots. Leave on the pan briefly: the edges should not color.
Step 2: Cover the edges with water (the stock must remain fairly concentrated), and add the peeled carrots and cut into pieces, as well as the bouquet garni.
Step 3: Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat, and simmer for about 20 minutes.
Step 4: Filter. Adjust the seasoning if necessary.

advice : you can add 20 cl of white wine for more flavor in step 2.