Soup is important in the Chinese kitchen. No good soup
without a good stock. Chinese soup is best not made with a western stock cube,
please please yourself by preparing a Chinese broth instead.
Chinese stock is lighter than Western stock. A comparatively small quantity of
vegetables is used, just some spring onion and ginger. By the way: it seems that
even for fish recipes meat stock is used.
There are some links in the recipe to the tips & tricks
of broth making. There you can find descriptions of how to strain, reduce,
cool and keep your broth. Because that is the same for all broths and stocks,
this information is gathered on one page. On that page you can also find links
to other recipes for stocks and soups.
Ingredients:
1 small or 1/2 large boiling hen (soup chicken) (1 1/2 kilo, 3 pounds)
some bones of pork or chicken
25 gram (1 ounce) ginger with peel, crushed
3 spring onions (scallions), bruised
1 tsp. szechuan pepper corns, crushed
6 litres (6 quarts, or 1 1/2 gallon) water
for a luxurious version add duck, hock or spare ribs
Preparation in advance:
Rinse the bones, chop larger ones in two. Because the stock
has to remain light in colour, the chicken is not roasted first as with western
chicken stock. Put the bones in a pan with cold water, bring to the boil, then
rinse them under cold running water.
Preparation:
Put chicken and bones in a large soup pan, pour six litres of water over them,
bring to the boil. Skim well, then add spring onions, ginger and pepper. Simmer
uncovered for three to four hours (do not let it boil!) until about reduced by
half.
Strain
the stock, and reduce to further to three litres if necessary, then let
it cool quickly. Now you can freeze what you don't need immediately.
Do not forget to label your frozen
stock, in the freezer all stocks look alike.
Chickenmeat that has been used for making stock is
delicious. Use it in a ragoût or a salad, or make your cat happy.
Szechwan
pepper (Xanthoxylum piperitum): You can't use black or white pepper
instead of this Chinese pepper, the peppercorns have a decidedly different
taste. They are often roasted before use.
