Don't Sweat the Aubergine

too. Some of the nutritional qualities of the vegetables will disperse, but others will remain.
VEAL STOCK
    Good butchers will sell you veal bones. Ask for them to be chopped up. Brown them in the oven, then follow the procedures above. The gelatinization process from these bones takes longer, so you need to simmer this stock for about 3 hours.
    You can also make a stock with lamb bones. It is insistently lamby, and ‘can only ever really be used with lamb dishes’, Alastair Little and Richard Whittington (
Keep It Simple
) advise. I make lamb braises, or gravies for lamb roasts, with chicken stock.
FISH STOCK
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HOW TO MAKE IT
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    1 onion
    1 leek
    1 celery stick
    Butter
    Trimmings and bones from white fish 1
    Parsley
    Water to cover
    Chop the vegetables finely, and soften them for 10 to 15 minutes in butter. 2 Add the fish, parsley and water to cover – as in the chicken stock, by no more than a few centimetres. Bring to a gentle simmer, and continue to simmer for 30 minutes. 3 Strain as above. You’ll probably need to use it within 24 hours.
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VARIATIONS
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    Fennel, with its aniseed edge, is a nice flavour in fish stock. You could include wine or vinegar; add to the sautéed vegetables and let the liquid reduce by about half. The reduction will reduce the acidity, which might otherwise inhibit the cooking of the vegetables.
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WHY YOU DO IT
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    1 • Use white fish . Oily fish, such as mackerel and herring, will not make a digestible liquid. But you can use for a stock the shells from shellfish, bashing them up first (Fergus Henderson in
Nose to Tail Eating
suggests you might use a hammer for this job). They will be salty.
    2 • Softening . For advice on this procedure, see here . It sweetens the vegetables; a less harsh edge to their flavour is welcome in a fish stock.
    3 • Half an hour is enough . Fish bones cooked for longer than half an hour may break up, adding bitterness to the liquid.
VEGETABLE STOCK
    This is not, officially, a stock – it’s not recognized in classical French cuisine. But it’s very handy as a standby on all those occasions when you might use a meat or fish stock but, for reasons of culinary or ethical inclination, cannot. Use it in soups to give more depth of flavour than water would provide; try it in a vegetarian risotto.
    There’s no point in giving a recipe. Use onions, carrots, leeks and celery; fennel bulb, garlic (left whole – chopped, it will be too dominant a part of the stock) and mushrooms are optional. Add, too, the herbs recommended for the stocks above.
    Cut the vegetables up small. Soften them in butter or oil for 10 to 15 minutes, then add the herbs and water to cover. You can cover the pan; the reasons given above for leaving a pan uncovered do not apply here. Simmer for no more than 30 minutes. All the flavour will be in the liquid by then; you will only dull the flavour by cooking the stock for any longer. Strain in a sieve.



 
    SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAS CANNOT make their reputations playing Brahms, it is said; you might also say that chefs do not make their reputations cooking soups. Of course, there are soups that are gastronomic marvels. If you want to be gastronomically marvellous, you’ll probably find a recipe from Gordon or Jamie or Nigella to suit. But the essence of soup seems more humble. Precise instructions are beside the point; this is food that you improvise, making use of ingredients to hand
.
    The first is a broth: stock (which might also be vegetable or fish stock) is heated, flavoured, and added to a starchy ingredient. In the second, vegetables are cooked together, sometimes after an initial softening in butter or oil; the soup is usually blended. In the third, involving dried legumes such as beans or lentils, some of the ingredients have different cooking times, and are therefore cooked apart and assembled just before serving.
    For fish soup, see here .
A VERY SIMPLE SOUP
    For 4
    Make a dark chicken stock ( see here ). Heat 4 bowlfuls of it – or more, if you want second helpings – in a saucepan, with salt to taste. In 2 tbsp olive oil, fry 2 cloves of finely chopped garlic until it starts to turn brown; be careful, because the stage between browning and burning is brief. When it’s cooked, add a whizzed, dried chilli if you like. Toast 4 pieces of white bread, and put each, torn up as necessary, into a soup bowl. Pour some oil and garlic over the toast in each bowl, and pour the hot stock over