I saw chicken stock being sold for $9.00 for 500 mls the other day, almost the cost of a whole chicken. Which is spectacular when you think about how it is made.

Chicken stock can be made with those parts of the chicken you normally wouldn’t eat. No, you don’t have to make stock with chicken feet, this is just a photo I took at the wet markets in Hong Kong. Although this particular photo looks kind of creepy, it still looks better than the ingredients that usually make up my chicken stock. I start with a chicken carcass, left over from a roast chicken or perhaps a poached chicken with ginger scallion sauce. I use the ribs of celery for salads, and put the leaves and tips into the stockpot. Finally, chicken stock is home for the carrots that bend! This definitely not photogenic however, it doesn’t make a difference to the flavour. I’m not recommending using vegetables that are rotten, but this is perfect to use up ones that are a little past their prime.

What follows is barely a recipe, just an encouragement to try using up those forgotten vegetables, and the chicken bones you’d normally be throwing out. Give it a try. You’ll never pay top dollar for stock again.

Chicken Stock
1 chicken carcass
1 onion, quartered
2 carrots, quartered,
3 ribs of celery, or the equivalent volume in leaves and tips
2 bay leaves
1 tsp salt
4 black peppercorns

1. Add all ingredients to a large pot, then cover with water.
2. Simmer for 1-2 hours, the longer the better if you have the time.
3. Remove from heat and strain the stock, discarding the solids.
4. Refrigerate stock overnight. In the morning it will have developed a fine layer of fat which can be removed. Discard it if you need to keep to a low fat diet, otherwise keep it for roasting potatoes.Yum.
5. Stock will keep in the fridge for a few days, or freeze into 1 cup capacity containers to make for easy measurements down the track.

And finally, because it’s barely a recipe, I thought I’d add some links to some great blogs where you can find recipes to use all that lovely home made stock.

• A soup with Mexican flavours, best in late summer with fresh peak season corn
• A quick and colourful midweek dinner of confetti penne with shrimp
• Make sure you get help with the wrapping for wonton noodle soup
• Try the simple cauliflower soup with a secret ingredient
• A chicken pot pie, or six, will help with winter chills
• Adapt your own leftovers with this  chicken casserole with dumplings
• Don’t mind a little stirring? A sausage and red pepper risotto sounds good
• Got some time up your sleeve and want to impress? How about twice cooked pork belly with toffee crisp crackling plus a cherry and brandy glaze?

And finally, although I haven’t tried it myself, I couldn’t leave you without a recipe for chicken feet could I?

What’s your favourite way to use chicken stock?

Poached chicken with ginger scallion sauce
2 scallions (spring onions), sliced
5 cm ( 2 inch) knob ginger, sliced
1 medium sized, free range chicken

4 spring onions, finely sliced
1 teasp finely chopped ginger
1 teasp finely chopped garlic
3 tablesp light vegetable oil
3 tablesp soy sauce
1 tablesp rice wine ( I’ve used vinegar instead of rice wine without a problem so don’t feel you need to rush out and buy a bottle, just for 1 tablespoon)
1 teasp sesame oil

1. Fill a large stockpot with water and add the spring onion and sliced ginger. Bring to the boil , then add the chicken, breast side down. Make sure it is fully submerged in the water. Return to the boil then allow it to simmer for ten minutes, with the lid on.
2. Turn off the heat. Do not lift the lid. Leave for forty five minutes.
3. Prepare a large tub of iced water. Lift chicken from the pot, and plunge into the ice cold water. Leave it in the ice water for an hour then remove to a plate.

4. In a small heat resistant bowl, mix together spring onion, ginger and garlic.
5. In a pan, heat vegetable oil until smoking hot and pour it over the contents of the bowl. It will sizzle. Stir, then add remaining ingredients.
6. I usually serve this with rice. Simply slice the chicken and pour the sauce over the top. Both chicken and sauce will keep for a few days in the fridge. Although it looks quite minimalist, the flavour is fantastic, fresh and strong.

Do you eat at least two servings of fruit each day, as recommended in nutritional guidelines? I find it easy in  the summer with cherries and nectarines and strawberries around, but a little harder in winter when it feels like it’s just apples and oranges for months. Although I feel I could eat raspberries and just raspberries through out the summer, it pays to toss a few into the freezer, so they can brighten a winter’s morning.  They lose their shape a little when defrosted but this doesn’t matter when they are mixed in with the porridge oats (oatmeal).

What I really love about this recipe is the oven dried apples.   A couple of years ago I went through a phase of snacking on bought dried apricots. It took me several weeks to realise that, if I ate dried apricots in the morning, by the afternoon I was wheezing.   Sulphites are commonly added to dried fruits to help maintain colour, and can cause allergy type symptoms in certain people . I don’t usually react to foods so I think this particular batch must have been abnormally high in sulphites.   All the same, it put me off dried fruit.  That is, until I realised how easy it is to dry apples myself.  You don’t need special equipment, just an oven and a sharp knife.  For very minimal effort, you get a chewier sweeter apple slice compared with raw apple, but without exposing yourself to the sulphites.

Raspberry Ripple Oatmeal
Serves 2
1 cup rolled oats, soaked in 1 cup of water for 15 minutes or longer, ie overnight if you don’t want to wait in the morning
1 1/4 cups skim milk
Pinch salt
2/3 cup fresh or frozen raspberries

1. Combine oats, milk and salt in a saucepan. Simmer over a low heat for fifteen minutes or until porridge (oatmeal) is creamy and the oats are soft.
2. Add raspberries. It’s OK to use them directly from the freezer, the heat of the oatmeal will defrost them. Mix in well, to get streaks of raspberry running through the oatmeal.
3. Divide between two plates, top with dried apple slices and serve with brown sugar.

Oven dried apple slices
Apples

1. Preheat oven to 100 C (215 F)
2. Slice apples as finely as possible, in rounds, beginning from the base of the apple. A mandolin would be ideal for this, but a sharp knife works just fine. Keep the slices as even as possible, so they ll cook at the same speed.
3. Remove any seeds as you go, but you can leave the husky core in.
4. Place apple slices onto a wire rack and then onto a baking tray.
5. Roast for 2 hours at 100C or until the apples look dried. They will still be a little chewy.
In theory these will keep for about a week in the refrigerator but mine never last longer than the day they are made!

How is this recipe planet friendly?

• It’s vegetarian and could even be vegan if you use soy milk.  Not every breakfast needs bacon!
• It’s made from whole foods, not chemicals.
• The apples are tastier, and prettier if they are kept unpeeled.  The added bonus is a reduction in food waste.

The first change I made was to use a lemon and a lime, because a few people had said the mixture was a little dry with just the lemon.
Next, because I try not to use paper cases, I decided instead to grease the muffin tin with butter then used a pastry brush to dust lemon zest around the tin. So far, so good. The next alteration involved mixing a little vinegar into milk and letting it sit for a few minutes to create buttermilk. I forget to use leftover buttermilk until it’s truly sour, so I think this way is a little less wasteful for me.
From there, I followed directions. Melt the butter to brown and allow to cool. OK, I can do that. Then, mix dry ingredients in one bowl, wet ingredients in another, and gently fold together. Done, and done. Into the oven, oddly only filling ten muffin holes rather than twelve. Bake for fifteen minutes. Not quite brown, so I decide to leave them in, just a little longer…..Uh Oh. That’s when I notice the saucepan full of carefully cooled brown butter.
It’s too late to mix it in now. So after pulling them out of the oven, I twist one out of the tin. They come out easily so at least one modification has come out alright. I toss it from one hand to the other waiting for it to cool down enough to eat. Nope, too impatient. I tear the muffin open, releasing a vanilla and lime scented steam. It’s cooked through, the crumb looks great and it tastes, lemon-y, light and fluffy. So while I wouldn’t recommend leaving out a major ingredient, don’t feel like the recipe is ruined if you do!

Have you ever left a major ingredient out of a recipe? What happened?

Lemon, Lime and Poppy seed muffins
Makes 10-12 regular sized muffins

One lemon, zested and juiced
One lime, zested and juiced
2/3 cup sugar
2 cups plain flour
2 teasp baking powder
1/4 teasp baking soda
1/4 teasp salt
3/4 cup buttermilk ( Or mix 2 teasp white vinegar into 3/4 cup milk and allow to sit for 5 minutes)
2 large free range or organic eggs
1 teasp vanilla extract
115 g ( one stick) butter, melted until brown then cooled (optional as it turns out )
2 tablespoons poppy seeds

To glaze
1/cup icing sugar (powdered sugar)
1 -2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice

1. Preheat oven to 200C (400F).
2. Melt the butter to brown and allow to cool. Put it somewhere obvious so you won’t forget it later!
3. Grease a muffin tin, then using a pastry brush, paint the holes with the grated lemon and lime zest. Shake off any excess zest into the bowl with the sugar, and mix together. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt to this bowl.
4. Whisk eggs together in another bowl. Add the butter, buttermilk, lemon juice and vanilla to the eggs and whisk to combine.
5. Fold wet ingredients gently into dry ingredients. When almost completely combined, add the poppy seeds.
6. Pour mixture into muffin tins until 3/4 full, then place in the oven at 200C (400F) for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted in the muffin comes out clean.
7. Allow to cool for five minutes in the tin, then transfer to a wire rack.
8. Combine icing sugar and a little lemon juice to make a thin mixture and glaze the cooled muffins with this.

How is this recipe planet friendly?

• Lemons and limes are in season
• I’ve chosen organic eggs to cook with
• I’ve reduced packaging by buttering the muffin tins instead of using non-recyclable paper liners