Introduction:
Stock is the magic in the kitchen; it’s the process of turning waste in to wealth. You have your fish and chicken stocks which are the nice little quaint ones that dance around on their tip-toes delicately displaying their dainty flavour profiles. Imagine them to be the Enya of the stock world.
Now let’s bring in some heavy grungy rock and forthrightly introduce the big boy of the stock world – veal. This stock swans around grunting and growling letting all and sundry know that if he’s on your plate he will steal the show.
For all the grace and finesse of the French they do love to let their Gallic hair down and get serious with some really big flavour; and our veal stock will do this in spades. He may initially seem just a step up in flavour from monsieur poulet, but get him bubbling and simmering for a while and he turns in to demi-glace, a blindingly meaty, complex and startlingly fine sauce base. If you want to turn him into some thrash metal god that will do to your taste buds what the music will to your ears and head then reduce him further and you’ve got the king; the glace.
For all its bravado however, leaving the veal stock unreduced highlights its versatility as it delivers finesse and subtlety, especially in fish sauces. The veal stock here can be used for gentle sauces or reduced down to a demi-glace or glace.
