I had a kitchen epiphany this week. Or
rather, an unepiphany.
You see, I am a big Jamie Oliver person. I
know it’s not very cool to admit to this – especially in foodie circles – but I
just adore his boyish grin, obsession with school dinners and his penchant for
wrapping things in pancetta. I also love that he has turned out to be such a
familified sort.
Basically, when Jamie talks I listen.
So when he told me that homemade stock was
‘easy and delish!’ …. I believed the bastard.
For around 2 years now, I have been buying
and roasting whole chickens, despite not being big on meat on the bone. I have
been dutifully freezing their carcasses until I have a couple, and then I have
been bunging them into a giant stock pot I purchased specifically for this
purpose. I’ve tossed in all the relevant veg, I have lovingly tied up little
bouquet garni with string, I have simmered and simmered and simmered some more,
I have patiently sieved off the fat.
And you know what? My homemade chicken
stock is NOT ‘the only way to go’, Jamie. My homemade chicken stock sucks. It’s
tasteless and bland and it ruins my soups. So there.
Luckily, the kitchen gods obviously got
tired of listening to a petulant sweaty-faced me turning the air about my stove
bluer than Bridget Jones’s soup, because last week, the lovely folk at NoMU
sent me a bottle of their chicken fond
to try.
Maybe it’s because it has a fancy name, or
because it’s already liquid or because I felt occupationally obliged… but
readers, I fell on this fond with a fervour that was almost unseemly. And for
the first time in what feels like forever, actually turned out a decent chicken
soup.
So it is with much delight that I turn my
back on homemade stock forever… This realisation has made me so happy that I
am hungry for more.
Are there other mean-spirited kitchen myths
out there that need if debunking? Please, dearest readers, please… email us
instantly and share. You might immeasurably improve some cook’s kitchen
experience. And we’ll throw in a R250 Kalahari voucher to boot.
Stockily yours,