Broth is a great base for preparing first courses. It is cooked from meat, fish, poultry, vegetables or mushrooms with the addition of a small amount of spices and roots. It is easily absorbed by the human body and is recommended for dietary nutrition. In today's article, we will consider the main subtleties and recipes for cooking broths.
The basis
Fresh water is needed to make a beautiful broth. All ingredients are recommended to be placed in a cold liquid. Thanks to this, it is possible to achieve partial, and sometimes complete digestion of the nutrients contained in meat and vegetables. In addition, a gradual increase in temperature minimizes the amount of coagulated protein, due to which young housewives often get a cloudy broth.
It is important that the water completely covers the foods in the pan. Therefore, as the liquid evaporates, it must be refilled to its original level.
Scale and fat
To avoid the formation of foam, it is advisable to cook the broth on the smallest fire. In the process of heating from the surface of the liquid, it is necessary to carefully remove the scale that appears as a result of folding proteins contained in meat or fish. And you need to do this not only at the beginning of cooking, but also throughout the entire process of preparing the brew.
A broth is a clear, transparent liquid. So that she does not darken, she should not be allowed to boil violently. For the same reasons, you should get rid of the surface fat. Otherwise, it will begin to interact with the minerals contained in the broth, and give it an unpleasant greasy taste.
Vegetables and spices
More often, the so-called French mixture is used to prepare meat or fish broths. It consists of celery, carrots and onions, taken in a ratio of 1: 1: 2. This seasoning enriches the taste of the finished broth without interrupting the aroma of the main component. Therefore, two celery stalks, as well as a small onion and carrot, are enough to put on a two-liter pan.
To get a tasty broth, peppercorns, bay leaves and various herbs are added to it. Usually, thyme twigs, parsley stalks and leeks are used. Small seeds are placed in a clean cloth bag and only then immersed in a pot of boiling liquid.
Is it necessary to add salt and filter the broth?
The answer to these questions depends on the purpose for which the ready-made broth will be used. If it becomes the basis for the sauce, then you need to add a little salt to it. And it is advisable to do this shortly before the completion of cooking. Thanks to this trick, you can prevent overfilling, often resulting from the evaporation of part of the liquid.
To get a clear, regular broth, it must be filtered. Usually they use pure gauze folded in several layers. Before starting the process, solids are removed from the pan. Navar is poured onto the filter with the help of a ladle, trying to act as carefully as possible so as not to balamute the sediment at the bottom of the tank.
Cooking Use and Storage
A broth is not only a great option for a light first course, which goes well with crackers or croutons, but also a good basis for creating risottos, soups and various sauces. It is added to minced meat and pasta dressing. Bulgur, couscous, buckwheat and other cereals are cooked on it.
The broth is considered a universal home-cooked product, subject to long-term storage. So, in frozen form, he does not lose his taste for six months. To do this, it is poured into special forms or glass jars and used as necessary. Having a supply of frozen broth, you can quickly reproduce the recipe for soup in beef broth or cook rich borsch. It can be stored in the refrigerator for no longer than seven days. But already on the third day it must be boiled over. It is also worth remembering that the Navar, subjected to repeated heating, lose part of their taste. Therefore, it is desirable to cook them in small portions.
Egg broth
Using the technology described below, a complete first course is obtained, which is suitable for both an adult and a children's menu. To prepare it you will need:
- 3 liters of water.
- 800 grams of meat on the bone.
- Parsley root.
- A stalk of celery.
- A whole carrot.
- 4 peas of black pepper.
- Salt (to taste).
All this is necessary to cook the broth itself. To prepare the side dish in the above list will have to add:
- 4 eggs.
- 4 slices of stale white bread.
- 4 tablespoons of vinegar and shabby cheese.
- Greens.
The washed meat is laid out in a pan, poured with water and brought to a boil. All this is cooked on the slowest fire for an hour and a half, without being lazy to periodically remove the emerging foam. For flavor, carrots and roots are added to the future broth. Shortly before the completion of the process, onion rings and carrot slices, previously baked in the oven or browned in a dry skillet, are loaded into boiling liquid. Salt and peppercorns are added there.
While preparing meat broth, you can do the rest of the components. Slices of hardened white bread are fried in a toaster and cleaned to the side. The required amount of vinegar is poured into a separate saucepan filled with boiling water, a funnel is twisted and eggs are introduced one at a time. After four minutes, they are removed using a slotted spoon from the vessel and left to drain residual liquid from them.
Meanwhile, meat is pulled out of the broth, separated from the bone and cut into pieces. Navar is poured into deep plates, sprinkled with cubes of fried bread, grated cheese and chopped herbs. Serve broth with poached eggs exclusively in hot form. After cooling, it loses most of its taste.
Mushroom broth
To prepare such a brew, it is undesirable to use boletus and boletus. Because it is they who give the ugly, dark broth. To cook an aromatic base for a light soup, you will need:
- 2 liters of water.
- 50 grams of dried mushrooms.
- A whole onion.
- Parsley root.
- 2 carrots.
Thoroughly washed mushrooms are soaked in water and left for four hours. As soon as they swell, they are rinsed again under the tap and put in a suitable saucepan. Mushrooms are poured with two liters of filtered water and placed on a stove. After boiling the liquid, coarsely chopped vegetables and roots are loaded into it. All this is boiled for forty minutes. The resulting broth is drained, defended and filtered. The mushrooms are washed with cold water, finely chopped and used to make soup or cabbage soup on the broth. In this case, they are added to the pan a quarter of an hour before the end of cooking the aromatic first course.
Beef broth
This broth is prepared according to a very simple technology, involving the use of a minimum grocery set. In this case, you will need:
- 1.5 kilograms of beef (shoulder blade or shank).
- 2 carrots.
- 3 sprigs of celery.
- 2 onions.
- A dozen peas of black pepper.
Broth is the basis for preparing nutritious and easily digestible meals. To obtain it, you must adhere to the technology described below. The washed meat is placed in a pan filled with water and sent to the stove. As soon as bubbles appear on the surface of the liquid, foam is removed from it and wait about five minutes. Then the water in the pan is changed to clean and again brought to a boil.
After a few minutes, celery branches are loaded into a common container. Halves of carrots and onions, previously fried in a dry hot pan, are sent there. All this is languishing over minimal heat until the meat begins to freely separate from the bones. Fifteen minutes before the completion of the process, peppercorns are added to the pan. In the future, the broth can be used to make soup on beef broth, a recipe for which any experienced housewife has. For greater satiety, pasta or cereals are added to it.