My First Amazing Broth: Lamb

I feel like I'm writing a 5-year-old's diary entry entitled: "My First Tooth", except they probably spelled it "toof" instead of "tooth", since they probably just lost the tooth(f?) required to properly pronounce the word and are therefore misspelling it.

Well, I put a bit more effort into making this broth than most kids put into losing their teeth. I mean, sure, some wrap string around it, tie it to a wagon and push the wagon away from them as hard as they can, but that's definitely the minority of the child population. I suppose most grown-up people don't put as much as effort into making broth as I did either. Maybe me and that crying, toothless kid have more in common than I thought. That does not make me like them more, children.

Anyway, I turned to Bonnie Stern to make this broth. Well, I turned to Bonnie Stern and one of my many, friendly neighbourhood butchers. Between the two of them my broth came out alright. More than alright - it came out amazingly well.

The trick is to brown the bones. Bonnie gives 4 stock recipes in her book "Heartsmart Cooking", but beef broth is the only one where the bones gets browned. This gives a dark, rich, caramelized stock.

This recipe took a grand total of 10 and a half hours. Unless you're okay with leaving your stove on a simmer while you're not in the house, this is a tricky one, but it's completely worth it.

I took 3 lbs of lamb bones (but you can use beef, goat, ox, mutton, bison, boar, or anything big and meaty) and put them in a large roasting pan. Then they went into the preheated 425 degree Fahrenheit oven for 1 1/2 hours. It felt weird roasting something for this long knowing I wasn't going to get to eat it when it came out. I turned the bones over halfway through to brown the underside as well, though it didn't say to do so. Then to the roasting pan I added 2 large onions, cut in big chunks, along with some frozen vegetable trimmings I store in the freezer - bottoms of asparagus and peels of carrots. They had defrosted in the fridge and I'd drained the liquid from them a little. This all got browned another 30 minutes.

Now the important part: The contents of the roasting pan were carefully removed to a large pot. There was SO much fat already from the bones, and some of that went in too. I rest the left for a minute so I could use the liquid to help scrape the roasted bits of lamb off the bottom and sides of the roasting pan - this is the flavour. Then the scraped bits went into the big pot along with the rest of the fat from the pan. This saves the trouble of adding boiling water to the roasting pan to scrape off the browned bits.

Then the bones and vegetables in the pot got covered with cold water. I really don't know how much I added...maybe 12 cups or more? I estimated on the side of slightly too much water, just because it's easier to reduce than to add more water as the broth simmers.

The broth came to a boil, and I skimmed the scum from the top of the pot. Then I added 2 bay leaves, 6 whole peppercorns, 3 cloves, 4 cardamom pods, and 4 whole coriander seeds. The recipe just calls for 1/2 tsp dried thyme along with the black pepper, but since I was making this specifically for the lamb curry I figured it would be better to enhance the spices that were already in that dish.

Now the only problem with the recipe is it doesn't say whether or not to cover the broth after you reduce the heat to let it simmer. I mean, you don't want it covered, since you want the flavour to concentrate and some of the liquid to evaporate, but you don't want to leave it uncovered for 8-10 hours or way too much water will boil off. I've burnt stock before by completely forgetting about it for half a day. It's a very sad, labour-intensive disaster.

So I decided to put on a cover, but leave it slightly ajar, and monitor that it kept a simmer but also kept enough liquid in the pot the whole time.

A very long day later (8 hours...I couldn't bear to wait another 2), I strained off the vegetables and bones. I wasn't going to taste it yet. I would reduce it the next day, before I needed it for the lamb.
So it got put in the fridge, and the next day when I brought it back out on the counter a thick layer of fat had accumulated on top of the broth. This is why I left all the fat in it from the roasting pan - it actually makes it easier to strain it off when there's more of it. It just peels off like a layer of jelly. I now have 500mL (half an ice cream container) of lamb fat in my freezer. I am SO excited to make some roasted potatoes...people swear that everything tastes better in duck fat, but I swear that EVERYTHING tastes better in spice-infused lamb fat. Au Pied de Cochon should be approaching me, asking to buy my lamb fat. It's that good. It would sell like hotcakes on their $100 and god-knows-how-much tasting menu. If you want to hire me for catering, I am significantly less expensive. I will do a small dinner for you and your friends for $40 a person incorporating the lamb fat...I'm thinking roasted new potatoes (they're finally out this summer!), wild mushrooms, and grilled lamb...maybe some confit cherry tomatoes...

ANYWAY! I ended up reducing the broth (just bringing it to a boil, and letting it boil gently) to about 7 cups. I used just 1/2 cup in the lamb curry recipe, and am saving the rest for the best noodle soups ever. I have home-made gluten-free fusilli just begging to be simmered in something rich. My own personal pho'. No, it's not the same, but it will be delicious.