Recipes for Excellent Broth
Please make sure that all your meat is free range, organic, wild caught, all your vegetables are organic as can be & your salt is not processed. Sea salt is best and comes in all kinds of colors with different mineral contents.
The broth can cook slow and low like a true chef does it, or you can do it like I did when I started making them and used a pressure cooker. When slow cooking, you might need to add extra water along the way if it the liquid boils off too quickly. Some weeks I leave the a pot or two of broth on the stove for 3 or 4 days turning it on when I’m home and making the richest broth.
For all the broths, if you want to have plain broth (used during the cleanse and for certain recipes) just keep the meat for later use in soup version of a dish, but be sure to return fat and cartilage to all your broths. If you haven’t been eating enough fat in your diet you might have to skim it a bit at first but used the skim fat for other cooking. As your metabolism, gall bladder function and digestive power increases the fat will be a powerful fuel for your heart and brain.
For GAPS diet and healing your GI tract return the solids to the broth and blend it to eat for each meal. For creating soups and other recipes the meat cartilage and fat can be added back into the broth as you make soup with the vegetables & other ingredients you are using.
Beef Bone Broth
4 litres of cool water
3 lbs beef soup bones
2 ribs of celery
2 carrots
2 onions peeled & quartered
4 cloves
3 garlic clove
bay leaf
parsley sprig
rind of one lemon
a few pepper corns
salt
Begin by cooking the bones in water and bring to a very slow simmer. Skim any impurities off the top and add vegetables, herbs and spices. Cover and cook at a low temperature for 6 hours. Or, if you want the best results and you are preparing your broth in advance, leave on the stove top for several days, cooking when you are home at a low heat.
Remove from the heat, add salt and strain. Keep the meat solids, cartilage and any fat to return to the broth. If I use a pressure cooker, I cook it twice before I strain it.
Thai Chicken Broth
4 litres of water
Carcass of one chicken, 4 chicken backs, or about one and a half pounds of chicken bones+ skin or the same of wings
1 onion peeled & quartered
2 celery ribs
2 cloves of garlic
1 inch piece of ginger
tablespoon coriander seeds
3 springs of cilantro or coriander
black pepper corns
salt
Place all the ingredients together in a pot except the salt. Cook in the pressure cooker for 30 min or the stovetop for 4 hours at a simmer. Or cook for 3 or 4 days on the stovetop as mentioned above. When done with cooking add salt to taste. Strain when cool enough, but still warm. When cool enough to handle pick the meat, fat and cartilage off the bones. If using for healing, return solids the broth and blend. Eat or freeze.
Japanese Pork Broth Recipe
4 litres of water/twice
1 ham hock fresh (usually frozen) not smoked
2 inch piece of kombu seaweed
2 sprigs of cilantro
1 medium leek cut into rounds
5 cloves of garlic whole unpeeled
2 inch piece of ginger sliced
pepper corns black or white
Boil the ham hock once until no longer red. Toss the first round of water & rinse ham. Cook again for 30 mins skimming impurities off the top. For a delicious rich flavor, fry the garlic (skin on), leek & ginger in lard until browned.
Place all the ingredients together in a pot except the salt. Cook in the pressure cooker for 40 min or the stove top for 6 hours at a simmer. Because pork is a dense meat & the bone is very thick, an extra round of cooking in the pressure cooker always works well for this broth.
When done with cooking add salt to taste. Strain when cool enough but still warm. Ham hock has a thick skin which needs to be removed. When cool enough to handle pick the meat, fat and cartilage off the bones and put into the broth and blend or add to soup you are making. Eat or freeze.
Fish Stock
4 litres of cool water
3 table spoons butter
1 carrot sliced
1 onion peeled & sliced
1 celery rib sliced
6 parsley sprgs
6 thyme sprigs or 3 rosemary sprigs
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
2 lbs of fish heads or collars with fins
salt
Saute the carrots, onions & celery in butter until soft & fragrant about 5 mins. Add the herbs & again cook until fragrant about another 5 mins. Place the fish parts on top of vegetables & cover with water. Cook for 40 minutes to an hour, skimming occasionally. I often cook my fish broth for several days like the others, but then the meat is very well done.
Strain when cool and collect bits of meat if possible and add salt. In Asia we eat the meat off the head and collar as a specialty.
Enjoy!