The start of something beautiful

You can go the whole hog and make your own stock. But if you don’t have the time or energy, Knorr liquid stock does a pretty good job, without tasty salty or synthetic. If you are going ahead with homemade, do it now and freeze it. If your family is anything like mine, you’ll need tons of gravy anyway. You can pick up turkey wings or legs cheaply from the supermarket. If you can’t find turkey, use chicken thighs and drumsticks as I’ve done here.

Makes: Approx 800ml
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: overnight in low oven 
Shelf Life: 4 days in fridge. 3 months in freezer

Ingredients:
1.5-2kg turkey wings/legs or chicken thighs & drumsticks
3 carrots
2 sticks celery
2 onions
3 bay leaves
handful of allspice or juniper berries
1 tsp black peppercorns
large handful each of fresh sage and thyme

Here’s What You Do:
Roast the wings or legs in a moderate oven – 180C/Gas 4 for ¾ hour
(1 hour for turkey)

Meanwhile prepare and roughly chop the vegetables into small chunks.

After ¾-1 hour and the turkey/chicken skin is golden brown, take the roasting tin out the oven, strain off any fat and reserve it in a small pot
(you will use this later for the gravy) and leave the oven on.

Fill the kettle and put on to boil.

Scatter the vegetables around the meat, add a handful of allspice berries and or juniper berries, some peppercorns, bay leaves and fresh herbs.

Pour 2 litres of boiling water over the meat and vegetables and place the roasting tin on the hob over a high heat to boil for 5 minutes.

Bubble! Bubble! Without The Toil & Trouble...

After 30 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to its lowest setting and leave the stock uncovered still, to cook very gently – the water should be barely moving –  for a good 12 hours or overnight.

Then, when the stock is cooked, fish out the meat and vegetables as best you can, then strain through a sieve and leave to cool .

Skim off any fat and freeze both the stock and the reserved fat until needed.