Culinary Technique - Broth, Bouillon

Why use bouillon cubes when you can prepare your own broth? Vegetable broth makes an excellent base for soups, sauces, risottos and other recipes. And a cup of steaming broth is always comforting! The basic vegetables used to make broth are leeks, carrots, celery, onions, or indeed any vegetables you might have at home, to which you add a bouquet garni made with, as a minimum, thyme, bay leaf and parsley. Making your own bouillon is a great way to use up left-over raw vegetables, but you can also use packaged pre-cut vegetables. 

Preparing broth is very easy: Chop up the vegetables, sauté them lightly in a bit of oil or cooking fat, without browning. You can deglaze if needed with a bit of white wine. Fill a pot with a good amount of water, add the vegetables and bring to a boil; then lower the heat and simmer for an hour. Some recipes call for shorter cooking times, but broth really needs time to bring out the flavours. Remove the vegetables, season to taste and let cool. You can prepare a large amount of broth and freeze it in covered containers or bottles. This way you’ll always have handy a delicious base for all sorts of recipes. Whenever you boil or blanch vegetables, this produces a broth. Don’t discard it: it can serve as a base for a sauce or for soup.