The Magic of Broths is a slim yet comprehensive guide to broths, actually broths and stocks. What is the difference? Stocks are always made with bones, broths may have meat included but can be made from veggies alone.
There is a hot trend now for broths. Some sports teams, like the LA Lakers, have added them to the players’ diet. [No, the Lakers did not make the playoffs, but that was not the fault of the broths.] Articles are appearing the food sections of newspapers around the country as people discover the potential of simple ingredients cooked for hours and hours.
Why the interest? Broths are healthy, low in salt and fat. Homemade broths are especially healthy. That store-bought broth sitting on your shelf has a number of ingredients, for flavor and preservation, that don’t appear in the recipes in this book. By itself, a broth can be an interesting meal, affording both flavor and sense of substance. More importantly, a broth can be the basis for a dish of complexity that is rich in texture and ingredients.
The Magic of Broth follows both those paths. The 60 recipes here cover broths made from veggies to foot to feather to scale:
- Vegetables
- Beef
- Pork
- Chicken and Duck
- Fish
Each chapter begins, naturally, with the core recipe for the pure broth. When you see the recipes, you’ll realize that just the broth itself will be delightful. The recipe for beef broth begins with 6 pounds of marrow bones, but also includes: beef scraps, oxtail scraps, shallots, garlic, leek, celery, carrots, turnips, parsley, bay, thyme, tomato paste, vinegar and mushroom powder. That is no simple liquid.
But beginning with that beef broth, the ideas expand here:
Simple Beef Borscht with Potatoes, Beets, and Brandy
Pho from Vietnam
Beef Broth with Chestnuts
Beef Brisket, Grains and Chard
Chinese Noodle Hotpot with Beef, Edamame, and Star Anise
Pea and Barley Beef Broth
All these recipes begin with that original rich beef stock and augment the stock with ideas from around the world. Author Nick Sander has married a woman who is Chinese Malaysian, a person who grew up with broth on a daily basis. And now Nick and their children are daily broth consumers, too.
Broth can be enjoyed in any meal of the day. Broths can easily carry the load as the main dish. Here’s a picture of an example, Waterzooi, a Flemish soup made with chicken stock, salmon, mussels, and loads of vegetables. Plus, Dijon mustard, crème fraiche, egg yolks, and caraway. This dish is a cavalcade of flavors and so typical of the lovely recipes you will encounter in The Magic of Broths. You can treat this book as a template, create the core stocks, and then just let your imagination fly. Open up your fridge, dig out proteins and vegetables and fashion your own grand meals. This really is magic.
