Tag Archives: Walter Trupp

Energise and Alkalise Your Body

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By Dorota Trupp, Nutritionist

Hello. I hope you’re all having a great week. Here is a little energiser that I thought you would all appreciate!.

Alkaline Avocado Power Shake

 

Alkaline Avocado Power – Shake

Ingredients:
1 cucumber
2 tomatoes
1 avocado
1 handful spinach leaves
1 lime
½ red capsicums
250ml vegetable stock
1 tablespoon flaxseed oil

Method:
Wash all of the ingredients thoroughly and then chop the cucumber, tomato, pepper and avocado roughly. Place with the avocado in the blender and mix into a paste.

This recipe comes from our ‘Energise and Alkalise Your Body’ cooking course, in which we discuss the pros and cons of an alkalising diet. For those of you who have found themselves wondering what this fashionable diet is all about, here’s a brief explanation.

The alkalising diet is based on the belief that certain foods, when consumed, leave an alkaline residue, or ‘ash’, in the body. Elements such as calcium, iron, magnesium and zinc are said to be the principal components of this ash, which helps to maintain your alkaline–acid balance. This is important because eating too many acid-producing foods can affect your body’s ability to fix damaged cells and absorb nutrients, as well as your overall energy levels. The general rule is that your diet should comprise 70–80 per cent alkaline foods and 20–30 per cent acidic foods.

The alkalising diet is perfect for those people who want a gentle clean-out of their body to help them regain energy and lose weight. Some proclaim that the alkalising diet also can cure or prevent many illnesses and physical complaints, including allergies, osteoporosis, even cancer. The proponents of the alkalising diet include Robert O. Young, Edgar Cayce, D.C. Jarvis and Herman Aihara. A similar diet called the Hay diet was developed by the American physician William Howard Hay in the 1920s.

In general, the alkalising diet involves eating certain fresh citrus and other low-sugar fruits, vegetables, tubers, nuts and some grains and legumes. It also involves restricting dairy, meat, sugar, alcohol, caffeine and fungi intake.

Have I tried this diet? Yes, I have. I have applied it over the course of six weeks and it helped me to lose some weight. I haven’t lasted on it longer since it is not a diet that agrees with my constitution – namely yin, a ‘cold and deficient’ type of constitution that uses food to get warmed up. But I can see it working for longer periods for those who have the opposite constitution to mine – yang, a ‘hot’ type of constitution that uses food to chill down and usually leans towards a mainly plant-based (vegetarian) diet.

Who shouldn’t consider the diet at all? Prospective parents and nursing mothers – those require “building” type of the diet that would be higher in animal sourced protein, fats and dairy.

Energise and Alkalise Your Body Cooking Class

Latest Gossip @ Trupp Cooking School

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It was wonderful to see Marco Pierre White while he was in Melbourne shooting MasterChef: The Professionals.

Walter was head chef of Marco’s restaurant group back in London, and seeing him brought back some great memories!

In fact, this was when we first met each other, while working together at Marco’s The Criterion Restaurant in London, Piccadilly back in 2001.

Marco Pierre White, Dorota & Walter Trupp

We also had the pleasure of seeing Matt Preston. We first met Matt 10 years ago, just after arriving in Melbourne. Back then, Walter was head chef at Langton’s Restaurant and Matt was a food critic who judged Walter’s creations! We are so happy to see him achieve success, hosting such a prestigious and popular TV show!

Dorota Trupp, Walter Trupp and Matt Preston

You can tell we had lots of fun at MasterChef : The Professionals TV Studio!

MasterChef Kitchen

How to make Probiotic Foods

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‘Heal your gut with the lost art of fermentation & probiotic foods’ cooking course on the recent set of HealthTALKS TV show.

By Walter & Dorota Trupp

A few weeks ago, Trupp Cooking School had the great pleasure of working with the inspiring team from HealthTALKS, a Melbourne-based TV show that delivers holistic health information that you just won’t find anywhere else. With their help, we recorded a segment in which we share some exciting information about probiotics and fermented foods, and we present it here for you. Many thanks to the HealthTALKS crew for this wonderful opportunity to tell you about the key ideas from one of our bestselling classes. Enjoy it!

This new video follows up the Dorota Trupp video interview with Dr Natalie Kringoudis and Melissa Ambrosini which we posted a few weeks ago, accompanied by a blog post that made you aware of how important it is to keep your gut in shape, and explained how you can easily accomplish this by introducing fermented foods into your diet. You can check that out here.

In addition to this, Walter Trupp, who is one of the top fine-dining chefs in the industry, as well as an in-demand cooking teacher, has put his extensive knowledge to work in the following post to show you just how easy it is to prepare delicious probiotic drinks. (For an in-depth lesson in the preparation of fermented foods, enrol yourself in Trupp Cooking School’s renowned Heal your gut with the lost art of fermentation & probiotic foods course.)

Milk kefir

Milk Kefir

To source a key ingredient for this drink online, google “milk kefir grains”. Alternatively, your local chemist may be able to source it for you. You’ll also need raw milk, which is often disguised as bath milk in health food stores and fresh food markets; if you can’t find any, use non-homogenised full-fat cow’s milk or goat’s milk. (You may try Margaret Blackney 03 5282 1831 or 0425 711 601 at margblack@optusnet.com.au) 

Combine the kefir grains and the milk in a ceramic or glass jar and let the uncovered mixture sit for about 24 hours at room temperature – during summer, it may only need to sit for 12 hours, while in winter, it may have to sit for up to 48 hours. This fermentation process encourages bacteria that will ensure that, even though the liquid is unrefrigerated, it is very safe to drink and will not make you sick. Actually, the opposite will take a place. Its a very healthy drink.

After fermentation, separate the bacteria from the kefir and store it within fresh milk in the fridge until you need it again. Refrigeration will slow the fermentation process down, allowing the bacteria to last for several weeks.

Kombucha – fermented tea

Kambucha Tea (right) and Water Kefir (left)Obtain SCOBY, which stands for symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast. Again, you can do an online search or ask your local chemist for help.

Brew any kind of tea (except peppermint or Earl Grey) and add brown sugar until it tastes really sweet; do not use honey. Pour the tea into a ceramic or glass jar, allow it to cool, and then add the bacteria. Now let it sit and ferment for two weeks until it is no longer so sweet. Kombucha is sugar-free because this substance will disappear during the fermentation process, so this is how you can tell when it’s ready.

Water kefir

Water Kefir

Obtain water kefir crystals online or with the help of your local chemist. In a ceramic or glass jar, combine them with filtered water, half a sterilised eggshell (this will feed the bacteria the necessary minerals), brown sugar, a little baking soda and, for flavour, sliced lemon or dried fruit. Let the mixture ferment for between 24 and 36 hours.

Probiotics and Fermented Foods

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‘Heal your gut with the lost art of fermentation & probiotic foods’ cooking course on the recent set of HealthTALKS TV show.

By Dorota Trupp, Nutritionist

Probiotic foods are fermented foods. They are rich in what are commonly called probiotic bacteria, which appear to have a very beneficial effect on our digestive tracts.

We each carry anywhere from 1.5– 3 litres of bacteria in our guts, which act as a protective barrier between the food we ingest and the intestinal wall. In fact, every centimetre of our intestines has a thick bacterial lining. The importance of this lining has been revealed by studies in which an animal’s gut has been sterilised (the bacteria destroyed), with fatal consequences.

According to Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride, who specialises in the nutritional treatment of disease, particularly in relation to the gut, our bacterial bands counter invasive, pathogenic microorganisms by producing antibiotic-like substances that have antifungal and antiviral characteristics. In addition, by producing organic acids, the beneficial bacteria reduce the alkalinity of the gut. This creates an uncomfortably acidic environment for the ‘bad’ microbes, which severely limits their growth and activity.

Our healthy indigenous bacteria also have the ability to neutralise many harmful chemicals and chelate heavy metals. The walls of their cells absorb many carcinogens, which are the basis of all cancer formation.

Probiotic foods have been consumed by humans for almost as long as we’ve existed. This is because fermentation is one of the simplest ways of preserving food. But with the invention of the icebox and the fridge, the need for fermentation tailed off. This is unfortunate, because when we look at the composition of the beneficial bacteria that we carry in out guts, we discover that it matches the composition of many strains of fermented foods. In other words, fermented foods supply us with a key element of our health.

This is very important considering how easily our gut bacteria can be depleted. Antibiotics, stress, too much sugar, environmental toxins and a diet high in processed foods all have a negative impact on the beneficial bacteria in our guts, essentially killing them off. When this happens – let’s say because of a course of antibiotics – then there is an opportunity for pathogenic flora to develop and take charge in our digestive tracts; this is what happens, for example, in people who experience candida overgrowth. If the health-protecting gut flora isn’t quickly re-established, any number of digestive problems will arise, as well as nutritional deficiencies, food intolerances and even immune system disorders. This is where probiotics-rich fermented foods come in, helping to restore the bacterial balance in the gut.

When you purchase fermented food, remember to check the label to make sure it hasn’t been pasteurised – only buy unpasteurised products.

If you want to ensure a healthy gut, you should consider adding fermented foods to your diet. Among the many benefits of fermented foods is the fact that they are high in probiotics, or ‘good bacteria’, which can dramatically improve the state of your digestive system.

The best way to begin eating fermented foods is slowly – one spoonful of your preferred probiotic-rich food is enough to begin with. You can then gradually increase the amount you consume, so the next day you could have two spoonfuls, the following day three spoonfuls, and so on. In terms of probiotic drinks, such as kefir (fermented cow’s milk) and the tea-based kombucha, one to three cups a day will be sufficient to keep your body nourished with beneficial bacteria.

You need to take it slowly when you first try fermented foodstuffs because they are detoxifiers. Probiotics cause the ‘bad bacteria’ in your gut to break up and release their toxins into your bloodstream, which is known as a ‘die-off reaction’. The reason for gradually increasing how many probiotics you eat is to limit the amount of these toxins inside you and make it easier for your body to flush them out. The die-off reaction is why you may initially experience an unpleasant reaction to fermented foods. If this happens to you, just remember that this is a normal response to probiotics and is easily managed.

If you are thinking of purchasing raw fermented foods, you should know that it is illegal for retailers to sell these in Australia. So be prepared to be disappointed when you learn that the beautiful organic sauerkraut you just bought from your local health food store had to be pasteurised before being sold. Pasteurisation, of course, kills off all the probiotics, which means that the only way to get a good dose of good bacteria is to ferment food and drink yourself.

You may be discouraged upon hearing this, but it’s really not that difficult. You just need to familiarise yourself with the proper preparation methods and how the end product should look and taste. Fortunately, at Trupp Cooking School, we can guide you in making various fermented drinks and foods. We can also help you develop a specific dietary plan that will speed your recovery from digestive issues. For more information, check out the details of our bestselling ‘Heal your gut with the lost art of fermentation & probiotic foods’ cooking course on our calendar.

Look up the photo gallery from the previous sessions to see how much fun everyone had.

On the photo: Walter Trupp holding our home grown Kambucha Scoby. It has been with Trupp family for over 25 years!

Another option if you have a gut bacteria imbalance, which may involve symptoms of bloating, indigestion, uncomfortable bowel movements, and food allergies and/or intolerances, is to use a probiotic supplement. Give the conventional brands a miss, as their products are typically designed for people who have generally healthy digestive tracts. Instead, get the stronger, practitioner-brand probiotic supplements. These supplements are manufactured according to strict industry guidelines using powerful, condensed strains of various probiotic bacteria – exactly what you need in order to quickly and efficiently populate your compromised digestive tract with good bacteria. To get the best value for money, avoid chemists and supermarkets and check out the over-the-counter practitioner supplements sold in health food stores. They are usually pricy but are well worth the money – the knowledgeable sales assistants at dedicated health food stores can help you identify the authentic products.

Finally, a note on autism. 

Recent research has revealed that autistic children typically display a history of digestive issues, such as gastrointestinal tract inflammation, alongside their autistic symptoms and developmental delays. However, treatment that would ease digestive problems in these children is not always provided in the course of conventional autism therapies. This is extremely regrettable because resolving an autistic child’s digestive issues will likely improve their brain development and overall health. There have been countless documented cases around the world of families who have addressed the symptoms of autism through early implementation of biochemical treatment: a combination of a specific diet, nutritional supplements and, most importantly, probiotics such as those found in fermented foods. The probiotic foods are particularly important as they help to balance gut bacteria, which seems to be a major health problem in autistic children.

In fact, research suggests that the development of healthy gut flora and a strong digestive tract, together with a strong immune system, may prevent the onset of autism, which can develop at any time in the first three years of life. Why is this so? The digestive tract of a developing infant is supposed to be a source of nourishment. But when the child’s gut flora has not properly developed, or if the gut lining has been damaged by bad bacteria, the digestive tract becomes a major source of toxicity and malnutrition. A child can become deficient in key nutrients such as iron, zinc and B-group vitamins, which can impede brain development and together with the toxicity that comes from pathogenic bacteria activity it may result in an autistic condition.

Optimise your digestive health BEFORE you plan your family. On the photo Dorota Trupp 8 months pregnant with Sol

So here are some tips for those who are contemplating parenthood and for parents of young children:

– Prospective mothers: get yourselves screened for any digestive problems and heal your gut, preferably before you get pregnant. Mothers pass their gut bacterial composition to their children through the birth process and breastfeeding. Make sure you have a healthy bacterial composition to pass on.

– Mothers: breastfeed for as long as you can, as breast milk has been shown to protect infants against gut flora imbalances

– Include fermented foods in your family’s diet and if necessary use good-quality probiotic supplements

– Be wary of giving antibiotic treatments or vaccinations to children who have digestive issues, eczema and/or low immunity

– Test your child’s intestinal flora composition and, if necessary, fix any digestive issues asap using probiotics and a diet.

- Wach your child’s diet. Research suggests that excessive sugars in the diet contribute to increased propionic acid (a substance of trouble found in excess in autistic children) and gut problems in general.

For more information please contact me at trupp@bigpond.com

The Coconut Goodness

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By Dorota Trupp, Nutritionist

The coconut is a highly nutritious food, rich in fibre, vitamins and minerals. Furthermore, it is classified as a ‘functional food’ because it provides many health benefits beyond its nutritional value.

Coconut oil has been described as ‘the healthiest oil on earth’. What makes it so good? Well, nearly 50 per cent of the fat in coconut oil is of a type called lauric acid, which is rarely found in nature, though it does appear in breast milk. Lauric acid is regarded as a ‘miracle’ compound because of its unique health-promoting attributes, which include anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-protozoal properties when the substance is converted into monolaurin by our bodies.

Coconut oil is also nature’s richest source of medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs), which are also called medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs). MCFA/MCTs help lower the risk of both atherosclerosis and heart disease. They also boost your metabolism and help your body to use fat for energy, as opposed to storing it, so they can actually help you become leaner. That means coconut oil is beneficial to anyone who wants to undergo weight loss. This oil also has a positive effect on your skin when applied topically, as it has been found to have anti-ageing, regenerative effects. Indeed, it is for this reason that coconut oil is widely used in the cosmetics industry.

Coconut oil is extremely heat-stable, which makes it well-suited to cooking at high temperatures – this is why it is our number-one cooking oil at Trupp Cooking School. Because of its stability, it is also slow to oxidise and so is resistant to rancidity, lasting up to two years owing to its high saturated-fat content.

And let’s not forget coconut milk, which makes a wonderful replacement ingredient for people who are dairy intolerant. It works well in baking and tastes good when added to tea or coffee.

How to Open a Coconut?

Ingredients 
1 young coconut, husk removed

Equipment
Small knife
Cleaver or chef’s knife
Blender
Ice Cream Scoop (or stiff spatula)

Instructions:

Trim Away the Outer Skin 

Start by trimming away the soft skin from the top of the coconut with a sharp knife to expose the hard shell. The shell of the coconut is round, and you want to fully expose that hard, rounded dome on top of the coconut.

Open the Top of the Coconut 

Holding the coconut firmly, use a cleaver or chef’s knife to whack into the dome. Turn the coconut and repeat whacking until you have cracked the shell around all edges. You should be able to now peel or pull of the top of the shell.

Pour Out the Coconut Water

The coconut water from inside the coconut can be drunk on its own, used in baking, or blended into smoothies.

Scoop Out the Soft Coconut Flesh

Using an ice cream scoop or stiff spatula, scoop all the soft coconut flesh from inside the coconut. This can be eaten by on its own, used in baking, or blended into smoothies.

References 

Kaunitz H, Dayrit CS. Coconut oil consumption and coronary heart disease. Philippine Journal of Internal Medicine, 1992;30:165-171

St-Onge MP, Jones PJ. Greater rise in fat oxidation with medium-chain triglyceride consumption relative to long-chain triglyceride is associated with lower initial body weight and greater loss of subcutaneous adipose tissue, International Journal of Obesity & Related Metabolic Disorders, 2003 Dec;27(12):1565-71. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12975635

Everything You Need to Know about Prawns

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By Walter Trupp, Chef

The history of the prawn as a food source is an interesting but short one, as it was not a big part of the human diet until the 1950s, when the discovery of deep-water prawns in the Gulf of Mexico had a dramatic impact on the world of cooking. Before this, only the smaller cold-water prawns of the north Atlantic had been fished, mainly around Greenland and Scandinavia.

Today, approximately 30 different species of prawn are commercially fished. The largest, best-quality crustaceans are found in the coldest waters of the Pacific and the south Atlantic, down to a depth of about 800 metres. With their sweet, nutty flavour, they can attract higher prices than lobsters. The variety most commonly offered in Australia is the black tiger prawn, which is both caught in the wild and farmed. King prawns and leader prawns are the most expensive wild varieties, while banana, endeavour, red spot king and red tail prawns are generally cheaper.

Prawns are reproduction machines, with females producing up to 80,000 eggs yielding 3000 baby prawns at one time. The youngsters grow quickly and moult their shells at the monthly full moon, and some of these offspring reach a length of 35 centimetres. Because prawns reproduce so strongly, they do not fall into the category of unsustainable seafood, although the methods used to catch them result in huge amounts of by-catch (refers to the animals that are ‘mistakenly’ caught in nets along with the targeted species). Some commercial fishing operations use specialised nets known as turtle excluder devices, which allow these marine creatures to escape—if this is the case, it will be stated on the packaging of frozen prawns. Promisingly, a new type of net is being trialled in Spencer Gulf off South Australia that apparently results in no by-catch at all.

Farmed versus wild prawns

My opinion is that you should only eat wild, sustainably fished prawns, and here are some reasons why.

A few years ago, there was a ban in Australia on the importation of farmed prawns, which are bred in enormous water tanks here and in the Americas, as well as in the rice fields of tropical Asian countries. This was because they were said to be one of the most chemically polluted foods you can eat. The irony of this story is that acceptable Australian-farmed prawns that had been sent to Asia for processing (peeling etc.) were then not allowed back into the country, which makes you wonder why they weren’t just banned as well to begin with.

At the time, I came to know a local quarantine officer and I asked him to explain the ban. He told me that highly toxic chemicals such as antifungal/antifoaming agents were being used by cheaply run prawn farms to stop the tanks or rice fields from foaming up, which is what happens when prawns are forced to live in extremely cramped conditions. The quarantine officer also mentioned the use of sodium metabisulphite (or E223) to prevent the oxidisation and discolouration of the prawn shells. According to Asthma Australia, this agent is one of the most common chemical triggers for asthma, and has also been linked to cases of dermatitis and hay fever. Another preservative that can legally be added to prawns is 4-hexylresorcinol (E586), which is suspected of causing bowel irritation and harming organs such as the heart and liver.

All prawns contain at least one of the aforementioned preservatives, so I suggest that you always wash green (uncooked) prawns thoroughly under running water before peeling and cooking them, to get rid of any chemicals. I also suggest that, before buying uncooked prawns, rub some of them softly between your fingers—if they feel soapy (just imagine having some soap on your fingers), then they are covered with preservatives. Cooked prawns, on the other hand, often contain few or even no preservatives; I talk more about precooked prawns a little later on.

Getting back to the ban, importers quickly found a loophole they could exploit. The ban did not apply to marinated prawns, so companies simply added a bit of garlic, vegetable oil etc. to their product and so managed to get around the regulation. The whole thing quickly turned into a farce, with consumers never being told exactly what had happened.

Another reason why farmed prawns can be considered one of the dirtiest foods we eat is that the creatures are fed foodstuffs made mostly from fish and soy flours, similar to what is given to poultry and farmed fish. Some prawn farms also use large quantities of antibiotics, hormones and other chemicals such as food colouring—added to cooked prawns to give them a natural-looking bright red colour—which in many cases have serious adverse effects on local waterways, not to mention the prawns themselves. And because these farms are often located around agricultural operations, the prawns can be exposed to chemical run-off, which leads to the accumulation of heavy metals in their bodies.

This does not mean that all prawn farms are horrible, nor can it be said that farmed prawns from any particular country are worse (or better) than those that come from another country. It really comes down to the individual grower—Crystal Bay prawns based outside Port Douglas in Queensland, for example, grow a premium and clean product.

Buying and defrosting prawns

So how can you tell the difference between wild and farmed prawns? Firstly, there will be a huge price difference, as wild prawns often cost up to three times as much as farmed ones. Secondly, you will be left in no doubt as to which is the more natural product when you compare flavour and texture. Wild prawns are best described as crunchy, nutty, sweet and clean-tasting, whereas badly farmed prawns will remind you of well-chewed gum, lacking texture and with a soapy/plastic flavour.

When you are shopping for prawns, also keep in mind that size does not really matter. Generally, the larger prawns are more expensive simply because they are easier to peel and cook. Some people say they have a better texture and taste, but I don’t share this view. The taste will depend more on the prawn’s freshness and how you cook it. That said, it is true, as I mentioned earlier, that the larger prawns from deeper ocean waters are generally of better quality.

The catch date is an interesting issue. As prawn fishing seasons have short catch windows, you will often find that the pricey prawns you buy at Christmas are actually several weeks or months old. You can save yourself a bit of money by buying frozen prawns well before the festive season. Legally, frozen prawns can sit in the retailer’s freezer for up to 18 months. Also pay attention to the other information on the packaging, which can include details of whether a sustainable or non-sustainable catching method was used.

Wild prawns are mostly offered frozen—even the best restaurants in the world often have to use frozen product. This is because prawn trawlers often stay out at sea for long periods of time, until they have caught their quotas or filled their holds, and they immediately freeze their catch so it won’t spoil. This makes it extremely unlikely that you will ever be offered fresh wild prawns. Rather, any unfrozen wild prawns that you buy will already have been defrosted, which means you should not freeze them again. My advice is that if you aren’t going to eat the prawns straight away, buy them frozen and then defrost them yourself—you will end up with a much fresher product.

The secret to great-tasting prawns lies in how they have been defrosted. It is not a good idea to thaw prawns at room temperature as the outer cell tissue will defrost first and encourage the growth of bacteria, as well as drying the shell out. The best method is to cover the prawns and let them defrost slowly in your fridge over a period of between 36 to 48 hours. Of course, this is a very long time, and I know from my own experience that this is hardly ever feasible at home. So as an alternative, I suggest that to speed up the process, you wash the prawns really well under lukewarm water and then spread them over an oven tray and turn them over once or twice to stop them from drying out. This all takes around 2 to 3 hours and is perfectly safe.

You will find that a wild prawn will turn blackish within a few hours of being washed, but this is not really a problem. This is due to a lack of preservatives and does not mean the crustacean has gone ‘off’. The discolouration will more or less disappear once you cook the prawn.

A more unconventional but extremely effective method of defrosting is to wash and dry frozen prawns, then boil or roast them while they are still frozen. This minimises the defrosting process but means that you have to increase the cooking time to compensate.

Peeling and cooking prawns

Did you ever wonder where the real flavour of a prawn is hidden? It is in the head and shell and blossoms during cooking. If you’ve ever eaten a lobster or prawn bisque (a soup made only from shells), you will have experienced the flavour potential of crustacean shells.

This is why you should not peel prawns before cooking them. And in case you need further convincing, just imagine being spared the tedious job of peeling all those prawns yourself! After serving prawns, I always find it quite amusing when suddenly the whole table goes silent as everyone focuses on peeling them, usually followed by the sound of people licking that delicious shell taste off their fingers. If you really do not want to serve your prawns unpeeled, then strip off most of the tail shell—break the shell where the little feet sit, as it’s at its softest there—but leave the tail end and the head untouched. This means you will not lose too much flavour during the cooking process, and it’s also a nice way of presenting the prawns.

Here’s an extra tip: do not wash peeled prawn meat, whether it’s raw or uncooked, as you’ll only end up washing away a lot of the meat’s flavour. We don’t do this with steaks, but for some reason we think it’s okay to do it with fish fillets and peeled prawns!

As for deveining, it’s good to do this with larger prawns. Their veins can harden during cooking and often contain lots of poo and sand, which can be quite disgusting when eaten—a full vein can add a very unpleasant flavour to your prawn experience! The best way to devein a prawn is to straighten it out and make a little incision on the top side from just below the head down to the tail. Then get hold of the digestive tract with the tip of a small knife and carefully lift the vein out. (As an aside, wild prawns are hardly ever peeled and deveined, while farmed prawns are almost always peeled and deveined.)

A word on precooked prawns. These can be a bit of a lottery. They are often overcooked, and if frozen for too long they can end up being rubbery or chewy when reheated, with a blunt flavour. Precooked prawns are really only suitable for consumption when they are cold.

When roasting or otherwise cooking green (raw) prawns, you need to remember that overexposure to heat can make the meat dry and chewy. Perfectly cooked prawn meat will have a glossy centre—think about medium-cooked steak—and a bright, shiny colour. This will guarantee the uniquely delicious and crunchy ‘prawn bite’.

How to boil prawns

The following recipe is for approximately 20 large frozen prawns.

Method:

Bring 4 litres of water to the boil and season with a teaspoon of salt.

Add the frozen prawns and cover the pan.

Bring to the boil again as quickly as possible, then turn the heat straight off.

Let the prawns sit in the water for 18–20 minutes, then strain and peel or serve whole.

Note: if you use defrosted prawns, decrease the resting time in water to 4–5 minutes. Cooked prawns will last for up to three days when stored in the fridge.

How to grill frozen prawns

Method:

Wash the ice coating off the frozen prawns and dry them on kitchen paper.

Warm some butter or coconut oil on medium heat.

Add the prawns and cook for 3 minutes on each side.

Cover the pan and let it sit for 10 minutes.

Move the prawns onto a warm plate, add some aromatics (garlic, chilli etc.) to the pan and cook until ready.

Put the prawns back into the pan together with fresh herbs or liquids like coconut milk, honey, palm sugar, sherry vinegar etc., and reheat under constant stirring.

Prawns glazed with honey and sweet sherry

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Completion time: 30 minutes

Makes: 4 serves

Ingredients:

1 kg prawns

3 tablespoons butter

1 large shallot, finely chopped

1 carrot, cut brunoise

1 white leek, cut brunoise

2 tablespoons honey

1 cup sweet sherry wine (or port wine)

¼ cup sherry vinegar (or white balsamic vinegar)

3–4 tablespoons double cream

salt and pepper for seasoning

2 tablespoons parsley, chopped

steamed rice

Method:

Clean the prawns, leaving the tails on.

Heat 1 tablespoon butter.

Add shallot, carrot and leek and cook for 2–3 minutes.

Add prawns and roast until cooked through.

Remove prawns from pan, add honey, wine and vinegar, and reduce to a glaze.

Once a thick consistency is achieved, add remaining butter and cream and bring to the boil.

Add prawns and glaze with sauce.

Season, sprinkle with parsley and serve with steamed rice.

For more on the selection and preparation of prawns, as well as other seafood, have a look at Trupps’ Wholefood Kitchen, our new book on eating well, living well and feeling great.

Fennel, orange and Spanish onion salad with goat milk fetta

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By Walter Trupp, chef

This wonderful salad goes well with seafood, fish and any meat.

For a different flavour hit, replace the fetta with a mild blue cheese or ricotta, while radicchio or witlof can be used instead of rocked.

Preperation time: 15 minutes

Servws 4 as an entree

Ingredients: 

3 oranges

1 large fennel bulb

1 red onion

15-20 black of green olives

10-15 mint leaves

2-3 handfuls rocket

juice of 1 lemon

8 tablespoon seed mustard

8 tablespoons olive oil

salt and paper

150 g goat milk fetta cheese

Method: 

Peel 2 oranges. Using a sharp knife, cut off the top and bottom of each fruit, then place flat side down onto a cutting board. Cut downwards, removing the peel in sections, ensuring that no pith remains.

Cut orange crossways into 4-6 thick slices and put to one side.

Pick green tops off fennel very thing and place into a bowl.

Slice onion in half, cut into 1-2 mm wedges and add to bowl.

Add olives, mint leaves and rocket to bowl.

Squeeze lemon and remaining orange, and place juice in a separate bowl.

Add mustard and olive oil to juice, disk and season with salt and pepper.

Add orange slices to the dressing and mix.

Break fetta into small pieces and add to fennel and mix.

Combine with orange mix, place onto a serving dish and garnish with fennel tops and pepper.

For more healthy salads recipes refer to our cookbook “Trupps’ Wholefood Kitchen” available in stores across Australia.

10 Steps to improve yourself as a cook

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By Walter Trupp, Chef

Train your Taste

One of the most important keys to being a successful cook is to understand and learn when something tastes right.

At the beginning of your journey with food and its preparation, almost everything new to you will taste amazing. Learning about food is easy, and the process can be sped up by paying attention to the food you consume every day and by asking as many questions as possible. Go out and try different types and styles of food at markets, food festivals, cooking schools, exhibitions and restaurants. Experiment at home via the Internet, books and magazines. Cooking at home, in my opinion, is the most exiting adventure; as your inner alchemist can explore countless new cooking methods and techniques, flavour combinations, textures and presentation styles.

During my career, I went through stages where I would favour particular ingredients or cooking techniques. Often with a single ingredient, I would try countless methods of preparation and cooking, as well as flavour combinations.

I naturally gained knowledge and confidence by exploring markets and talking to people in the food industry like producers, processors, farmers and importers. To this day I still explore, ask and (most importantly) listen when it comes to food. I also constantly train my taste memories through conscious tasting and chewing (almost similar to wine tasting), where I explore the differences between the elements in a dish and also ask myself questions such as:

Are the textures and flavours in harmony, or do they disturb one another?

Does the dish work as the perfect ‘all together’, or do the ingredients not marry with each other all that well?

Is there something missing, or is there too much of a certain ingredient that overpowers the other flavours?

Is the dish incomplete, half-finished or overworked?

And if you’re pairing wine or beer, does your choice compliment your dish in its textures and flavour?

Recipes

Before you try a new recipe, study and analyse it beforehand by visualising the cooking process in your mind.

Start with easy and simple methods and presentations using recipes from well-established cookbook authors, as they tend to be more accurate.

At first glance, most recipes appear quite simple, although in many cases it is the preparation and the cooking technique that makes them tricky.

The more recipes you study and practice, the more knowledge you will gain on different ways of approaching an ingredient or cuisine and be able to incorporate any changes to a recipe if you consider it more suitable. So after a while, you will be able to develop your own style and learn to follow your intuition.

Be hard on yourself and don’t fall for compliments from people you cook for, as you are the best person to judge the quality of your style and technique in the dishes you produce. Be in harmony with what you cook, as it is a reflection of your knowledge, experience, belief and talent.

Do not avoid procedures that you are afraid of or don’t appeal, as they might turn out to be a mayor key in achieving results, and may even become one of your favorites. Remember that the more you try, the more knowledge and confidence you will gain. Over time, your cooking will become more relaxed and be an accurate reflection of yourself, not to mention a great topic of conversation.

Speed

When cooking a dish, coordinate cooking times so that each element is perfect.

Consider that each ingredient has a perfect cooking point and avoid unnecessary techniques and preparations. On the other hand, follow all the necessary techniques and preparation methods you need to optimise your dish.

If you plan to serve an impressive menu where each dish consists of several elements, it pays to be well prepared. Choose dishes that you are confident with and that you can cook and plate quickly and at the same time. Never try new dishes on your guests, as a disaster is almost guaranteed.

Try to practice every day to improve your speed and technique and work as quickly as possible. Don’t just prepare food; keep your working environment clean and organised by washing your dirty dishes as you go. Plan at least one step ahead; as this will keep you out of trouble and train your skills in speed and organisation. Tools should be kept within a reachable distance. Nothing is worse than running around the kitchen looking for things, while in the meantime your fish, for example, overcooks.

When it finally comes to plating the food, avoid unnecessary presentations or garnishes and leave the dish natural. Learn to love and enjoy the plating process, where you face the final result of your work, as it is probably the most critical moment for a passionate cook.

Start cooking for small numbers of guests and increase slowly as your confidence grows. If you stress too much during the plating process (because of too many guests or overly complicated food), you will lose the enjoyment of it all.

Accept eventual mistakes and try to avoid them the next time. It is only through mistakes that you will learn, improve and understand the product and it’s characteristics better.

 

Equipment

Only purchase kitchen equipment that you really need. Your kitchenware should allow you to use modern and traditional preparation and cooking methods to achieve a satisfying end product.

When using appliances, first think if it is worthwhile to do so, as sometimes you might end up chopping something in a blender that you could have done by hand in the same amount of time. Not to mention that you end up spending more time cleaning and dismantling the food processor!

Realistically, you don’t need much electrical equipment. A pasta machine, mortar, and blender is more than enough, but great additions would be a juicer, grain mill and flaker and maybe an ice cream maker for frozen fruit purees.

Food processors for chopping herbs, vegetables or mincing meat and fish are not all that necessary at home. Your money is better invested in some good working tools like a wooden chopping board, glass or metal bowls and containers, some good knifes and most importantly, a good stove and oven. Avoid purchasing plastic utensils.

Produce

Study produce and use it seasonally. This gives you the best available quality at the cheapest price.

Low quality ingredients turn even the best chef into an average cook. On the other hand, good quality products can help the average cook produce fantastic dishes.

With dry goods, don’t only trust brand names. It pays to study quality regulations and labeling guidelines, so that you do not to end up with expensive products that aren’t exactly what they claim to be (some brands that produce balsamic vinegar, truffle oil etc are guilty of this).

For fresh produce, only trust yourself and do your own quality control check when purchasing. Ask plenty of questions and if you are satisfied with their answers and the quality of the ingredient, add this seller to your network of ‘trusted suppliers’. This network helps when you pre-order rare products, where an established relationship almost always guarantees quality.

Spend time speaking with a trusted seller and gain an understanding of their opinions or concerns about what they’re selling (or not selling!). He or she will often have a greater understanding of produce and their inherent characteristics, and this gives you a better idea of when and how to best use them. Keep in mind that this should not stop you from doing your own research about individual ingredients.

Maintain your own personal recipe book (which could one day be published) and take notes on everything from how a certain ingredient cooks, to combinations and seasonality. This is probably the most important tool of all.

Though it might sound like hard work, once you have your system up and running, you will know where to find quality produce with surprising ease. All you need to do from there is to add the ingredients together in the best way you know how.

Such an understanding from your side and from your supplier network will make cooking at home very easy and enjoyable indeed!

Kitchen fashions

Most food fashions come and go and every trend has to be considered very carefully. Some leave behind useful new developments which will have a long-term impact on our daily cooking, but it is often forgotten where they actually came from.

When it comes to following trends, try to stick to simplicity and be mindful of the authenticity of the produce.

Avoid adopting fashions at the expense of quality. Maintain and express the personality and seasonal identity of a product. Use contrast, textures, temperatures and flavours logically so that the natural qualities of the different elements work harmoniously and marry well with each other, not to mention with food’s partner, wine.

Don’t fall for current trends. I’m personally very skeptical about a few of them, such as the unnecessary plastic coating in the sous vide method, where you bombard your food with highly toxic plastic hormones*. Some molecular recipes use an enormous amount of food additives that often exceed the daily recommended intake of those ingredients by as much as several hundred times. Short-term adoptable trends are used for spectacular creations, but the originality of our food suffers.

Other current trends are concerned with the way a dish looks. The food plated appears impressive, until you find out that it has been cooked using very basic methods and the quality (especially temperature) suffers because of its difficult presentation.

On the other hand, cooking is a creative process. What is new today might be old tomorrow. You have to keep your mind open for new trends – study, explore and discuss them – as you might find some amazing new flavour combinations, techniques or ways of doing things. They certainly will expand your knowledge, so take the best out of each and use it if it suits you, but do not let yourself get carried away by them.

Do not get scared

Dicing, whipping, chopping, peeling… Most beginners get scared about the enormous amount of work and it might all seem to be too much in the early stages.

When you become more comfortable with cooking, things will start to become easier and it might turn into a form of relaxation. It is often regarded as a type of meditation that allows you to escape from your daily routine.

Of course there are many easy recipes such as risottos, salads and so on, but you do not want to cook them all the time.  When you start to experiment with the more complex recipes that demand more precise preparation, timing, confidence and the controlling of several factors, that’s where you might start to struggle. The key lies in avoiding as many mistakes as possible. You also need control of cooking times and be able to balance flavours.

In the beginning, the simplest jobs might take you hours. Start early, do not fear complex challenges, and give yourself enough time to try and discover new techniques. Through learning them, the more complex recipes will seem easier to follow and understand. By being well prepared you have nothing to fear. Try to do everything in a dish, even the complex jus’ and sauces (which you can freeze anyway). Do not compromise. It will make you feel so much happier and confident in the knowledge that “I can do this and I also know how to do it several different ways”.

Creativity

It is sometimes difficult to stick to a recipe. The availability of certain produce, seasonal problems and quality of what is on offer will often dictate this. You might just buy a perfect piece of fish, or find some ripe tomatoes and strong flavoured herbs and feel like making something out of that.

So you will have to improvise or ‘be creative’. Many recipes use ingredients that are often out of season and represent the author’s taste and style. Sometimes it is just impossible to find all ingredients for a certain recipe in top quality at the same time.

With a trained taste, good basic knowledge and confidence in your cooking abilities, you will be able to improvise, develop and slowly create your own style. That’s precisely how any creative and successful chef started his or her career.

To do so, you will need a good back up of different style cookbooks (for reference), a good understanding of different vegetables, spices, herbs, oils, vinegars, sugars and frozen stocks that you could add or change, improve and balance if needed.

Be cautious and grow slowly in those early stages, do not fall in love with your creative flights, the chance of being successful can be very close to fluke or disaster.

Confidence

To be a good cook you will need a healthy dose of self-confidence, but be careful not to overestimate your skill or close yourself off and repeat the same methods again and again.

Do not over-interpret compliments or ignore critical words. Try to be creative and perfect with every detail. Keep learning, improving and trying new ways of doing things. Repeat what you learn over and over, until they are a part of your cooking routine and menu combinations. Set yourself a target to optimise the quality of each element in a dish and menu.

Be self-critical and judge yourself harshly but honestly. Know your weaknesses as well as your strengths, and that way you will quickly become a better cook.

If you are not happy with certain things in a dish but only you know of or recognise these issues, don’t mention them, as it serves little purpose other than to draw attention to what would otherwise be a perfectly acceptable dish.

If something really did go wrong, just see it as a reflection of your current skill level and learn from it. Set yourself goals and slowly lift the bar higher and higher. Do not accept that you’ve reached your potential – just keep practising.

Costs

Sometimes cooking seems like skiing. You queue to get on the lift for a while, then it takes you up the slope (for quite a while) and all that time spent waiting is a fraction of what it takes when you finally descend. The time it takes you to prepare a menu, in comparison to how long it takes you to eat it, is mostly skewed towards the former.

Additionally, if good produce is used, cooking at home is not all that cost-effective. To prepare a menu with top quality produce, it might cost you the same as eating in a decent restaurant. Cooking is not a cheap hobby. Sometimes you might feel you just wasted a lot of money and time, or you might feel like you cooked for the wrong guests. When having these thoughts, simply think about the healthy food you ate, how much you learned and how much you improved.

Be a pioneer! Think of all those dishes that restaurants can’t provide because of time pressure and customer demand. Realise that cooking at home allows you to experiment with different (especially slow) cooking methods. Whole roasted poultry and large roasts, braising dishes that are cooked to perfection for hours and slow baking soufflés are just some of the things that you can do at home much easier than can be done in a restaurant environment.

At home, you can also match your food perfectly to wine. This allows you to enjoy rare and expensive wines which, when consumed in a restaurant, would cost you a fortune.

*Refer to Trupps’ Wholefood Kitchen for more information.

Dietary Approach at Trupp Cooking School

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By Dorota Trupp, Nutritionist

Many people ask Walter and I about our own personal dietary orientations. Are we vegans? Do we eat meat? Are we raw-foodies? Do we subscribe to the Palaeolithic diet? Do we consider the principles of Ayurvedic or Chinese medicine? Have we learned about our nutritional typing? Are we followers of the blood-group dietary plan? You name it, we’ve probably been asked it!

Our approach to diet is actually influenced by a combination of our traditional upbringing, our education, the knowledge we’ve gained as food professionals, and, most importantly, by listening to our own bodies through trial and error.

Over the years there have been periods where we have cut some foods out or introduced something new. When we learn about a new dietary approach in the field of nutrition, something that is interesting and makes sense, we try it to gauge its effects, to see what it does for us. We have always experimented and will continue to do so as new knowledge and ideas come to light.

We also use food as medicine. When one of us is sick, we adopt a particular dietary treatment plan that helps the body to recover from illness. We also use nutritional supplements.

There is no doubt that, as individuals, Walter and I have distinctly different dietary orientations. Walter is more vegetarian-oriented and loves raw and spicy foods. He also has a thing for anything sweet, which I can live without. I like to have more meat in my diet, but like Walter, I still love my raw greens. Unlike Walter, I enjoy sour flavours, including pickles, and soups of any kind. These preferences aside, the major difference in our food choices has to do with our constitutions: Walter uses food to ‘chill down’, whereas I use food to ‘warm up’.

In fact, things haven’t gone well when we have gone against our own constitutions. Some diets have made us feel terrible, even to the point of making us unwell. For example, Walter got really sick when he was on the Atkins diet, and I was not my normal self during a recent experiment with a 100% raw-food diet.

Walter and I have researched and trialled dietary systems that have been adopted or promoted by everyone from our ancient predecessors to modern-day experts. But to date, we are yet to find one that puts us in the same category. Food that makes one of us feel great can make the other feel poor. For this reason, we both have a hand in shopping for and preparing our own food, and we try to communicate well on the topic of ‘What’s for dinner?’. This ensures that we both satisfy our individual needs, and it helps to keep each other in balance – although Walter’s dishes taste so much better than mine!

If there is something in which Walter and I are completely in step, it is that over the years of our journey towards better health, we have discovered that removing processed foods of any kind is always better. We have also found that a selection of whole organic/biodynamic foods best satisfies our individual constitutional needs and supports our health.

The dietary approach we take at Trupp Cooking School is similarly liberal. We’re aware that people have different needs, and we can tailor our classes to accommodate this. We teach vegetarians and vegans how to prepare tasty salads that deliver complete proteins, and we teach meat lovers how to debone chicken and lamb and cook stews. We also have lots of fun with courses that cover traditional cuisines such as French and Spanish.

Above all else, we teach you how to cook using whole, unprocessed foods!

Celebrate good foods with us!

How to Make a Perfect Chicken Stock

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By Walter Trupp, Chef

Every time I look through a cookbook, I come across a slightly different recipe for chicken stock. With our Chef Essentials course coming up, I wanted to dedicate a bit of time on how to make the perfect chicken stock, as it will feature throughout the course. The reason why there are so many variations in chicken stock recipes is because they have different uses in later dishes.

I have come up with a real versatile chicken stock that can be used with any recipe.

I’ve experimented with several versions over the years and often I would incorporate new and unconventional techniques. My experimentations have led to some amazing findings and conclusions that may surprise you. The criteria I set for the ultimate chicken stock is that it must satisfy a delicate soup or sauce, a rustic risotto or bean stew, and of course it has to be suitable for just plain eating. Additionally, I wanted to stay away from the wastefulness of my fine dining past and not lose any part of the chicken, as using good ingredients costs money.

For the following recipe, I shopped all organic at the wonderful Prahran Market (which is the best food market in Melbourne and the reason why we opened our school next to it) and spent a total of $24.50 (spices not included). With leftovers, you will easily feed a family of four using the meat and possibly vegetables.

Back in the kitchen, this attempt at making a chicken stock was based on four previous trial runs. I was hoping that this would be the last, as we all had gotten a bit tired of boiled chicken and chicken stock!

Earlier attempts included a stock made of a whole chicken, one using chicken drumsticks, one with just bones and one with only wings. The wing version was very good, but it is often quite difficult to purchase only organic chicken wings. The most delicate stock used the whole chicken, so I wanted to give that another try, but it had to different – just a little bit more special.

With all the ingredients laid onto the kitchen table, I wrote out a list:

Note on chicken: The most important factor in this recipe is the quality of the chicken you use. Cheap, conventional chickens will give you an unbalanced and thin stock, which often tastes a bit soapy. You will find that cheap chickens create, what I like to call, ‘the protein problem’. This is where protein particles constantly release from the meat and often make stock cloudy and gritty tasting. Good quality chicken stock will show its real strength when it is ready cooked. When chilled, it will turn into a jelly.  Good quality organic chickens show balanced aromas with a clear and strong chicken flavour.

Ingredients List:

1.3-1.6kg of fresh organic chicken

The green of 1 medium-sized leek

2 sticks of celery (leaves* removed)

2 medium-sized carrots, cleaned but not peeled, cut into small cubes

3 small or 1 large onions, peeled

½ Tablespoon black peppercorns (you can use white** ones)

Few parsley stalks

2 garlic cloves, peeled (if they have a yellowish shoot, remove it)

6-7 medium-sized button mushrooms

5L cold water

10g fresh ginger ***sliced

*Celery is better without the leaves, as they tend to turn bitter if cooked for a few minutes. An alternative is to add them to the stock just a few minutes before you stop boiling it

** Black peppercorns are generally more aromatic due to being unpeeled, unlike their white counterparts, which tend to be hotter in flavour. Black peppercorns, in my opinion, give the stock a floral aroma.

*** Ginger needs to be fresh, which means it should have a softish skin, which is easily rubbed off. Older or golden coloured ginger is quite strong in flavour. Therefore, if that’s the one you have to use, just two to three thin slices will do.

 

Method:

First, de-bone the chicken (something you learn at Chef Essentials), remove the skin and cut it into strips. Cut all the meat into golf-ball sized cubes.

Chop the bones roughly. Something I didn’t do for this recipe was to wash the chicken or the chicken bones. Many chicken stocks call for you to wash the chicken. If you want to have a real crystal clear stock, you should actually wash the bones and skin (not the meat) and dry them in a strainer. I purposely did not wash any parts of the chicken, as I wanted to go for maximum flavour and minerals; washing would not help with either of these characteristics.

Next, I placed the bones, skin and meat into a really thick copper pot (3.5). I like to use copper as the heat is very even and they reduce stocks much quicker. They also use less energy. If you don’t have one, any thick stainless steel or cast iron pot will do.

I covered the chicken with water, turned the heat on and quickly brought it to the boil.

Just before the chicken starts to boil, you will find that the whole thing might just look like an inside of a dirty mop bucket, but don’t stress, this is just all the proteins releasing out of the bones. Once the water boils, the protein will curdle and form a greyish foam on the surface.

I skimmed the foam off the surface immediately and several times over. I had to be quick in this instance, because if left for too long, the foam would cook apart and the particles would boil back into the stock, turning it cloudy and bitter. I skimmed the surface for as long as it needed, but did not worry too much about a little of it sticking to the sides of the pot (also don’t be concerned by the foam sticking to the bottom of the pot). I did not throw the foam away (although it looks awful), as it contains a lot of good chicken fat which you could use for other cooking purposes. If you do this, let the foam stand for 1 hour as the fat separates itself onto the top before I skimming it off with a tablespoon.

Once the stock was boiling, I removed the first of the foam and turned the heat down so the stock just simmered.

After approximately 30 minutes, I removed the meat pieces by picking them very carefully out between the bones. I removed the meat, for no other reason than to not overcook and waste it (I actually turned it into a salad), but you could leave it in and cook it longer if you want to use it for a pie or something else where dry chicken is not a problem. If I were to cook the meat longer, not only would it be dryer, it would have made the stock stronger. But this would have failed one of my criteria – to not waste any part of the bird.

I simmered the remainder of the stock for a total time of 2 hours.

While simmering, I cleaned and cut all the vegetables. As you see in the photos, I cut them quite small (not the usual rough chop or whole vegetable versions – which I personally like). You will have also noticed that so far I made three fundamental changes to a classic chicken stock: the meat is in pieces, not adding the vegetables from the beginning, and finally the addition of mushrooms. Mushrooms are an interesting one as they are my answer to monosodium glutamate (MSG). Mushrooms are high in natural – and therefore healthy – glutamate, and a few of them adds a sweetness to the stock and really brings out the best in the other ingredients. Way back at my restaurant in Austria, I always added a few mushrooms to stocks and sauces, which is something I learned from one of my visits to Alain Chapel`s restaurant. He made a mushroom cappuccino from only mushrooms, water and cream (which was one of the best things I have ever tasted).

I added my vegetables later, because I found in one of my earlier attempts that adding the vegetables too early, the real vegetable flavours would weaken to be almost non-existent. The same goes for pepper. In these earlier attempts where I would add the vegetables early, the stock would taste best after approximately 30 minutes.

My conclusion was that vegetables, herbs and spices needed to be added during the last 30 minutes or so of cooking.  They also need to be chopped finely, in order to just cook through and release all their flavour and nutrients into the stock. So after I adding them, I increased the heat and brought the stock quickly back to the boil. I reduced the heat and simmered the stock for another 20 minutes. Then I turned off the heat and rested it for about 10 minutes. The purpose of the resting was to allow any floating protein particles to sink to the bottom.

Next, I strained the stock carefully through a very fine strainer. I used a ladle to transfer the stock from the pot and later I very carefully poured the stock directly from the pot, but I made sure that not too much movement was going on. When looking into the pot, I found that there were still a few particles floating around, and therefore I strained the stock through a muslin cloth or thin kitchen cloth. The stock I had now was not completely clear (which was due to not washing the bones), but it definitely had lots of flavour and minerals, which would have been lost with washing.

So it was time to taste the whole thing. I have to be honest, it tasted quite floral and fresh, which was due to way I used the vegetables. But it was still a bit reserved because there was not any salt in the stock. It would have been great for eating and Dorota thought it tasted great, so I kept half and I thought I would reduce the remaining half to see how it tasted when used for sauces and seasoning (more about that later).

Reducing a stock is a science of its own, and this is well explained in our Chef Essentials sauce session. With reducing liquids in cooking, I want to stress the most important rule: you have to reduce liquids very quickly, ideally using two or three pots. You need to create a large surface area in order for the water to evaporate quickly. Reducing lots of liquid in one single pot on a low heat just creates a boring and soapy end result.

Quick reducing preserves flavours and slow reducing destroys them.

After reducing the stock by approximately one third, it started to show its real strength. It began to taste very concentrated and I would say this is the very stock that can be applied universally to create elegant sauces, foams, stews and Asian stock-based dishes.

I wanted to go a step further and continued boiling the stock. I must admit that the fresh vegetable flavours started to disappear, but not at all in a bad way, as further reducing would still be suitable for a sauce or for seasoning purposes.

Here are my Reducing Results:

The original unreduced stock turned into a light jelly when chilled, which was nice to see as it showed I used a good chicken. From an eating point of view, it was perfect for a stock to drink and for use in cooking.

By reducing the stock very quickly and to 60% of its original volume, it turned into a firm but still soft jelly when chilled. It was a strong tasting chicken stock suitable for Asian style soups where pasta and vegetables are added (which would dilute the slightly stronger flavour).

Reducing the stock to 40%, turned it into quite a firm jelly* when chilled, and at that stage it was perfect for sauces and as a base of pureed soups, broths and stews.

Reducing the stock to 25%, I got a very firm jelly when the stock was chilled and I would say that this would be the ideal base for a sauce such as a veloute or a red wine glaze to round up a vinaigrette etc. Reduced stock like this is also the ideal seasoning tool for any food that misses depth, body, volume or that famous ‘something’. It can lift a soup, risotto or sauce to a different level. This version of stock I would usually use for freezing down, as it takes very little space in your freezer. What I do is pour it into the ice cube tray of my freezer. Once frozen, I place them into a tightly closed plastic bag. In our kitchen, those cubes are one of the best kept seasoning secrets, not to mention that they are very nutritious as they are packed with proteins and minerals.

Notes:

You can easily double or triple the recipe

You can pick the veggies out and use them for a soup a salad etc. they are still not overcooked and quite full of flavour.

When storing any of those stocks, I found they do very well for three days, after which the vegetable flavour seems to disappear. You can freeze them, but just make sure that the stock is well wrapped, as it acts like a sponge when it comes to absorbing freezer flavours.

If you are interested in learning more cooking techniques look up our Cooking Classes Calendar.