Chicken Stock Recipe

This recipe follows on from the science behind making stocks. If you’d like to know more about the factors that affect the flavour of your stock, click here. A chicken stock forms the base of many soups and sauces in classical french cuisine. It consists of chicken bones or meat gently simmered with a bouquet…

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Fish Stock (Fumet)

This recipe follows on from the science behind making stocks. If you’d like to know more about the factors that affect the flavour of your stock, click here. A fish stock forms the base of many soups and sauces in classical french cuisine. Known as a fumet in french, it consists of fish bones and…

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Motsunabe もつ鍋

Motsunabe (モツ鍋/もつ鍋) Motsunabe is a Japanese stew or hotpot made from pork intestines that originated in Fukuoka and is an example of Northern Kyushu cuisine. Now easily available throughout Japan, the base of the soup comes in many different styles such as soy sauce or miso. The word “motsu/もつ”in Japanese refers to the edible internal…

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The Science of Making Stocks

Stocks form the base flavours of many dishes, from sauces all the way to stews, and are a blank sheet of canvas on which different layers of flavours can be painted on. They are the backbone of flavour for many dishes and in my opinion are what separates the quality of taste between home cooking…

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Okinawa Black Sugar Umeshu (沖縄の黒糖梅酒)

  Umeshu (梅酒), or Japanese plum wine is a liquor made by steeping unripe Japanese plums (ume/梅) in fruit liquor or shochu (焼酎),  kind of Japanese distilled spirit. Although called plum wine, it is technically not a wine but a flavoured liquor, as the plums do not undergo alcoholic fermentation by yeast. Umeshu is typically…

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Kombujime 昆布締め

Kombujime (昆布〆/昆布締め) is a technique used to enhance the taste of sashimi fish through ageing the fish between two sheets of kelp (Kombu/昆布). This technique is typically applied to white flesh fish (Shiromi/しるみ／白身) such as sea bream, snapper or flounder. This is because white flesh fish tends to have a more subtle flavour and has…

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