Recipe of the Month from Simon Brown

Hi,

I'm Simon the guest presenter from cook's essentials. I'll be bringing you favourite recipes each month for you to try at home.

One real asset at this time of year is turkey stock. Homemade stock is dead easy to make, costs virtually nothing and tastes far better than those supermarket stock cubes.

How to make meat stock

Roast turkey or chicken carcass, or the bone from a roast joint of beef, pork or lamb
2 carrots
1 onion
2 sticks celery
Sprig parsley
Sprig thyme
1 bay leaf
6 peppercorns

• Break up the carcass or roughly chop the bone and place in a large cook's essentials pan with a lid or into the cook's essentials Quick Cooker. 
• Peel and roughly chop the onion, roughly chop the carrots and celery and add the vegetables to the pan. 
• Tie the parsley, thyme and bay leaf tightly with string to form a bouquet garni and drop into the pan with the peppercorns. 
• Now add enough cold water to just cover the bones and bring to the boil. 
• Cover the pan, reduce the heat then simmer gently for 2-3 hours or for 1-1½ hours in the Quick Cooker. Don’t let the stock boil or else it will become very cloudy. 
• Once cooked, strain the stock into a clean container, seal tightly and when cold pop into the fridge and use within 4 days or freeze for up to a month.

Another great recipe for using up those Christmas leftovers: Broccoli and stilton soup

(Serves 4)

1 large head broccoli
1 onion
1tbsp olive oil
0.75 litres/1¼ pt vegetable or meat stock
Salt and pepper
75g/4oz stilton
4tbsp cream of creme fraiche

• Cut the broccoli into florets and roughly chop the stalk.  Peel and roughly chop the onion. 
• Heat the oil in a pan and add the vegetables. Cook gently, stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes until the onion has softened a little.   
• Now add the stock and some seasoning and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes until the broccoli is just tender. 
• Transfer to a blender, add most of the stilton and blend until smooth. 
• Serve with a swirl of cream or creme fraiche and crumble the remaining stilton over the top.

Check out more cook's essentials recipes