Save your chicken bones to cook up some great stocks to make tasty soups and casseroles.

Before you throw away the bones from the Chicken or Turkey, consider using them to create tasty stocks which can be used in soups, casseroles and other dishes.

Using the bones in this way, ensures you get good value from your chicken or meat joint and the flavours are far superior to most stock cubes and can be tailored to your taste.

Chicken bones and a few simple veg

Stocks are very economical and easy to make.  All you need are the bones, a few veg and a pan.  A few herbs which compliment the type of meat the bones have come from, will add individuality and rich flavours.  You can use your misshapen and slightly “past it” veg as these are only being added for flavour.

For soups and casseroles, where the veg can be used int he recipe, we tie our meat bones in some muslin.  This allows the flavour to come from the bones but makes them easy to remove without throwing away the veg too.

If you don’t have time to make your stock when your chicken or turkey is finished, just put the bones in a freezer bag or container and freeze until needed.

Chicken stock recipe.

You will need: A large pan with lid, Sieve or muslin to strain and another clean container to strain the stock into.  If freezing, you will need some clean containers, freezer bags or ice cube trays.

Ingredients;

Chicken bones and carcass.
2 large carrots, 1 stick celery, 1 large onion – all chopped into three or four pieces.
Water to cover.
Herbs – Couple of bay leaves, 2 teaspoons of mixed herbs and a good dose of freshly ground black pepper.

Place all ingredients in a pan and add water until they are just covered.  Place on the stove and bring to the boil.  Turn down to a simmer and leave for a couple of hours until the liquid has reduced by half.  Be careful not to forget about it or it will boil dry and burn onto the pan.

Once reduced, pour the contents through a sieve, cover and allow to cool or use straight away.

A great way to freeze stock is to use an ice cube tray

Freezing stock

Home made stock freezes well. Simply pour into a container or freezer bag.  Choose something that will hold a quantity that you will require later.  Soups and casseroles will require about half to 1 pint.  Curries and other dishes may require less.

An alternative is to freeze stock in an ice cube tray.  Once frozen, then cubes can easily be transferred to a freezer bag.  You can then use as little or as much as you need.

Wait until the liquid cools before freezing…do not put hot liquids in the freezer.  Always label and date items placed in a freezer.

The same method can be used to make ham, lamb or beef stock, altering the herbs to suit and of course a vegetable stock is exactly the same but without the bones.

Dispose of any bones etc in your usual waste.  Do not put vegetables that have been cooked in meat juices in the compost bin, as they will attract vermin.  Avoid choking hazards by ensuring that dogs. cats and other animals cannot get to the left over bones.

Pancakes are the ideal comfort food for the cold winter nights and are not really hard to make.

Pancake cooking in the frying pan

Creating a pancake batter involves eggs, milk and plain flour.

It is the same basic batter you would use for making Yorkshire puddings.

You do not need to buy shop made pancakes, or Yorkshire puddings as they really are easy.

Just have the confidence to try and have fun making them. We did…

How to…

To make a stack (around 10-15) of pancakes you will need…

Making the batter

Put the flour into a bowl. Create a well, a deep indentation,  in the middle of the flour in which you are going to put the wet ingredients.

Always crack an egg into a glass before adding to mixture

Pour the milk into the well.

Add the pinch of salt and any other flavours to suit. A pinch of cinnamon or other spice is great for that different taste.

Crack the eggs into the glass, one at a time. Then checking they are ok,  put them also into the flour well.

TOP TIP – cracking eggs into a glass before putting them into a mixture, ensures that you don’t ruin your mixture if you happen to get a bad egg. You will know if they are off – they will stink.  It also gives you the chance to remove any shell.

Starting from where the liquid meets the flour slowly work the two together using the whisk or blender.

This is to ensure that lumps don’t form.

Mix with a whisk to fill mixture with air

Once the batter has formed and all the flour is mixed in,  continue to whisk until you get a yellow bubbly solution similar in consistency to single cream.

Not too thin or thick but so it falls from the whisk easily. Custard from a can is too thick, milk is too thin.

Depending on the eggs you may find that you need to add a little bit more liquid or flour to get this consistency. If adding flour add very gently and through a sieve to avoid lumps forming as you mix it in.

Cooking

Place your frying pan on a hot stove and wipe the pan with some olive oil or butter.  This is to stop the pancake from sticking. A wipe around is all you need.

The pancake should not float in the oil.

TOP TIP  - We find that if you use a piece of paper kitchen towel to spread the oil or butter this gives good coverage around the pan.

Pancake cooking in the frying pan

Using the ladle pour in some of the batter into the middle of the pan. Lift the pan slightly to swirl the mixture around.

If the pan is hot enough you should see the batter start to cook instantly.

Using the wooden spatula it should start to lift from the side and bottom of the pan.

After around one minute to 90 seconds  you should be able to look under the pancake to see if it is starting to turn golden .

Stack of fresh pancakes

TOP TIP  - for some reason the first one or two pancakes just do not seem to work.  By the third usually all is well.

It is now time to turn the pancake over to cook the other side.

This bit can either be a disaster or a success.  You could use the spatula to lift the pancake over or you could try and flip it… Your choice…

Once cooked eat straight away or stack the pancakes as you cook them, on a heat proof plate and place in a warm oven for no more than 15 minutes or they will start to dry out.

Eating suggestions

Lemon quarters

The most common way to eat a pancake is with syrup and lemon juice or sugar and lemon.  However, we asked the Twitter community and our friends and family what they would have on theirs…

    Cooked Bacon and Maple Syrup (American)

Pancake history

Different countries have different pancakes. The recipe above is for the British pancake frequently made to celebrate Shrove Tuesday, or pancake Tuesday.

This is the day before Ash Wednesday which marks the start of Lent, a period of religious fasting for 40 days ahead of Easter in the Christian calendar.  The pancake was a way of using up flour, eggs and milk ahead of the fasting.

In America and Canada the pancake is used almost daily often as a supplement for bread. In the UK these pancakes are known as Scotch pancakes and contain a raising agent such as baking powder.

Further information

Here are a few websites we came across whilst researching and producing this article which are worth a mention.

Woodlands Junior School in Kent – All about Shrove Tuesday and the many names it has around the globe

Wikipedia – Pancakes

Pancakeology

Pancake recipes - a free source for recipes for pancakes.

BBC Food – pancake recipes

Pancake physics – the mathematical equation for the perfect pan.