Always wanting to impress my guests, I do aim for restaurant standard and therefore have to cook my own stock. I need a much bigger pot for beef and chicken stock than the pathetic excuses of a pot I have at home. My largest pot holds a maximum of 3 litres: that's just about big enough to produce 0.75 litres of good vegetable stock. I keep my veggie stock frozen in 0.25 litre bags. Like that I always have a restaurant trick up my sleeve.
Take my pea velouté for example:
Pea velouté topped with whipped coconut cream, for 6: 100g unsalted butter
: 2 medium large white onions, chopped
: 2 stalks of celery, chopped
: 500ml homemade vegetable stock
: 200ml coconut milk plus 4 tablespoons for the whipped coconut cream
: 500g frozen peas (preferably petits pois)
: 100ml whipped cream
Melt the utter in a pan, add the onions and celery and let them soften for a bit (you do not want to brown the onions though!). Add the stock and coconut milk, bring to the boil and simmer for 15mins. Now add the peas and boil for another 5 mins. Liquidise the soup, then pass through a fine sieve.
To make the coconut cream topping, whip the cream, then add the coconut milk. Spoon on top of the veloute and serve immediately.
