Turkey Stock for Risotto

The risotto is a very simple dish, but it may contain some very interesting flavours and texture. In my case the main ingredient is correct turkey broth. It's rich, creamy and, when prepared correctly, very light.



The ingredients:

• Turkey 1kg/2.5 pounds
• 2.5 liters of water
• carrot
• onion, not peeled, golden preferably
  
• thyme and fresh thyme
• rosemary and fresh rosemary
• a few peppercorns
  
• salt
  

The turkey part that you choose depends on how much fat you want in your broth. Use clean fillets or bones for clear non-fat broth, or use wings or skinny parts for fat rich broth.

The process:

• place the turkey in the pot and fill it with the cold water
• place the pot on low heat and bring it gently to boil in no less than 20 minutes, do not forget to skim off the rising foam
• add carrot, a teaspoon of whole black peppercorns and a tablespoon of salt
  
• add onion, do not chop it or clean it, just rinse it to remove the leftover soil, and cut off the roots
  
• leave on the lite heat for 1 hour, do not let it boil violently, leave the lid half open
  
• add dried rosemary and thyme
• leave it for 1 hour and 30 minutes on lite heat, with a closed lid, do not let it boil
• take out the turkey and the stock is ready
• take out all of the seasonings
  

Optional, if you want to have that stock as a sauce or flavouring:

• leave rosemary, thyme and peppercorns in the stock
  
• bring the stock to gentle boil
• reduce it 10 fold
• take it off the heat, remove the rest of the seasonings and add a few fresh leaves of rosemary and thyme

This preserved flavouring can be diluted with warm water to return to it's original form of stock.

This stock has a very interesting flavour. It combines both the taste of turkey and the seasonings. There is an extra thing that can be done to add a bit of woody flavours - in the first stage use high heat to bring the turkey to boil.
I find that wine and vermouth in risotto is not needed in this case, since all of the flavour will come from the stock.

Simple risotto recipe:

• in a pan saute chopped onions, garlic and celery in olive oil, do not brown the ingredients
• add rice and saute it for a few minutes to cover it in oil
• add the stock just enough to cover the rice and keep adding the stock till rice is cooked, never add to much of the stock
• add Parmesan cheese just after removing from the heat
  

Use Google for conversion into your favourite measurement system.