Home made beef stock

I've a vegetable and fruit package from a local farmer in my neighborhood. He doesn't use any toxins and grows food in season. That means in winter a lot of cabbage, but also beets. And we (all of us) don't like beets. But my personal challenge is to not throw anything away. 

I've finally found something for my beets that tastes good. I'm using the beets for my home made beef stock. 

Normally I would use carrots, but beets are also very sweet. So I replaced the carrots with the beets and it tastes delicious. 

The ingredients for this very nice stock are:

• 3 celery stalks, cut into third;
• 3 beets, sliced in two parts;
• 1 onion, quartered; 
• a veal bone;
• 3/4 pound stew meat, cubed;
• 2 dried bay leaves;
• 5 sprigs parsley;
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary;
• 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns;
• 5 sprigs fresh thyme;
• 2 cups red wine.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit (225 degrees Celsius). Arrange the vegetables, stew meat and the veal bone in a heavy roasting pan. Put the pan in the oven for 100 minutes. Turn the vegetables, the bone and the meat every 20 minutes (total of 5 turns). Put everything in a large stockpot. There is always a residue in the roasting pan, which got a lot of taste. To obtain this, put the wine in the roasting pan and put the pan 5 minutes on high heat. Be sure to use a wooden spoon on the bottom of the pan to losen the residue on the bottom. Poor the wine in the stockpot and put enough water in the stockpot to completely cover the bones, meat and vegetables. Be sure to put at least  6 quarts of water to the stockpot.

Tie the bay leaves, parsley, rosemary, peppercorns and the thyme together and put that in the stockpot. Bring the liquid to a boil and skim the residue that will appear on the surface of the liquid of with a slotted spoon. 

Simmer the stock for at least 3 hours. When fat appears on top of the stock you can skim it off with a slotted spoon.

Poor the liquid through a fine sieve and your stock is ready.

It's nice to eat it like this, but most of the times I make a nice tomato soup with the stock. But that recipe will appear another time on my blog.