Essential Cuisine - the professional choice for stock

As someone who cooks rather a lot, stock is an essential in the store cupboard. When I have the time I make my own and freeze it, but I don't always have the time, that's were a stash of quality stock powder comes in very useful.

I have always been unhappy with the quality of the majority of stock cubes and powders available in supermarket, they are often overly salty and of variable quality. So a couple of years ago I was delighted to be sent a sample of professional quality stock powders from Essential Cuisine, since then this stock range has become a regular feature of my larder.

The stocks are of high quality, light and fresh tasting and a great addition to any dish giving a professional finish, the powders dissolve easily in water or milk or when added straight to the pan. The black pots stack easily and come in vegetable, fish, lamb, beef, chicken and veal varieties and each pot making a minimum of 6 litres of stock so they are also great value.

I can't recommend them highly enough, they can be purchased via a selected range of stockists, mail order via their easy to website or at various food shows across the country.

                                         

Smoked haddock, leek and pea fishermans pie

I love fish pie, nursery comfort food at its best. This week I decided to make a variation on the classic and it proved a popular dish, definately something I would make again. Pretty economical too as I was able to utilise mostly ingredients from the freezer or store cupboard, the tasty dish is gluten free and utilsed some of the stock powder I had kindly been sent by Essential Cuisine.

I really like Essential cuisines range of stocks as they are not over salted and very tasty, they are very like homemade stock, light in colour and allergy friendly. The smoked haddock I used in this recipe was from a frozen pack but I prefer if possible to use undyed smoked haddock if you can get it, any other white smoked would work too. The peas were frozen petit pois but you could easily use ordinary peas if that is all you have. I had the leeks and creme fraiche in the fridge and potatoes in the cupboard.

What you need

• 2 smoked haddock fillets, skinned and de boned - cut into bite size pieces
• 2 leeks, topped tailed and cleaned. Cut in to fine circles
• Essential cuisine fish stock powder - make to about 150ml stock
• Creme fraiche
• Dill 
• Cornflour
• Frozen petit pois / peas - ramekin full
• Salt and pepper
• Potatoes ( 1 used 2 large poatatoes for 2 people)
• Butter or vegetable oil

What you do

• Gently heat a little butter or oil in a large frying pan, add the leeks and cook for a few minutes until they are starting to soften
• Add the fish pieces and cook very gently until just coloured, now add the peas to the pan and the creme fraiche (I used about 2 tbsp), the fish stock and dill.
• Simmer gently until you have a sauce of your desired thickness, if necessary thicken with slaked cornflour. (Slaked is when the cornflour is mixed into a paste with little water or milk or stock). Taste and season
• Place the pie filling in your chosen dish and allow to cool
• Meanwhile cook your potatoes for your mash, once ready then mash with a little butter and season to taste
• Place the mashed potatoes on top of your pie
• Pre heat the ove to 180c and bake for approx 25 minutes until golden on top and the sauce is bubbling
• Serve immediately

Season of Soups and Stews

The Season of Soups, stews and casseroles is well and truly with us, warming delicious recipes which provide comfort against the weather outside. Lancashire Food is proud to be hosting a great blog link up with Essential Cuisine, the fabulous stock company, to share some of the best soup, stews and casseroles recipes in the world, the only rule being they need to include stock of some type, so if you have a favourite recipe why not share. We have a fabulous prize very kindly donated by Essential cuisine of a mixed selection of their lovely stocks so you can go on creating great comfort food long after you have entered the competition.

Essential cuisine have some great recipes on the website and the definition of whats a stew and whats a casserole just in case you want to know, in fact its packed with loads of great tips and suggested uses. All the stocks are gluten free and are free from nasties and the vegetable stock is even suitable for vegans.

Rules

• Your recipe must contain some form of stock to qualify for entry
• Ensure that you include in your blog post the lovely badge
• You must link back to this blog post
• If you are on twitter please tweet about your entry using the #Soups_&_Stews
• Please be respectful of copyright and give credit to the original source if you have been inspired by another recipe, you can link up old posts but you must embed the link and use the badge
• The blog link up will run until the 10th December 2012
• The winner will be chosen by a representative from Essential Cuisine

To get your creative juices flowing why not have a look at  some of my recipes for soups, stews and casseroles.