Beef stock

I just have to finish this "stock" trilogy, don't I? Beef stock is essentially the same as all other stock, i.e. use whatever vegetable you have available, with one extra step. You need beef, preferably parts with bone. To get a nice dark broth, put all your beef in an oven pan, spoon a couple of tablespoons of tomato purée on each piece, and roast in a very hot oven for 45 minutes to an hour, until the edges of the bones and the tomato on the bottom of the pan start caramelizing (that's an euphemism for "burning"). Then put your meat in the pot along with all the vegetables, deglaze the pan over a medium flame on the stove using water and add that with everything else. Fill up with cold water, bring to a boil, and simmer for a long time.

The goal is to get all the collagen from the bones for full flavor. That can take up to 8 or 10 hours of simmering! If you're not afraid of accidents and getting burned in your sleep, you can do that overnight. I do it on Sundays when I stay at home all day, and have to read papers, or clean up, or read books, etc. After you're done, the bones should be full of "dots", and break with almost no effort. Wait until it's cold, skim the solid fat from the surface, and bottle. Again, this can be frozen for a couple of months, but only lasts two to three days in the fridge.