THREE FAMILY BROTH

Broths and stocks are very simple. Macrobiotic food should be simple. Simplicity is a virtue. There is no need for overly complex recipes. Often, in Western cooking (which is to say French-based meat and dairy-based cooking), there are very complex processes. It can take over 24 hours of cooking time to construct some stocks. I keep it simple, use a small number of ingredients and I maximise flavour and minimise time by using a pressure cooker.

The name of this broth refers to three families of vegetables: the cabbage family, the onion family and the celery family. Most of the vegetables we eat and love come from these three great families. In this recipe we combine representatives of all three families into a single, wholesome, all-purpose vegetable broth. We start, however, with an onion regardless. The browned onion at the beginning is the base for the other flavours. It adds depth of flavour, otherwise all we have is salty vegetable water. The brown-skinned white-fleshed spanish onion variety is best for this but you could use a red onion if you prefer.

INGREDIENTS

An onion.
Any member of the onion family, eg. onions, leeks, spring onions, etc.
Any member of the cabbage (brassica) family, eg. chinese cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, turnip, etc.
Any member of the celery family, eg. celery, celeriac, carrot, parsnip, etc.
A six inch strip of kombu seaweed
Two dried shiitake mushrooms.
Cooking oil
Sea salt - about half a teaspoon.
Water (enough to cover the vegetables in the cooker.)

METHOD

Finely chop the onion, skin and all.
Add a *little* oil to the bottom of the pressure cooker.
Brown the onion. (Colour is flavour. Cook the onion till it's nice and brown, but not burnt. Stir it to prevent burning. Any black bits will give the broth a burnt flavour.)
Rough chop the vegetables and place them in the cooker. Use the whole vegetable including stalks and tops.
Cover with water.
Add the kombu, mushrooms and salt.
Pressure cook on a low heat for 30 minutes or more.
Let the pressure subside. Strain, cool, refrigerate.

Obviously, less water and longer cooking time will yield a more concentrated broth.

Be sure to only use a little oil. Too much oil and the pressure cooking will effectively emulsify the oiliness through the entire broth. Just enough to brown the onion is sufficient.

Rescue the mushrooms and kombu from the strainings. They can be used for other things.