8 lb. veal bones (and any meat scraps that you don't need),
3 whole onions,
2 whole garlic bulbs,
1 cup red or white wine,
2 whole carrots,
3 sticks celery,
4 bay leaves,
1 Tbsp. whole black pepper corns,
1 bouquet garni made of thyme, oregano
and rosemary.
Recipe: Brown the veal bones in a roasting pan in the oven at medium temperature. Fill a large pot with 10 litres of water and add the browned bones. Deglaze the bottom of the roasting pan with the wine and scrape the bottom; add all the scrapings to the pot. Also add 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns and 4 bay leaves. Cut the onions and garlic bulbs to half without peeling them and grill them over char-broiler until very brown and with nice grill marks. Do the same with the whole carrots. Add the grilled carrots, onions, garlic and celery, and simmer very slowly for ideally 16-17 hours, or at least 5 hours. Strain the veal demi-glace and discard the bones. Add the bouquet garni and start reducing the remaining sauce until you get the desired texture for the veal demi-glace sauce left in the pot. You can leave the demi-glace thinner and thicken it with some starch or roux, if desired. Any extra veal demi-glace can be poured in individual portion containers and frozen for later use. This demi-glace recipe is not convenient for making at home due to the long cooking time, but if you work in a restaurant it is well worth your while. The slow cooking process of the demi-glace, helps the release of natural glutamic amino acids from the bones, which can enhance the flavor of other foods. If you buy the powder demi-glace sold in grocery stores, it is probably full of MSG (monosodium glutamate) and other chemicals.
About the author: George Krumov is a Red Seal certified chef with many years of culinary experience working around the world in Europe, the Middle East, the cruise line industry and North America. In the last two decades he has headed the kitchens of several restaurants in Canada, and ran his own restaurant.
