Little Stocks

• 1–2 carrots, each cut into 3–4 pieces
• 2 onions, quartered
• 2–3 garlic cloves, unpeeled, bruised

The stocks of the home kitchen are leftover pot-au-feu or poule-au-pot broths or little essences eked out of bones, broken-up carcasses, offal and trimmings of the principal ingredient of the dish in preparation, precious sources of flavor that are too often carelessly discarded. When stock is required for a braised vegetable, as for the artichoke bottoms in