2 brilliant ways to use leftover gelatin

Looking for a no-fuss way to add texture and taste to any dish? Look no further than velvety gelatin, which adds a hearty dose of richness when paired with meat and vegetables.

To enhance soups and stews with a silkier texture, stir in one envelope (seven millilitres/1/4 ounce) unflavoured gelatin per eight litres (32 cups) of soup or stew. This is the secret to the silky soups of many professional chefs and crafty home cooks. This technique also makes store-bought broth taste richer. Here's how it works:

• When you simmer animal bones to make traditional stock, the bones release gelatin and collagen, which gives the stock a velvety texture.
• Packaged gelatin produces the same mouthfeel in soups and stocks without the bones.
• Of course, if you combine stock made from bones with additional gelatin, the texture will be even richer.

For ultra-velvety chicken soup, remove the meat from half a roasted chicken. Remove and discard the skin, then cut the meat into one centimetre (1/2 inch) pieces and set it aside. In a large pot, boil the chicken bones in 250 millilitres (one cup) white wine for three minutes, then add:

• 2 L (8 c) chicken broth
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 2 celery stalks, sliced
• 45 ml (3 tbsp) chopped fresh parsley
• 15 ml (1 tbsp) ground coriander
• 45 ml (3 tbsp) finely chopped lemon zest
  
• 5 ml (1 tsp) ground cumin
• 2 ml (1/2 tsp) red pepper flakesInstructions:
• Soften one envelope (seven millilitres/1/4 ounce) unflavoured gelatin in 60 millilitres (two tablespoons) water and add to the pot.
• Bring the gelatin to a simmer, stirring often, then add 75millilitres (1/3cup) uncooked rice and simmer for 30 minutes.
• Remove and discard the bones, then stir in the juice of 1 1/2 lemons, 80 millilitres (1/3 cup) chopped fresh cilantro and the reserved chicken meat.
• Simmer for two minutes more to heat through completely.

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