Easiest to make instead of buy: Homemade Stock

When Fall arrives, I start making chicken stock again. Homemade chicken stock tastes better and is far more nutritious than anything you can buy at the grocery store. And it's super easy to make. Really, I promise. Basically throw stuff in a pot and let it simmer....and enjoy the smells all day. Strain and freeze. 

Chicken, garlic, onion, celery, carrots, herbs, peppercorns....add salt later after tasting.

The biggest revelation for me was learning that I didn't need to peel things or chop them small. Just quarter that onion and throw it in (remove produce stickers and wash off any visible dirt, of course). Chop a head of garlic in half and add it. Throw in some carrot peels. This is going to simmer all day, and the peels will add a lovely color to the stock. If you plan ahead, you can have a Stock Bag all ready to go! Use of a Stock Bag is quite thrifty and can add a wonderful depth of flavor because of the vegetable variety. I should caution you not to add purple cabbage, though, unless you want Barney-colored broth as my neighbor Abby discovered, much to her chagrin.

Making homemade stock -- especially if you use a Stock Bag -- is a wonderful way to Use It All! Here in America, we throw away vast quantities of edible food, and our house is (sadly) no exception, though we've cut waste dramatically in the last few years. Small changes make a difference! So if you have a few mushrooms that need to be used, but don't fit tonight's menu...toss them in the stock bag. Don't wait till it goes off and chuck it in the compost: SAVE IT in the freezer until you can USE IT.

The addition of some giblets to this batch produced a very small amount of foam which is easily removed. 

So...I never use fresh chicken for stock (except for giblets when I have them). Instead, when I roast a chicken (or very occasionally cook bone-in breasts or other parts), I save the carcass/bones in a plastic bag in the freezer and use those to make the stock. Most of the nutrition in homemade stock comes from the bones. You can put them on a sheet and roast them first for a richer color/flavor for the stock, but I am all about easy, so I never do this and my stock never suffers from flavor deficiency. We did make stock with a fried turkey carcass once and it was delish!

Note: if you do use fresh chicken, you'll want to put it in a pot of cold water, bring it gently to a simmer, and scoop off the foam, or "scum", that forms on the top. This foam is not harmful, but it will make your stock cloudy. So remove, Then add veggies and continue to simmer. 

Here is the "recipe" I use:

1-2 chicken/turkey carcass(es), including giblets if available (excluding the liver)
Good glug of vinegar (to leach nutrients from the bones)

Bag of vegetable trimmings

Add quartered/halved fresh veggies if necessary -- I make sure to have roughly equal parts of onions, carrots and celery, and then I add some garlic

 -- other veggies that work well include mushrooms, leeks, fennel, tomatoes, any greens, broccoli, zucchini, squash...you get the idea

Add fresh herbs if you have them (parsley, thyme are my favorites)

Add a shake of peppercorns

Add a bay leaf or two

Start it cold and slowly bring it up to a gentle simmer. It won't hurt it it it boils, but the "low and slow" will give you clearer stock in the end. Simmer for several hours stirring/tasting regularly. If you like, you can let the bones sit in cold water/vinegar for a half hour or so to pull even more calcium, gelatin and other nutrients from the bones. Once it has been simmering for an hour or so, I start to taste and add salt sparingly as it cooks. I do not add salt at the beginning because there are generally trace amounts on the carcasses from when I cooked them the first time. I prefer a lower-sodium broth, since I can always add salt based on what I'm making with it. Taste as you go to learn how the flavor develops!

Here you can see the stock after simmering for about five hours. The broth is developing a lovely color and the vegetables are quite soft. By now, little bits of meat will also float off the chicken bones and the carcass will come apart when I lift it with the spoon. This photo was taken at 4:30, so this stock will cook another hour or two until dinnertime, but I could certainly stop here if I wished.

When you decide it is done, turn off the heat and let it cool. Strain it through a colander, and put it in the refrigerator. The next day, you'll see that any excess fat will congeal on the surface in the fridge, so you can just scoop it off the next day. Sometimes I've made stock that had a jello-like consistency when cooled -- this is very nutritious and great for soup when someone is sick!

The final step is to strain it through cheesecloth and portion it into containers for the freezer. Nowadays I use wide-mouth glass jars instead of ziplock or plastick (just don't tighten the lids).

You can make vegetable stock by leaving out the meat. Ask at your grocery or market for beef bones or fish bones to make other types of stock.

Besides delicious soup, use your stock instead of (or half and half with) water when making rice, use it to make risotto, pan sauces,  use in mashed potatoes with 2% milk instead of cream, cook veggies in stock, sub for wine in pasta sauce, it is liquid gold baby!!

Garden Tour - August 2012

"And when your back stops aching and your hands begin to harden,

You will find yourself a partner In the Glory of the Garden."

-- Rudyard Kipling

July 2012 was the all-time warmest, month in the United States since we began keeping records, but having (reliable) rain barrels this year helped us keep food/flower areas growing without racking up a huge water bill. The beautiful ed/yellow Rudbeckia (love that name) seen here in the top left part of the photo is a Tennessee Native plant. Native plants are wonderful choices for gardeners, as they are more likely to make it through extreme weather with a minimal amount of care. They also attract pollinators and other beneficial insects to your garden. This year I've truly mixed flowers, herbs and vegetables and have seen more bees and butterflies than ever before when I walk along beside the plants. It is a wondrous sight to behold!

The bushy flowers in the front are moss roses (Portulaca), and they begin to bloom well in Mid-July through frost in my garden; they also are drought tolerant and do not require a lot of water, so I can put the soaker hoses around the tomatoes you can see in the background.

I love watching lettuces going to seed! Lovely! Also in this square-foot bed I have some peppers, some flowers (of course) and a cucumber vine that has finally died thanks to the cucumber beetle. But at least I have identified the pest so I can be prepared next time.

I finally have a baby eggplant growing! The plant itself is beautiful and I hope the Rosa Bianca eggplants will be tasty.

I am sheet-mulching this area, and really want to put a Three Sisters garden here next spring. However, I am going to have to move most of my tomatoes out of the flower bed next year, as the blueberries and fig will be too large to accommodate so many plants. I am also toying with the idea of going ahead and using the front yard...if I can find a design I like. 

Here is a long shot of my front flower bed. I really love how this looks this year! In the August heat, it has exploded with color and texture. The rosemary on the left (against the wall) is a Blue Spires Rosemary, which can grow up to 5' tall; I planted it to replace a very prickly holly bush that wasn't very pretty and had grown totally out of control. Eventually, we should have a large rosemary shrub here and the fig tree at the other end that is growing nicely to bookend our blueberry "hedge." I really love how it's coming together!

Contrast that with the desperate plants in my side yard bed, which used to be almost full shade until we lost a hickory tree this year. I have been trying to keep things (at least) watered here, but as you can see, those shade plants don't enjoy the morning baking in the August sun. I am going to cluster the survivors into the shadiest areas at the end of September, but I do relish the opportunity to plant some lettuces and bulbs and maybe even some peas back here for spring. After all, there's no great loss without some small gain!

Oh, Eve she was a gardener, and God who made her sees

That half a proper gardener's work is done upon her knees,

So when your work is finished, you can wash your hands and pray

For the Glory of the Garden that it may not pass away!

(edited slightly by me!)

Get Your Greens In!

For Christmas, I received a copy of "What Chefs Feed Their Kids" and immediately found a fun food game that our family loves. One of the chefs played a game with her children called "open your mouth and close your eyes and I will give you a big surprise!"  My kids love playing this game and have tried lots of new foods because it's so fun. I begin by closing my eyes and letting one of them give me a bite and I try to guess what they gave me; then it's my turn. It's most fun when there are a mix of new/familiar foods on the table, or where foods can be arranged to make tasty bites (like tacos or stir fry).

The recipe I'll share here is adapted from the Greens Puree in the book. I suppose this would be a fine baby food, if you are into making your own (I was not -- we just fed bites from what we had for dinner). It's also suggested as a nice addition to soups or sauces. I had other plans for it: smoothies! 

Green smoothies hit the spot!

I love to add greens to smoothies, but I also like my smoothies really smooth, not grainy or lumpy. Since I have still not fulfilled my Vitamix lust (those things are pricey!), I have not been able to add kale or other "toughish" greens to my smoothies, just spinach occasionally.

The recipe calls for a mix of kale, collard greens, basil and spinach with 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil, same amount of water, and 1 tsp salt. Steam greens on low heat for 15-20 minutes (till things are soft and wilted), then add herbs till wilted. Puree in blender; thin with water, stock, etc. 

Steamed Greens, ready to puree

I had a lot of kale and a tiny bit of spinach. We had a very warm February down South and that was not terribly helpful for the spinach in the area. I also didn't have basil yet, but I did have parsely and lemon thyme, so I used that. My bright green puree went straight into the freezer!

Greens Ice Cubes for smoothies

This is a great base for smoothies! We have added it to all kinds, but if you mix the green with berries or other red/blue colors, the final smoothie is tasty, but a very unappetizing brownish hue. For "green smoothies" we add peaches, banana, pineapple and yogurt or water. I've found if I save fruit in the freezer and use that instead of ice cubes, then I can thin the smoothies with water instead of juice and not worry about watering down the flavor.

Rinse well

Spring Mix: peas and lettuces in a sink full of cool water.

Homegrown foods often get eaten right off the vine, but if they make it into the house, they are chucked straight into a sink full of clean water for swishing. I do the same with produce from the grocery store or Farmer's Market, but add a mild vinegar/citric acid solution -- no need to buy overpriced "veggie washes" to clean your produce!

Get more out of harvesting your cabbage

Fennel Fronds = Dill Substitute

I don't eat fennel all that often. It's delicious roasted, but honestly it's not a "go to" except when I roast a chicken. I love slivered fennel added to whatever veggies wind up under the bird. My problem is not taste; it's that I never knew what to do with those fronds and I hated relegating them to the compost when they're actually quite tasty. It really grinds my gears to throw away such a substantial (and edible and tasty) portion of any food, so instead of subjecting myself to gear-grinding, I just don't buy it that often.

Now, I do add a heaping helping of fronds in with my other herbs when I stuff the interior, but typically I'm roasting a 2-pound bird, so we're not talking about a massive cavity here. In addition to the herbs, I must have garlic and some citrus that limited space, so I always have quite a lot of fennel bits left over. Some can go in my stock bag, but I don't want the fennel taste to overwhelm, so I'm judicious there. 

To my delight, I've recently learned fennel makes a terrific substitute for dill! We use dill fairly regularly around here in everything from scrambled eggs to my husbands killer tuna salad, so if for some reason you never know what to do with your own fennel fronds, just pretend you found some gorgeous fresh dill in your vegetable drawer. According to the intertubes you can also dry it just like dill as well, but I haven't tried that yet. 

Simple Summer Supper: Beans & Taters

"Purple" green beans.

Beautiful, locally-grown potatoes (aka "taters")

I recently found myself with a wealth of both beans and potatoes and was musing about what to cook for dinner when my 5-year-old suggested combining Green Beans Almondine and pan-fried potatoes. The result played up all the freshness of the food and was healthy and delicious. I've already made it twice this summer! Bonus: it makes a great vegetarian dish.

Sampling is always allowed. You can see the potatoes in the background.

First order of business: clean and snap beans. I just toss them into a sink full of cold water and swish around with my hands, scrubbing any remaining dirt off with my fingers. The kids often will "help" snap as long as they can snack along the way. I am a stickler for removing all strings -- this is why I snap all but the youngest and smallest beans.

Blanching green (or purple) beans is easy. Bring water to boil, add a pinch of salt and cleaned/snapped beans. Cook for 3-5 minutes, then remove to ice water bath. You can see here, about two minutes into cooking, that the purple is disappearing from my beans. C'est la vie. While the beans blanch, I scrub and cut potatoes.

As you can see, the "purple" beans are quite green after cooking; here they are in their ice bath. Once they are cooled, they'll retain their bright green color and you can eat them like this or add to your salad, or stir fry or, of course, with potatoes...which I also blanched (same process, but for about 12-15 minutes, or until fork-tender) before cooking in the skillet.

Toasted almonds, brown and buttery.

While the potatoes blanched, I toasted my almonds in a little Smart Balance (butter or olive oil or toasting dry works just fine as well). I love the nice color and flavor and, especially if the entire meal is vegetarian, I like to add some good fat. (Note: use of Smart Balance actually makes this a vegan meal!) Toast in skillet till brown, then scoop carefully out so the nice browned butter-and-nut flavor is there for your potatoes.

If you don't want to also blanch the potatoes, you could roast them or pan-saute them; it is up to you. I like blanching because then finishing them in the "almond butter" makes for a lovely flavor. At any rate, add the potatoes to the pan along with a little olive oil and chopped garlic and brown to your liking (or just till they crisp up here and there, as was my choice this day). Then add the beans and season to taste with salt and pepper. Last of all, top with the crispy toasted almonds. I think some lemon or orange zest would be a lovely addition to this dish, if you are so inclined.

Here is my 5-year-old's portion of our simple "Beans and Taters" supper, served with some corn on the cob and leftover mixed veggies. Notice there is no meat on the plate! This vegetarian meal provides all of the protein, nutrients and amino acids necessary for good health. My husband works a physically-demanding job and found this meal satisfying and tasty (he takes it for his 2 a.m. "lunch") and asked for a repeat performance, only with more-browned potatoes.

Never peel a tomato again

These?  I'm gonna be eating in January with some fresh Amish pasta from my CSA.

Don't you hate peeling tomatoes?  And then seeding them?  It's a lot of messy, messy work.  But it's worth it for homemade marinara, right?  I thought so....until I received a harvest bounty from my father of several pounds of cherry tomatoes.  I really wanted to make marinara, but how could I peel all those teeny, tiny tomatoes?  

I thought, "Well, I have a 'puree' option on the blender."  I could not believe how easy it was to make a tomato puree with whole tomatoes, a blender and a strainer.  I just had to see if it worked with big tomatoes as well, and am happy to share the delicious results!  Just half/quarter or roughly chop the larger ones and leave the babies whole, as shown in the photo above.

Puree till smooth in blender, then press through medium strainer.

Fill the blender about 1/3 full and add a splash of water.  Pulse until tomatoes are well-chopped and moving freely (add more water sparingly, if necessary).  It can be helpful to stir or shake the blender between pulses.  Once it's going, hit puree. And let it go and go -- I probably left it on for a good minute or two.  Then set a medium or med/fine strainer in a bowl and pour.  You can see my setup above.

Push the tomatoes through the sieve with a spatula.  I think I ended up with a lot less tomato in my compost bin this way.  But also, I didn't heat the stove (for this portion anyway). I didn't use ice cubes.  I had minimal cleanup.  Judging by what's left in the sieve, I think this marinara has more fiber, though it is lovely and smooth in texture.

Looks like the makings of a "marinara mix" seed drying operation, no?

It took me about a half hour to garner a gallon of tomato puree this way.  That's barely enough time to get your water boiling and the first batch of tomatoes peeled with the traditional method.  Granted, I added some water, so I have to let it cook a bit longer, but that doesn't require my constant attention....just good smells and occasional stirring.

Before you start the whole puree process, go ahead and chop a few cloves of garlic (to taste -- I used a good half a head) and mince an onion.  Let those cook slowly on LOW/MED heat while you handle the tomatoes.  Just before I added my tomato puree, I tossed in 1/4 tsp of chipotle chili pepper powder.  You could also add some red pepper flake as the onion/garlic cook.  I also added 1/4 tsp of cinnamon and grated in some nutmeg.

The puree will be pinkish-red and foamy.

Raise the heat a bit since the tomatoes are cool and, well, there's quite a large volume being added to the pot.  I had about a gallon of tomato puree.  What you want is a nice gentle simmer and you should stir regularly.  If you come to stir after 15 minutes away and the surface is smooth and unbroken, then raise the heat a bit.  If you come to stir after 15 minutes away and it's bubbling actively, then lower the heat (I might even pull it off the burner for a minute or two).  I put the lid on after adding the tomatoes to help it come to a higher temperature more quickly.  Then I removed the lid so it could reduce.  I found that my "blender puree" seemed to have a pinkish foam on the top for an hour or two until it reduced. 

Herbs outside today include basil, parsley, oregano and thyme.

You can add whatever herbs you like and/or have on hand.  I cut what you see above and ended up with about 2-3 Tbsp parsley, 3Tbsp or so of basil, about 1.5 Tbsp oregano and 1 Tbsp thyme.  I also grated in a small carrot.  After it simmered for an hour or so, I tasted, then added salt, pepper and a combination of agave nectar and white sugar.  All seasonings are "to taste," but keep tasting as it reduces and add a bit here and there.  Oh, and you really do need to add the sugar to counter the acidity of the tomatoes.  If you want less refined sugar, you could add some more carrot or grated beet, but be sure to *taste* as you go and after another half-hour.

Halfway done.  I added more basil toward the end.

Stir it regularly.  Once it's getting close to the consistency you want, hit it with an immersion blender.  My goal is to wind up with something that coats a spoon nicely with small flecks of onion or herb, but I want a well-integrated sauce with a smooth consistency.  

Before the immersion blender, my marinara almost seemed "separated," perhaps because of the extra fiber from the bits of skin that made it through.  It was nice immediately after a stir, but heavy on the bottom after about 10-20 minutes.  However, after using the immersion blender, it was a smooth texture, dotted with bits of tomato or onion or herb.  Perfect!

Now, if you don't have an immersion blender, you can always blend it in batches.  It really makes a big difference in the texture of the finished product, so if you're at all unsure, just do it  After blending, if you want a "chunky" sauce, you'll need to add in some diced (skinned/seeded) tomatoes, but I didn't do that because I am okay if I never have to skin another tomato again.

Stock is Cheap

Oh did you think I was going to dole out investing advice?  Nay, nay, not so but far otherwise.  Take me to my natal shore and the white cliffs of Albion.....oh wait, sorry, I got distracted.

Today's tip is the Stock Bag for the freezer.  You can compost all those end pieces of onions, carrot peelings and leafy celery tops, but it's an even better idea to use them to make your own stock.  You know how sometimes the inside of a garlic bulb is just those teeny-tiny cloves that are impossible to peel?  Cut them in half and throw them in your stock bag. Don't worry about the skin!  How about that one squash that got hidden in the drawer and is fine but a little shriveled?  Stock bag!  And don't forget to go through your fridge and toss in anything that you aren't going to be able to use that week.  Any vegetables will work!  The bonus is that your stock will taste like the season.

When my bag is full, I decide what kind of stock I need.  For vegetable stock, I usually take a look at what's in the bag and round it out with an extra carrot or half an onion (again, resist the urge to peel off the skin!) and a potato.  I add some herbs (if they're not already in the bag) and some peppercorns and let the whole thing come to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until it tastes right.  I do taste throughout and add a little salt.

For chicken stock, I don't use fresh chicken.  That seems incredibly wasteful to me.  Besides, if you use fresh chicken, you have to cook that first and skim the top of the water multiple times before adding the vegetables.  If you roast a chicken and use the carcass to make the stock, you can just dump it and the stock bag into a big pot with water and, again, herbs, peppercorns and bring to a boil.  Add a splash of white vinegar to leach calcium from the bones and let it gently simmer all day.  Taste and add salt as needed. 

When it's done, let it cool, then strain it.  One word of advice: do not put it in the refrigerator with the plan of straining it next day.  You will have to reheat it before straining and it will be cloudy.  And, well, why add all that work?  Often I will strain it in a colander and put it in the fridge and then strain through cheesecloth the next day when separating it to freeze.  That really doesn't add any extra steps for me.

I generally freeze mine in two- and four-cup portions in plastic, but am on the hunt for paper cups that will hold at least 1.5-2 cups.  I plan to freeze those on a cookie sheet, same as I do with the baggies, then put them in a larger container for deep-freeze storage.  Oh, and that Stock Bag itself?  It's a perfect candidate for re-use.  

Update: I now freeze stock in jars since I've built up a good stash. Do not tighten the lids until after the jars are frozen. Works wonderfully!!

So, start your Stock Bag today and plan to make some low-sodium, homemade stock yourself.  It's the perfect touch for making soup or giving rice a boost without extra butter.  And best of all, it's incredibly easy and doesn't take much time.  

And special thanks to my mother-in-law for this tip.  It's not something she does herself, but something her mother used to do and I'm awfully glad she shared it with me!