Taking and Making Stock

I have wanted to put together a cookbook for many years, mostly to gather recipes that we eat most often so I can remember dishes that out famils likes most. I have been collecting recipes in a red hardbound notebook from my 17 years living in Berkeley, California (1986-2003). That was when I first started cooking. When my husband and I moved to Indiana (2004-present) I started filling a three-ring notebook with recipes found on the Internet and from cookbooks. I have even made up a few recipes of my own, mostly slight variations of others recipes but family creations nun-the-less.

Soon after the birth of my first son I joined my first my first writing group. At that time everyone was giving blogging a try and I posted a recipe with pictures of one cooking creation. Writing was already hard to save time for and blogging just took all that time so that project sat on line for years with no new entries. Now I find myself on a three month trip to France and Switzerland and hopefully with time to really slow down and take stock of my life and my years of my cooking.  I love to cook and joke with my husband that, “when I retire I want to be a chef!” Of course I also tell him I want to be a yoga instructor so I guess I have quite a lot planned for retirement.  

The reality is cooking is a fun hobby for me. I cook most days and really enjoy it when I am not too busy with my work and my boys Hadley and Calum. I am planning for project cookbook to be a work in progress, and am ready to get something written down. Then, in the end I will have something with a personal touch to share with my family and friends.

Lots of Cooking Is All In The Stock

I love to make my own stock and I am sure that fresh stock can be a secret too much better tasting food. I also tell myself it must be better for me if I make this rather than buy it; less salt, less additives, and added spices that fit my taste. Homemade maybe even cheaper.  So no matter what I am cooking I am always thinking about my next batch of stock. This might sound a bit obsessive and maybe it is but it works and I end up using anything that I can from other cooking projects for stock. Stock is the bace in soups, rice, and many other dishes like quinoa or sauces so keeping some on hand all the time is really helpful. Stock is kind of my guiding ingredient and if you get into this too you will never go back to store bought. So here is how it works. 

           Keep a freezer bag or freezer safe container in the freezer at all times. Any time you cut onions, carrots, celery, parsnips, leeks, shallots, parsley, or fennel, keep the ends that you are not using in your freezer container. I can usually fill a bag in a week or two and then I have it ready for stock day. Other things I add are any herbs or veggies that are on there way out. I would rather freeze them than toss them.  I will add fresh veggies but I don’t need to add as many if I use what I have saved from the week.

The other main ingredient for the stock is chicken or chicken bones. We usually buy one or two chickens from our local farmers market each week. The day we cook the first one I use the back and all the bones for the stock. Sometimes I will buy extra chicken back bones from the market to give the stock more chicken flavor. Your butcher will usually have them if you ask and they are inexpensive.  If you are not in the mood to make stock you can also freeze the chicken back and pull it out when you are ready.

So here is the actually recipe in case you just want to make it without saving and freezing. I add fresh vegetables to my frozen stash to get as close to this recipe as I can.

Chicken Stock

           Place your stock ingreidents into a large soup pot and then fill the pot with water. Boil for 1-2 hours. The longer you boil the more of the bones and veggies will be released into the stock. Let it cool and then strain your vegetables out from the liquid. You can keep your stock for a few days in the refrigerator and then freeze what you are not ready to use. This recipe will make at 2 -4 quarts depending on the size of your pot. You can always double the recipe if you have a larger pot. You can also add more water to the stock if it is boiled down and full of flavor. 

          If you decide to cook longer the stock can take on a thicken appearnace when it is cook. THis is due to the bones. When you heat it back up it will be thin again and you can always add water if it is still thicker that you need. It will taste really good.

 For your stock you will need:

2-3 large carrots chopped

2 onions halved with skin on

2-3 celery stalks

Large hand full of parsley

Other herbs if you like (dill, sage, thyme)

10-15 whole peppercorns

2-3 chicken backs or one back and all the bones from the cooked chicken

 

Other add-ons:

2 parsnips chopped (Optional if you don’t cook with parsnips but they make the stock taste great.)

1-2 leeks

Head of garlic

1-2 Fennel bulb

2-3 shallots

Each of these will give the stock a slightly different flavor. Think of them as an herb; you wouldn’t add them all but you might try one to give the stock a different flavor.