Making Stock

Day 6   All this cooking takes a lot of dish washing and I have no dishwasher.  I dream about having one.  Just like the Anne Taintor  housewife magnets "I dreamed my whole house was clean..."  Someday I will have one.

Day 7  Making stock:    Creating lovely meals with lots of vegetables means lots of vegetable trimmings- don't let them go to waste - make stock.  The tomato cores, herb trimmings, outer layers of onion,  carrot ends, green tips from scallions and the ribs or stems from kale can all go into a big pot with about a teaspoon of  pepper corns , some thyme and dill, a few bay leaves, a celery stalk or two and some smashed garlic.    Just don't add anything moldy or slimy that has degenerated from  vegetable to UFO ( unidentifiable fridge object) and make sure it's been rinsed so there's no grit. Now you have complete control over what's in your soup stock. Most cookbooks recommend not using  a lot of carrot peels or broccoli family remains as these can make the stock too sweet or too bitter but experiment as you wish. 

I'm thrilled to be using my new garlic press and my new strainer today.  The garlic press worked like a charm and I'm happy to report it was very easy to clean as well.

  I found them at my favorite local culinary goods store Stock on Hope St.  www.stockpvd.com
Cover these leftovers with water and simmer away for about 20 minutes.

  Then let cool and pour through a strainer to filter out the vegetable dregs.
Pour into airtight containers and label and date them.  These will keep in the freezer 6 months and in the fridge 1-2 weeks. Now you have stock of your own to make soup.

The Joy of Cooking has all sorts of recipes for stock from vegetable to seafood and  meats. The herbs will vary depending on what your base is and what your purpose is.  Tamar Adler has some wonderful words on this and using other bits and pieces in her book  An Everlasting Meal. It's really wonderful to get a second life out of all these unused pieces of vegetable and if you have a compost bin you can reuse the vegetables a third time to make compost ( just to be clear if you are making stock with meat or seafood those veggies should not go to the compost after).
The broth I just made is so yummy I'm having a bowlful now!