Long Island Gardening Community Resource

One of my favorite things to do is make my own stock.  I like to make all kinds of stock, but since I live with my girlfriend and her sister (whom are both vegetarian) I mostly make vegetable stock.  There is a noticable difference in flavors between a vegetable stock and a meat stock, however, they are all great, magnificent, I cannot say enough about making your own stock and storing it for future dishes. 

The uses are just endless.  I use it mostly for soups, sauces, and to cook grains.  Whatever the dish, the underlying complexities, soul serving to the core, comes from the stock (not the stuff you buy, the stuff you make!)  

So when I go over my Mom’s house for Thanksgiving this year, I will ask her for the turkey carcas and boil it up with a bunch of water, bay leaves, onions, garlic, carrot, celery, and whatever else is around for 2-6 hours and store it in the freezer for future use.  Whats that saying “waste not, want not.”

I find it helpful to gather materials for stock as they come.  For example, when I’m out east at a farmers market on Sound Avenue, Ill buy a dozen ears of corn.  As I eat them during the week, I will save every last corn cob in a freezer bag and store them in the freezer.  Then, when the time is right and I have an over abundance of corn cobs packing the freezer, Ill go out and buy the other ingredients for the stock. 

Oh, and make sure you have enough tupperware containers handy because once the stock has cooled, it does not stay long, so you will need to get them into the freezer (or fridge, if your going to use it in the next week or so) Also, put some in large tupperware, and some in smaler tupperware (for smaller application like cooking grains or adding to a sauce).  One night I made a bunch of stock, simmering for hours.  I shut off the heat to let it cool and the next thing I knew, I had awoken at 4 in the morning on the couch and my stock had been sitting there brewing up fun little bacterias Im sure, so I had to throw it out. Doh!

Oh and one more tip before I start listing out recipes; Leave a little room on the top of the tupperware when filling with stock.  That is, if you want our tupperware to survive the expansion of the stock in the freezer.  This is something I only learned recently, as I have had many Tupperware containers fall victim to a brutal split-cracking death.

Basic Vegetable Broth Recipe (quantity ill leave up to you, but more of something usuallywill not hurt the stock, unless its salt)
Onion(s)
Leeks
Garlic Cloves and Garlic Powder
Carrots
Potatoes
Celery (If you can get the top leaves, use them too)
Whole Black Peppercorns
Bay Leaves
Mushrooms
Parsley (and any other herbs you like - dried is better for stock - if using fresh throw in when you shut the heat off at the very end)
Dried Hot Pepper

Other Optional Ingredients: Squash (zucchini that has been taking over your backyard), Sweet Peppers, Parsnip, Turnips, Rutabega, Celery Root, Daikon RadishBroccoli, Cauliflower, Tomatos (not too much or it will be too acidic), any leaft green vegetables (kale, dandelion, collard greens), cabbage, asparagus (save the bottom parts that you would normally throw in the compost pile - put in freezer just like corn cobs), herbs - sage, thyme, rosemary, oregano, parsley, dill, cayenne pepper, paprika, cumin, corriander, I can go on and on.

Actually, salt is an iffy topic. I like to add it, but I recently found out that cooking beans with salt will actually strip the skins from the beans. So if you are planning on making a bean soup, you may want to make your stock with no salt. When making the bean soup, I add salt at the very end. I no longer add salt to my stocks for this reason alone (because I make a lot of bean soups).

Chop veggies in half just to open them up and throw em in the pot. You can leave the skin on everything (just wash off first - onions, garlic, etc.) You can roast corn and garlic ahead of time to give it a nice roasty flavor. To extract the most flavor from your stock ingradients, start with cold water. Add enough to cover veggies, but I add more and let it boil down. Bring to boil with cover on and then remove cover. Boil uncovered (low heat) until liquid has reduced by almost half or until taste is good for you. If you are using a pressure cooker, well, I do not have one, but I know if you bring it up to temperature and then shut off the heat, it cooks the stock in 30-45 mins rather than the normal 2-6 hrs.

OK, so your stock is done now. Strain out the veggies into another pot and make sure you save any of them you wish to eat (mushrooms, carrots, any root veggies, mmm theyre real good right out of the stock).

So once you have your vegetable stock, you can do many things with it. I will list some of my favorite things to use it for in Part 2 of this posting to (coming soon).