Recipe: Homemade Vegetable Broth 2002

In the kitchen with...

Today's Money-Saving, Dinner-enhancing, Life-enriching Tip:
Homemade Vegetable Broth
with bonus clever storage idea!

Step One: Dedicate a little sealable container in your freezer to holding vegetable trimmings. Put everything in there you might otherwise have thrown away: carrot tops, broccoli stalks, edamame pods, onion ends, parsley stems, etc. Don't include big hunks of dirt or moldy stuff, but you guessed that. [As of August 2004 and for some time now, I've been converted to the use of good fresh eating parts of vegetables rather than trimmings for making stock. It is much better.]

Step Two: When the container is full or the mood strikes you (e.g. when you're in the kitchen cooking something else, but have a burner or two free), chop up an onion into big chunks. Put some olive oil or spray some Pam or some such into a frying pan. If you like garlic, throw some garlic in there too. I like to sprinkle one kind of herb (preferably a fresh one, but dry is fine) in there too (e.g. thyme, sage, oregano, basil). Cook the onion on low heat, stirring it from time to time so it doesn't burn. If you like, you can put a chopped tomato in there too after the onion has been cooking for a few minutes. This is especially nice with basil & garlic.

Step Three: Put some drinking water in a big pot (I use a Corning Vision stockpot which apparently isn't made anymore - basically it's a big pyrex casserole/stockpot which you can actually see through - or a lovely Calphalon pot Edmond gave me). Add your frozen vegi scraps. Turn the heat on medium high so the water is at a very gentle boil. Cover it.

Step Four: When the onion has turned translucent or is a bit browned, take it off the heat & let it cool for a few minutes. Pour the onion into your broth. Ladle out some broth into the frying pan and stir it around to get the good onion browning off the pan. Pour that liquid back into the broth.

Step Five: After your broth has been going for about 30 minutes all together, take it off the heat and leave it covered for a while to cool.

Step Six: When the pan & broth are cool enough not to burn you, set up a pan big enough to hold all the liquid with a strainer or colander resting over it. The finer the mesh, the clearer the broth. Carefully pour the broth through the strainer. Watch out for avalanches of cooked vegis. Once you've emptied the stockpot, set it beside the new pot and lift the strainer to allow all the liquid through. Give it a little shake and then put the strainer in the stockpot to carry all the soggy vegis over to the compost (or the trash if you must).

Step Seven: Allow the strained broth to cool. And here's the really clever bit: put it in a ziploc bag pre-labeled with the date and any special notes (e.g. "April 8, 2002 - Onion-Thyme-Garlic"). Make sure the bag is well closed. Lay the bag flat in a pan and put the pan in the freezer until the broth is a frozen sheet. Remove the pan.

Step Eight: Whenever you are cooking something like, say, ramen noodles, which calls for water, use your broth instead. Just break off a chunk of the sheet as needed. You can also cook in broth instead of oil or butter. This is lovely for things like zucchini or fish.

If you make a habit of this, soon your freezer will be stocked with tasty starting points for many meals - soup, stew and otherwise - and you may find yourself experimenting ("Hmm, maybe I'll throw in a little dijon mustard...and the rest of my beer...and some black pepper....")

(Many thanks to my pa, Paul, for the culinary advice!)

Comments

Recipe: Homemade Vegetable Broth

In the kitchen with...

Today's Money-Saving, Dinner-enhancing, Life-enriching Tip:
Homemade Vegetable Broth
with bonus clever storage idea!

Step One: Dedicate a little sealable container in your freezer to holding vegetable trimmings. Put everything in there you might otherwise have thrown away: carrot tops, broccoli stalks, edamame pods, onion ends, parsley stems, etc. Don't include big hunks of dirt or moldy stuff, but you guessed that. [As of August 2004 and for some time now, I've been converted to the use of good fresh eating parts of vegetables rather than trimmings for making stock. It is much better.]

Step Two: When the container is full or the mood strikes you (e.g. when you're in the kitchen cooking something else, but have a burner or two free), chop up an onion into big chunks. Put some olive oil or spray some Pam or some such into a frying pan. If you like garlic, throw some garlic in there too. I like to sprinkle one kind of herb (preferably a fresh one, but dry is fine) in there too (e.g. thyme, sage, oregano, basil). Cook the onion on low heat, stirring it from time to time so it doesn't burn. If you like, you can put a chopped tomato in there too after the onion has been cooking for a few minutes. This is especially nice with basil & garlic.

Step Three: Put some drinking water in a big pot (I use a Corning Vision stockpot which apparently isn't made anymore - basically it's a big pyrex casserole/stockpot which you can actually see through - or a lovely Calphalon pot Edmond gave me). Add your frozen vegi scraps. Turn the heat on medium high so the water is at a very gentle boil. Cover it.

Step Four: When the onion has turned translucent or is a bit browned, take it off the heat & let it cool for a few minutes. Pour the onion into your broth. Ladle out some broth into the frying pan and stir it around to get the good onion browning off the pan. Pour that liquid back into the broth.

Step Five: After your broth has been going for about 30 minutes all together, take it off the heat and leave it covered for a while to cool.

Step Six: When the pan & broth are cool enough not to burn you, set up a pan big enough to hold all the liquid with a strainer or colander resting over it. The finer the mesh, the clearer the broth. Carefully pour the broth through the strainer. Watch out for avalanches of cooked vegis. Once you've emptied the stockpot, set it beside the new pot and lift the strainer to allow all the liquid through. Give it a little shake and then put the strainer in the stockpot to carry all the soggy vegis over to the compost (or the trash if you must).

Step Seven: Allow the strained broth to cool. And here's the really clever bit: put it in a ziploc bag pre-labeled with the date and any special notes (e.g. "April 8, 2002 - Onion-Thyme-Garlic"). Make sure the bag is well closed. Lay the bag flat in a pan and put the pan in the freezer until the broth is a frozen sheet. Remove the pan.

Step Eight: Whenever you are cooking something like, say, ramen noodles, which calls for water, use your broth instead. Just break off a chunk of the sheet as needed. You can also cook in broth instead of oil or butter. This is lovely for things like zucchini or fish.

If you make a habit of this, soon your freezer will be stocked with tasty starting points for many meals - soup, stew and otherwise - and you may find yourself experimenting ("Hmm, maybe I'll throw in a little dijon mustard...and the rest of my beer...and some black pepper....")

(Many thanks to my pa, Paul, for the culinary advice!)

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