Make Your Own Stock!

I have discovered this incredible money-saving tip that also happens to amp up the health value of your food. Any time a recipe calls for chicken stock (or vegetable stock, or beef stock, etc...) I have been buying the kind that comes in a box. The kind that looks like this:Now, it's not really all that expensive...$3 or $4 maybe...but if you're buying it every time you go to the grocery store, it can really add up. In order to avoid this extra cost, I've started saving every little bit of vegetable that I normally would discard and instead keep it in a large ziploc bag and stash it in the freezer. If I'm chopping up an onion, I save the two ends that I normally would throw away. Chopping fresh herbs? Don't throw away the stems! Put them in your freezer bag. The peel of a carrot, ends of a zucchini, the fronds of a fennel bulb, the woody stems of broccoli and asparagus... all of this has tons of flavor and will add unique dimension to your homemade stock. I literally save EVERYTHING... which, now that I think about it, reduces waste and thus helps out Mother Earth a little bit, too.

After days or weeks of saving, your ziplock bag will be full. Once it is, you're ready for the next step. Before we move on, though, let me say a few things:

1. Don't be afraid if you have a crazy concoction of incredients in your bag. I have had jalepenos, parsley stems, sweet potato, and lemon all together and it turned out lovely. This is pretty fool-proof... I don't think any combination will result in a stock that is not delectable.

2. I have found that the "secret ingredient" that always takes my stock to another level is LEMON. Oh my goodness. It adds so much life to the stock.

3. You can automatically transform your vegetable stock into chicken stock by adding some leftover chicken bones. Same thing goes for shrimp shells, fish bones, or beef or pork bones. All of a sudden, you have gourmet shrimp stock or fish stock. And I mean, really, who ever finds that in the grocery store?

Alright, so you have your bag of frozen vegetable misfits.Put it in a pot, fill it with water, give it a healthy pinch of salt, and bring it to a boil. (Health benefit: you get to control the amount of sodium that is in your stock!) This may take a while since you are de-thawing your veggies. Once at a boil, reduce the heat and let the mixture simmer away on the stove top for at least an hour. The longer you simmer it, the more concentrated your flavor will be.

After it's done simmering, let it cool a bit and then strain it into a bowl.

Important note here: Let your stock cool!!! Last time I did this I had the most beautiful, rich, delicious stock, and I was so anxious to poor it into a plastic container and store it that I didn't let it cool completely. I poured it in and it was still so hot that it MELTED my plastic container and all that beautiful stock spilled all over the counter. I was so sad. Look at that beautiful rich color! Now tell me, have you ever bought stock from a box that looked like that? Let's sit for a minute and think about the wealth of opportunity that has just been opened to us. Any time a recipe calls for water, you can subsitute stock to give it an extra boost of flavor. Rice, couscous, risotto, pasta, cooked greens, soups... the possibilities are endless.

If you are going to use it in the next two weeks or so, go ahead and store it in the fridge. It can also be stored in the freezer for up to a year, but let me tell you, it is a pain in the a** to defrost.