Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Homemade Broth

This may be one of the easiest things to cook, even if you have no idea what you are doing.  In addition to saving money, homemade broth tastes so much better than store-bought broth.  You will never go back.  You will become a prisoner to your broth.

     First, get a few gallon sized freezer-safe ziplock bags.  If you are a meat eating person, label one "meat," and label the other "veg scraps."  All week long, save all your veggie scraps in that bag and keep it in the freezer.  Examples of veggie scraps are: carrot skin peelings, tops/bottoms of onions, tops of leeks, broccoli stumps, greens, lettuce hearts, mushroom stems, celery leaves...I mean all of it.  Any leftover raw vegetable or it's parts.  It's ok if it looks gross.  It will look gross.
     Do the same with your meats.  Some folks like to separate their meat into different bags (chicken/beef/pork), while others like to mix them.  Keep all scraps, fat, bones, skin, etc in your bag in the freezer.
     On the weekend, throw all your scraps into a very large cooking pot.  Cover the whole thing with water.  Bring to the boil, reduce heat, cover, simmer.  Now simmer that pot as long as you can--at least 1 hour.  If you can, put it on the lowest heat and cook it for 2-3 hours.
     After cooking, you will need to strain it.  I find this to be a 2 person job usually.  Put another large pot in the sink, and cover it with a colander.  Pour your soup through the colander, letting all the big funky wilted weird cooked veggies (and meat) catch in the colander while the liquid pours into the pot.  Discard the solids.  I usually like to get a mesh sieve and run the liquid through it, as some fine veggie funk is present.  You want to get rid of that.  Here is where you may choose to add salt and pepper to your beautiful broth.
     The broth will freeze like a champ.  I freeze my in 2 or 4 cup portions so they are recipe friendly.
Cheers.

Broccoli Soup

It's Fall, which means it is time for soup to be back on the menu here in Pennsylvania.  I made a nice broccoli soup over the weekend--really one of the best I've ever made, so I figured I better write it down.  Don't worry about the quantities being exact for the ingredients--I really just threw things into the pot, and tasted as I cooked.  You should adjust your soups to fit your tastes, and experiment with different blends of herbs and spices.

Ingredient list:
garlic, onion, broth, biggest head of broccoli you can find (or 2 smaller ones), raw cashews, salt, pepper.
optional: olive oil, nutritional yeast
note: if possible, soak 1/2 cup of raw cashews in water for 3-4 hours prior to starting the recipe below.

     Chop up 1 small onion and 1 clove of garlic, and saute in a few glugs of olive oil (or broth) on medium heat.  You want to cook them till the onions are transparent, but try not to let them turn brown. (note: if you are adding any herbs, do it here)
While this is cooking, roughly cut up a very large head of broccoli.  It doesn't need to look pretty, just hack it up--the pieces do not need to be small.
     Throw the broccoli pieces into the pot, turn up the heat, and give it a sprinkle of salt.  Using a large spoon, try and move the pieces around a bit, coating the broccoli pieces in the oil/onion/garlic as much as you can.  Do this for about 1-2 minutes.
     Add 4-5 cups broth.  Of course I like homemade broth the best--you just can't duplicate that flavor from a can or box, but if you must use boxed, you must.  Another option would be to use soup base + water or cubes + water.
     Bring to the boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer.  I usually cook it about 15 minutes--just make sure the broccoli is almost-falling-apart cooked.  Turn off the heat and let it sit there.  Taste and adjust your seasonings (remember that a little teaspoon of red wine vinegar or lemon juice can brighten up a soup a lot).
     Let's pause here and contemplate our cashews.  Did you remember to soak them?  If you did, good for you--you can move to the next step.  If you forgot, you will need to do this first:
Add your cashews to the pot (removed from the heat), stir once, and let it sit there for about 15 minutes.
     Transfer the whole lot to the blender/vitamix.  Those of you who were cashew-responsible and soaked them, add them here (drain soaking water first).  Now, at this point I like to add 2 heaping tablespoons of nutritional yeast before blending.  If you do not like nutritional yeast, don't add it.  If you are a cheese eater, you may want to add a little shaved parm.  Or don't add anything, just blend.

Of course I am a firm believer that soup is better if it sits overnight in the fridge before reheating and serving, but it is edible now.  Enjoy!