I love making soup, especially in weather like this (it is positively autumn outside). Among many of the things I finally realized while losing my culinary virginity in Paris two years ago was that store bought stock is gross. It's too salty, it doesn't taste fresh at all, and any purity you strive for with the other ingredients is seriously tarnished when it swims around in that stuff. Some books I've read recommend simmering the bullion or canned broth with some fresh herbs and vegetables to improve its flavor. I've tried this, and it's OK when you're in a pinch, but still a far cry from homemade stock.
(As a side note: they don't even sell canned broth in Paris--only the concentrated kind, bullion cubes, that you dissolve in hot water. This, I learned, was a WWI innovation--compact, lightweight, easy to prepare, nourishing food for soldiers.)
Making stock is fun and really easy, and when it's cold like this and the radiator doesn't work yet, it heats up your kitchen. When I make chicken stock, which isn't all that often, it's usually because I roasted a chicken the night before or I carved up a carcass myself. I hotly anticipate making chicken stock--the smell is like Proust's madeline.
There are many stock methods out there, but the gist of it is that you simmer the bones (for meat stocks) and vegetables, while skimming the foam and oil, until it tastes the way you want it to. I'm going to put a chicken and vegetable recipe, as well as my favorite recipe for a quick garlic and herb stock that I usually make at the same time as I prepare soup.
For chicken stock (this is a Saturday project): Put a bit of oil in the stock pot. Add the mirepoix--celery, onion, and carrot, all roughly chopped--which is the standard vegetable base. Throw in a handful of parsley, some thyme, a couple smashed heads of garlic, a bay leaf, 10 or so black peppercorns, and 2 whole cloves. Put the lid on it for ten minutes; this concentrates the flavors. Then pour cold water over everything, enough to cover it all by several inches. When it comes to a boil, add 2 teaspoons salt, then turn it down to simmer. Skim the fat and foam as it rises to the top, and after it's simmered for a two hours or so, start tasting it. When it tastes good to you, after 3 or 4 hours, take it off the heat, strain it, and once cooled, refrigerate or freeze.
Viola.
For vegetable stock--EASY!: Save all your vegetable clippings (carrot tops and peelings, parsley stems, potato skins, celery tops, spinach stems, even leftover lentil beans, etc etc etc--the only thing I wouldn't recommend using is onion skin, and be forewarned that beets clippings will turn your stock an unappetizing pink color) that have accumulated over the week. Heat up some oil in a stock pot. When it's hot, saute 2 tablespoons on tomato paste in it. A minute later, throw in the mirepoix and all your vegetable clippings, and, for good measure, some garlic and bay leaf and black peppercorns and any other fresh herbs you want to use up. Stir to coat, and then cover it for 10 minutes. All the greens should be really bright when you open the lid. Cover with cold water, bring to a boil. When it boils, add 2 teaspoons salt, and then simmer for an hour or so, tasting along the way. When it's done, strain it. Poof. Healthy!
But my favorite, fast, easy, flavorful, fortifying tonic garlic broth is this one. Drink it when you're sick or have a hangover. It comes, basically, from this wonderful cookbook that you all probably have already.
This one--along with the others, of course--can be easily catered to whatever you're going to use it in. Add potato skins if you're making potato soup, or asparagus ends, mushroom stems, or any other complimenting herbs like sage or rosemary. Like the vegetable stock before this, make it as you're preparing the other ingredients for the soup. Also, as a warning, this may not hold up in heavier, cream-based soups--it is flavorful, but not rich--but it is a good go-to when you're making, say, braised chicken or a reduction sauce and need a just cup of stock; you can half and improvise the recipe very easily, the ingredients are very cheap, and it is so much better than canned stuff. Plus, after eating this for a while, the taste of homemade chicken stock will be a luxurious, buttery indulgence when you next make it.
- 1 T olive oil
- 2 T tomato paste (sun-dried is best)
- 2 shallots, halved
- 20 garlic cloves, skins mostly removed, and smashed with the back of a knife
- 10 parsley branches
- 5 of so thyme sprigs
- 2 bay leaves
- 10 black peppercorns
- 2 whole cloves
- 2 t salt
Heat the oil in a stock pot. When hot, saute the tomato paste for a minute. Add the garlic and all remaining ingredients but the salt. Saute for a few minutes, and then cover with 2 1/2 quarts water. Bring to a boil, add the salt, and then simmer for 45 minutes or so, tasting often. Strain when done. I think you can still use the garlic if you'd like.
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