Stock, Vegetable Stock

     Tonight I made vegetable stock. I froze it and will use it in the future for any number of soups or maybe a sauce. The process is ridiculously easy, but like many of my methods, does take a little pre-planning.



This pot was made with 3
 of these small bags.



     Every time I cut up a carrot, celery stalk, or onion I save all the "scraps", and I mean all of them. I save carrot peals and ends, I save the leaves, steams, and bases of celery, I save ends and skins of onions. When I'm done chopping I put the scraps into a plastic bag and stick them in the freezer. There aren't always a lot of scraps and more often than not I can just add the scraps to a freezer bag already "in process" in the freezer.

     Every so often, like tonight, I'll notice the freezer bag(s) starting to become a sizable presence in my freezer. Now comes the easy part, the stock itself.

     Take all the frozen scraps and put them into a large sauce pan. I like to try to have roughly half the pot full.

   

  Next, fill the pot the remaining way with water and add salt to taste (remember the salt flavor will concentrate as you reduce the stock as well, so go easy you can always add more). Set the heat to medium-high and walk away. If or when it comes to a rolling boil, I just turn the heat down and let it simmer high.

    

The desired level of concentration will determine how long to let it simmer. I like a really full, earthy tone to my stock. I'm going to be using these for vegetable soups so I'm looking for a ton of flavor. I let mine simmer for over an hour, at which point the stock had reduced (become less) noticeably.

   

   Strain out the pieces of vegetable with a piece of cheese cloth, fancy fine kitchen strainer with french name I can't spell, or colander with a paper towel laid in the bottom. I really want to avoid and small pieces or sediment that may be left behind because these will affect the flavor of my soups down the road.

    

   Once it's strained? Yep, you guessed it, back in the freezer it goes. I will use some of the stock for a broccoli soup probably next week and I've been having a craving for my husband's spicy pumpkin soup so he'll use some with that, too!

  

   As an extra added bonus my house smells delicious, and I did almost nothing, to accomplish that. How, wonderful!

Simple City Sam