Taking stock of stock

You might know that I adore Mother Earth News. Almost as much as I love Cooks Illustrated. But the most recent issue of Mother had a fantastic list of about 100 tips sent in by readers. These tips involved gardening, sustainable living, etc.

One tip rocked my world: save out the cuttings and parings of vegetables when you're making dinner and put them in a Ziploc in the freezer. When the bag is full, cover with water, boil an hour, strain, and you have vegetable stock.

I looked at that tip, and I was like, "Why the hell didn't I think of that?" Because, every now and then, I think I should really be cooking with my own vegetable stock. But that means buying tons of extra vegetables you don't get to eat, prepping them all, boiling them... and for what? 2 quarts of stock that's used up in the next couple of weeks.

But, by using the scraps from vegetable you're already cutting, a) you get to enjoy those vegetables and not feel that you've wasted them and b) you save time. Plus, once the veggies have been cooked in making the stock, they go out to the compost pile. Cooked food decomposes more quickly.

So what do you use stock in? I use it instead of water in soups. I use it to cook rice in. In risotto, I use half stock and half broth.

AHA! What the heck? Aren't stock and broth the same? No. Stock is for cooking. Broth is for cooking OR drinking. Example: when you have a cold, reach for chicken broth, not chicken stock. Broth tends to have more flavor (i.e., salt & other spices), whereas stock is usually just vegetables and some herbs (a bouquet garni) boiled for an hour or so.

Stock is the essence of vegetables.

So, next time you are making dinner, you can save out the potato peelings and carrot ends and onion skins and leftover parsley, etc. Fill up a gallon Ziploc bag in the freezer, then put it all in a stock pot, cover with water (and even left over wine). Add some herbs and some celery. Bring to a boil, then simmer for an hour. Then strain, pour into leftover sour cream/cottage cheese containers (each holds 2 cups) and freeze.

Ta-dah!