Monday Bunday & DKM cooks 4-May-2008

Banana Please!

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DKM Cooks

Roasted Veggie Stock

If you are looking for a lighter veggie stock - Click here

What you need

Leek
Anise (Fennel bulb)
Onion
Carrot
Garlic
Mushroom
Zucchini
Red Bell Pepper
Parsley
Herbs and Spices
Sherry or other alcohol
Wee bit of olive oil

Chop all the veggies up, lightly coat with olive oil and roast at 450 degrees for 45-50 min. I roasted mine with fresh thyme tossed in as my herb, you can use anything you have in the fridge.

The hardest part of making this stock is not eating up all the veggies before you finish. Toss all of the veggies into your stock pot and with your sherry, de-glaze the bottom of the roasting dish - this is essential, you want all that good stuff stuck to the bottom of the pan.

Add 16 cups of water, your parsley and any other spices. At this point you could also add fresh or roasted tomatoes. I roast my tomatoes separate from my other veggie because they only take 15-20 minutes to roast. This go-round I had in the pot: bay leaf, crushed coriander seed, cumin seed, pink peppercorns and a few juniper berries. Again, use what ever you have in the kitchen that compliments the roasted veggies. I like coriander and cumin together as I like the citrus note with the anise flavor. Bring everything to a boil and then let simmer for 1-2 hours.

Note to Millie’s mum - here’s how big my stock pot is! Right now it has all the veggies, all the water and there is room for at least 20 more cups of water.

Once done, you want to strain over a cheese cloth into a new pot - I like to mush down the veggie with my ladle so I get out all the flavor! If you want to be sure your stock is crystal clear, you can use a chinois, I don’t bother - I’m not that picky.

The salting question - I do not salt my stock - I may add a pinch of salt and sugar if I’m sweating onions, but when cooking and reducing, I do not salt.  My reason: I like to salt my soup, risotto or whatever as I’m cooking it.  If cooking stock salted to taste, the salt can concentrate and make the stock too salty - that’s my two cents anyway.

When done, you will have 8-10 cups of liquid amber gold. Oh, homemade stock is soooooo much better than the store canned stuff.

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Craftie

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