Homemade Stock

I like to try to keep food waste to a minimum. We don't have a compost at the moment, but I've worked out a way to make those vegetable scraps work for me twice over. The solution: Homemade veggie stock.

With high blood pressure a problem that I have to take medication for I'm always trying to look for ways to eliminate salt content in the food I cook and eat. Stock is a pretty essential pantry product, whether you use cubes or liquid stock - it's really handy for a flavour boost to many dishes, and sometimes it's a necessary ingredient, like with risotto. But stock can also be quite salty if you're relying on store-bought short-cuts. If you make your own stock salt is a good addition to the pot, though you can strictly regulate how much you wish to add when you do it yourself.

It's not only salt content that can be worrisome with stock. Meat stocks often have a high fat content as well. Lets face it, from fat comes flavour - but do we really need it as much as we've been convinced?

While I love the richness of meat stocks, it is also really easy to make a stock with left over bits of vegetables. This is also really handy if you want to make a vegetarian or vegan meal - there is no sneaky meat content. You can also eliminate all salt and fat. It's true!

The trick to making a flavourful stock at the drop of a hat is your freezer. Every time you prepare dinner or lunch, keep the skins of the onion and garlic, keep the stem of the cauliflower or brocolli, and keep the skins and stems of mushrooms. From different experiments I've found that the best vegetables for this are:

Mushrooms - when they're a bit old and wrinkly after being too long in the fridge, pop them in the freezer. If you peel and take the stalk out of the mushrooms, also put this in a bag in the freezer. Mushrooms are the best way to get a beef-style stock as they have that earthy richness that plumps up a stock's flavour and adds umami. You could also use dried mushrooms in place of frozen bits.

Stalks - Veggies like cauliflower, broccoli, silverbeet and cabbage have bits that people often don't prepare for the plate. This could be because they are harder than the other part of the vegetable, or just not liked. These parts freeze well and make really good stock.

Tomato - Sometimes when making a salad I like to de-seed the tomato. Other recipes call for the removal of tomato skins. When I make a sandwich I never eat that little nub on the end, and sometimes they're left in the fridge too long and get squishy. All these bits can be collected and frozen to add to stocks or sauces for a great flavorful boost.

Celery - sometimes there are too many leaves on the celery I buy. If the leaves are dark, they have a stronger flavour. I like to use the baby leaves in salads, but the dark ones not so much. So I put them in the freezer.

Onion and Garlic - Always keep your onion and garlic skins. Place them in a bag and add to them each time you prepare these vegetables. I've even kept garlic skin from roasted garlic to keep for a stock - it was a great addition to the pot. I also keep the green leaves from my spring onions for the stock pot.

Fresh Herbs - Whenever you pick some parsley or use some fresh coriander, there are often stalks that don't get used. Place these in a bag in the freezer, but be sure to label the bags as herb greens look pretty much the same. These aromatics really make a multi-layered flavour in your stock.

Wine - Any time you have some leftover wine and think you'd like to use it for cooking, pop it in the freezer.

Lemon - After zesting and juicing any lemons you use, you can place the bits in a bag in the freezer to add a light note to any stock you make.

Grit - Because you're using the skins and stalks of things, there is a chance your stock is going to have grit. It's okay though, the sediment usually drops to the bottom of the pan. When you're straining the stock for use, just don't use the whole pot - leave a few tablespoons in the bottom of the pan, and hopefully your grit will stay there and not in your strained stock.

Helpful hint - Keep the different sorts of veggie scraps in separate bags, this way you can decide what goes into a particular stock without needing to chip off the frozen bits of what you don't want to include. And don't be afraid to experiment! While there are some veggies that don't freeze very well (I've found carrots turn black) there could be others that I haven't tried that would work wonders. If it is a failure, it's no big deal, you're not wasting any money - it's stuff you would have thrown out anyway.

I made a stock today so I could use it in my barley risotto. Here's what I did:

Recipe

Ingredients

Tomato pieces
Celery
Cauliflower stalk
Onion skin
Spring onion tops
garlic skin
lemon
enough water to cover

Method

Place frozen vegetables in a large stock pot. Add enough water to cover and bring to the boil, then cook on a high simmer for an hour.

Let stock cool, and then strain. Use as desired.

You can freeze the stock in 1 or 2 cup batches ready for the next time you need to use a stock. Stock will last about 3 - 4 months in the freezer, and about 3 days in the fridge.

A beautiful clear broth.

Ready for the freezer and the fridge.