Stock, make it or I mock you mercilessly

Hello again everyone,
I felt I needed to check in, it’s been a long while since I posted and I’m not giving up cheeseandolive, but I’ve had much much less inspiration to write.
I thought I was alone in this but I’ve been reading the lovely and talented Esther Walker’s blog reciperifle.blogspot.com. She’s recently announced her own knocked-uppedness and how her interest in food has waned.
She clearly regained her interest. Me on the other hand I’ve gotten lazy. No interest in retouching photos so that they’re not so blue or so that you can’t tell that I’m a total slob and my stovetop is filthy. But I’m trying.

In the meantime, I think I’ll rehash an issue that I frequently bitch about and that is food fear / food laziness. Maybe that’s not the right name for it either.
Let me tell you the story.
I used to take the train to work every day (I started taking my car in the last few weeks of the gestation), and there are 2 women that I often hear talking about food. The thing is, they’re both dreadfully obese and are always talking about using this or that out of a can. Pasta sauce, soups, and worst of all, chicken stock. I think they fancy themselves gourmets, but everything that they talk about starts out partially or completely prepared. Pasta sauce, soups, and worst of all, chicken stock. Their reasoning? “It’s too complicated”. I can understand if you want to buy frozen puff pastry because it’s too complicated, or jarred curry pastes, or even frozen dumplings, but chicken stock?!?!?
Now I admit, in a pinch, if I don’t have any already made, or if there’s no chicken carcass waiting for me in my freezer, I’ve used the canned / frozen / or boxed stuff. But NEVER tell me that it’s because it’s TOO COMPLICATED.
“It’s too hot out” for sure.
“I have no chicken pieces” valid.
“I don’t have time right now” it happens.

But It’s too complicated? Pull the other one!

Maybe I’m getting too worked up about this issue, but just to be on the safe side, I’ll give you all a little primer on how to make your own chicken stock. And if you’re ever out and chatting about how complicated something as simple as tomato sauce, or broth, or soup is, and you spot someone staring at you giving you the stink eye, come over and say hello, it’s surely me.

To start out, you’ll need one very crucial thing, chicken.
Whether it’s a stock chicken (will explain more about that one in a bit — it’s a traumatic story) or pieces / bones of a chicken that was used in a previous meal, cooked or raw, it will all work (just not rotten, fools). Turkeys and ducks also work.
I must say though, if you want to make pork or beef stock, you will need to roast the bones otherwise you won’t get a very rich flavour. I will not be touching on that in this post because I don’t have pictures of it. Google it if you care.

Onions are also pretty important, but in essence, my theory is “use what you’ve got”
When you’re cooking, there are invariably things that you will chop off of a vegetable. Such as the top of a pepper, the tops and bottoms of onions, the ribs from chard, the leafy parts of celery. All of this you don’t have to throw out right away. Store it in your freezer in a plastic bag (make sure it’s clean though, no amount of boiling will remove sand and/or DDT) and when it’s time to make stock, you have a wide assortment of vegetables to choose from. My only counsel would be to avoid broccoli, brussel sprouts, and rapini because you don’t want to add any bitterness.

The standard configuration is to use carrots, celery, and onions (I like to use garlic too), chop them into manageable pieces and throw them in a large pot. Put your chicken in, if it’s whole or full meaty pieces, it’s better to be thawed, but if it’s a carcass, it can go in frozen. Add herbs such as thyme, bay leaves, rosemary, peppercorns, nothing too delicate. Cover with water and turn the heat on.

I prefer to let it come to a boil because I feel like I’m killing off any nasty germies, but if you want a clear stock you’ll only let it simmer... Hell if you want a clear stock, you’ll probably know how to do this already and won’t be bothering with this read. What I’m trying to do here is get people to make their own stock not to get the clearest most perfect broth. Once you embrace the idea that it’s not hard, tastes good, and makes your house smell awesome, then you can refine your technique.

So let it simmer for an hour or 2 and strain out the liquid into re-sealable containers and freeze. If you see a foam form while it is simmering, you can skim that off, or you can leave it. It is impurities coming from the chicken, but it won’t kill you. And like I said before, make stock now, refine later.
If you have the patience and are so inclined, you can refrigerate them and when the fat solidifies you can skim it off (much faster than skimming it when it’s in its liquid state) or you can get super lazy like me and freeze it as is then when you’re defrosting it just pick or scrape off the frozen fat, which will melt faster than the stock itself.

It takes virtually no attention, minimal skill, and almost free (If using scraps or carcasses)
HOWEVER, if you have a chicken that is a stock chicken, it is traditionally smaller and more slender than your regular roasters and may still have the head on. It will be cheaper. USE THIS FOR STOCK ONLY! We bought one once and tried to roast it. Firstly, it wasn’t 100% clean (organpalooza), and then there were the flat, rubbery breasts that cooked to the thickness of and iphone. Oh and don’t let me forget the crop. The crop is a fatty mass at the neck/shoulder area of the chicken. It is part of the digestive system. It holds excess food to be digested. When I cut into it, it crackled. There were white chips in amongst the fat, which I can only assume were pieces of chicken feed (roasted from being in my oven). But at first I thought that they were bone chips.
It was awful, I cried, we threw it out in its entirety and only had side dishes for dinner. I was a domestic failure and an energy / food squanderer. So to save you all the trauma of roasting a chicken that was meant for the stock pot. I share with you my story. So read your labels and by all means, buy the boiling chicken but be careful, if it looks puny, and still has a crop, chuck it in the stock pot, don’t waste your tasty cilantro red curry based rub (or however you choose to season your chicken) on this beastie.

Thank you for reading again after a long hiatus. I am hoping to blog again very soon. I have an event that I am attending next week, and am very much looking forward to chronicling that. So don’t give up on me, I’m still alive. And if you're bored with me, at least take a look at Recipe Rifle, she's managed to work through the temporary inspiration void. I'm confident I'll be able to do the same, and soon I’ll have all the time in the world to write on my maternity leave *wink*
Oh and NEVER let me catch you saying that chicken broth is hard to make or I’ll out your laziness all over the internets.
That’s all for now.
Xoxoxox
-Candace.

Artichoke Challenge

Hello once again! It's been a while since I've been here, and for that I have to apologize. The truth is, I've been keeping a secret and it's been a little bit hard for me to be social and talkative for fear of spilling the beans. But the beans are out of the bag now (to mix a metaphor) and I'm back!

Oh, so you wanted to know the secret? Really? Mmmm, okay... well the two of us, Kyle and I, are about to become three!! No, we're not entering into some illegal polygamous relationship, there's a wee one in the works!

So now that I've cleared the air and there are no secrets anymore... on to the real meat of it, the meat of the artichoke! This challenge was the artichoke challenge and my entry is sautéed artichoke hearts with mushrooms over risotto style orzo. This challenge circle is turning into a real little community. We're welcoming our 4th member to the challenge Katrina! So make sure to check all of our artichoke entries. I will update the entry when links are available!







The thing about artichokes is that they're a real pain to clean. You certainly don't need to take off as much as I did if you plan on using more than just the very heart, but I just wanted the softest most tender chunks. Apparently if you buy the little ones, they sometimes come with no choke.

I have never seen this happen.

Instead I always end up elbow deep in these little white prickly bristles, with a melon baller that looks like I've been involved in the perverse torture of a hedgehog. Once you strip off the outer leaves, the stem, and the hard green parts around the base, you're left with the yellowy heart. There are also beautiful purple inner leaves that are a little bit sharp and should be pulled out or trimmed. And the hated choke. It is the bristly fur in the middle of the artichoke. A grapefruit spoon is actually the best method for removing this, but ours broke so I use a melon baller now.



I also like to do this in water, for two reasons: 1) because the fibres of the choke will stick to you and this helps to clean them off, and 2) because the artichoke flesh will oxidize and turn dark in the air. Rubbing all the cut surfaces with a lemon will help to stave off the browning, but immersing in water (or lemony water) will further ensure you don't end up with a blackened heart... artichoke heart.

For the recipe, you will need the following:
5 large artichokes
1 lemon
7 white or café mushrooms (cleaned and sliced thinly)
1/4 cup dried chanterelle mushrooms (reconstituted in boiling water for 2 minutes and chopped roughly)
3 oz pork belly diced into cubes the size of a single lego (think one peg)
1 small onion sliced
a shot of sherry vinegar (about 1/2 - 1 oz)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
2 pieces of parmesan rind
1/3 - 1/2 cup dried orzo
4 cups chicken stock

Once you have the hearts properly cleaned and de-choked slice them into thin strips and put them in a bowl of acidulated water (with lemon or vinegar)




In a sauté pan, brown the onions in oil and remove. Add the little cubed pork belly and fry until browned. Then both types of mushrooms, once browned add the artichoke slices and fry until golden on the edges and a little crispy. Then add your shot of sherry vinegar and scrape down the pan. Remove from the heat and mix in the crispied onions. Ordinarily I would suggest keeping the liquid that you reonstituted the dried mushrooms in, but chanterelle mushrooms are notoriously gritty and unless you fancy worn down little nubs for teeth, just discard the mushroom liquid.

And then we tackle the orzo. Parmesan rinds are very handy little buggers. They're cheap and they very useful in risottos, soup stocks, and pasta sauces. Keep them in the freezer and they'll last for quite a while. You can usually find them from stores that sell chunks of the cheese in a hollowed out rind, they will usually cut up the rind when they're done with it and sell them rrrrreal cheap.

To prepare the orzo risotto style is very easy, but a) it sticks more than traditional risotto, and b) it takes less time. Heat some oil in a pan and add the orzo and stir for about 30 seconds. Reduce the heat to medium. Add about 1/3 cup of broth and stir. Once the broth is absorbed, add more broth. Don't add all the broth at once because you'll just boil it like traditional pasta and the starches won't be pulled out creating a creamy texture - which, if you hadn't guessed already is the goal. Once there's a little goop in the pan (the starch - probably after 2 or 3 ladles of broth) add the parmesan rind. It will soften and release its cheesy flavour. Keep adding broth (1/3 of a cup, or 1-2 ladles at a time) until the pasta is cooked and the texture is creamy. You don't have to use all the broth. Once it is done, remove the parmesan pieces (I like to chew them like gum because they're all soft and chewy at that point -- should I not have mentioned that? Are you all grossed out and judging me now?)

And there you have it. Top the risotto with the artichoke mushroom mixture and eat it. I garnished with lemon zest, but like these old gems you can choose your own... garnish... adventure

Well that's it, sorry for the long gap between posts, I promise that I'll be better now that I have nothing to hide -- or do I?
Well thanks for visiting the museum, please comment otherwise... you know... need I remind you?

xoxox

-Candace