Vegetable Stock

I feel as if this week just slipped by without my even noticing. I regret to admit that I did not get around to much cooking this week. I did however get my fill of chocolate cake and fruit flan thanks to Mike and the girls at work! I am now one year older and probably one pound heavier! On top of all the birthday fun this week I also took one giant step into adulthood and traded in my peppy sports car for a more practical Subaru Outback. Funny how life changes when you least expect it. One day your thinking "I wouldn't be caught dead driving a station wagon" and the next your jumping at the chance to get rid of your 2 door coupe!

I have learned so many new and enlightening skills over the past few weeks that I feel the need to improve quite a few of my recipes. With that said, you may notice some of my recipes disappearing. I will be working on re-posting these with new and improved techniques and ingredients.

First on my cooking improvement list is to stop following recipes step by step and begin to taste for balance and use my own intuition to tell me what I need to add next. I am going to start at the beginning and learn the fundamentals and commit to applying these to every dish I make from here on out! Well, at least I'm going to try.

I woke up this morning eager to find inspiration for today's dinner. This involved a trip to the produce market which is not unusual for a Sunday morning. This time around I decided to leave my shopping list behind. In order to find balance in my cooking I need to start off with only the freshest ingredients, buying what looks appealing instead of what is on my shopping list. Today I shopped based on what was in season and fresh!

Today I am making vegetable stock. Partly because its Sunday and I have the time to do so and partly because I recently learned the importance of using real stock in my fundamentals cooking class at the French Mint. This is one of the improved ingredients you will notice in my recipes from now on.

You really don't need a recipe to make vegetable stock. However, I have roughly outline one you can use as a base. 

• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 cup leek greens, roughly chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and diced
• 2-3 stalks celery with leaves, diced
• 1 cup squash, cubed
• 1 potato, diced
• 1 tomato, diced
• 1/4 cup green lentils, rinsed
• 1/4 tsp dried thyme or 6 branche
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 handfuls lovage leaves, roughly chopped
• 8 branches parsley, roughly chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 8 cups cold water

1. Heat butter in a large pot, add vegetables, herbs, garlic and nutritional yeast, 1/2 cup  water, and cook for 15 minutes over medium heat. Pour in 8 cups of water, bring to a boil; then simmer partially covered for 40 minutes.
2. Pour stock through a sieve and press out as much liquid as possible. Add salt to taste. Use immediately or store in refrigerator for 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

Note:  Keep odds and ends of vegetables in your freezer until you are ready to make stock. For example I made leek soup last week so I kept the ends of my leeks for stock.