(no subject)
Two 'dishes' in a row, because one leads into the other. I did all of these yesterday, and used up the rest of my vegetable stock to make stir fry for dinner tonight. Good stuff! The original recipe for the stock only makes 4 cups, which no recipe in its right mind uses. THIS recipe and guide will make 8 cups. I've tweaked it a bit to my own liking, so if you want the original, I'll hook you up.
The stock will take about 2 hours to make, including chopping and simmering time. It's a bit labor intensive, but it's worthwhile and your dishes will be better for it. You can store it in the freezer for a long time, too. The stuff from the store is not only packed with sodium, but is a darker stock I think. I've cheated with these dishes before and used the store stuff and it always tastes... weird. I think with the other stuff they put veggies in a blender and call it stock (or V8).
At any rate, I hope this guide/recipe is helpful to you!
BASIC VEGETABLE STOCK
WHAT YOU'LL NEED
4 tbsp sunflower oil
2 leeks, thinly sliced
4 celery stalks, finely chopped
2 md potatoes, diced
4 carrots, thinly sliced (use matchstick carrots if available)
1 large parsnip (or two little ones)
2 sm turnips
4 bay leaves
2 garlic cloves, minced
12 fresh parsley sprigs
8 cups water
Your favorite vegetable chopping knife
cutting board
Blender (optional, but HIGHLY recommended)
The largest pot you probably own
Strainer
Ladle
Ready to chop? Horray! When I first started doing Real Cooking, half of these ingredients looked like they came from another planet. Thankfully patience and YouTube have taught me how to properly do these things. I'm certain most of you already know how to do this stuff, but I'm going into detail to show how I made my life easier with these techniques. If you have one of your own, or a suggestion, let me know!
LEEKS
I chopped these totally wrong for well over a year. Once I figured them out, I started using them every time a recipe called for an onion. I like the taste of these better, AND they're easier to chop.
Start by lopping off the dark green parts and the roots. I usually peel off the first layer to flush out any dirt that might be wedged in there, and then get to the slicing.
Slice the leek in half, flushing out dirt again if you have to.
Slice it in half again. Now chop it vertically to get all the thin little pieces.
The result should be slighlty less blurry than this picture:
Bonus Story: Not too long ago I finally sat down and watched Red vs. Blue. I made the mistake of going grocery shopping after a marathon, and as I thought 'Oh, I need to pick up some leeks' I suddenly heard Sarge bellow in my mind: 'That's disgusting! You should be ashamed of yourself! Use the restroom!'
PARSNIP (and turnips)
The parsnip remains my Arch Nemesis of this recipe. Suggestions are welcome for how to tackle this evil thing.
I start by shearing the skin off with a vegetable peeler. After that I cut it into slices, then quarter it. The step I suggest skipping is the one where I cut a chunk of my thumb off while doing this. God I hate parsnips.
ANYWAYS. This is where the blender becomes your friend. The trick to keeping this recipe simple is remembering the end result: a liquid. Whatever you can do to make those vegetable give up their sweet nutrients, DO IT. For the carrots I usually buy either matchstick or already shaved. For the parsnip, I make the blender do the work for me.
BEFORE:
AND AFTER CHOP FUNCTION:
Repeat this process with the turnips, which are far less sinister and smell kind of good.
GARLIC
Garlic is pretty straight forward, but here's some tricks to make it as easy to deal with as possible. As far as I've found, anyways!
First off, the skin can be irritating to peel off for those of us that don't own fancy garlic presses that mince AND remove the skin. PFAH. Place the clove on the cutting board and press the flat of a knife blade against it.
Press until it squashes or cracks. Haha my hand is orange from shredding carrots :D
Ta dah! The skin peels right off and is ready for mincing. Perfect. Also: to get garlic smell of your hands, rub them on stainless steel. My tea pot is multifunctional!
Celery and potatoes should be self explanatory, no tricks there. If you need help, talk to me after class and we'll sign you up for Remedial Cooking 100.
Phew! Everything's chopped and ready to go! On to the actual stock-making part.
1. Heat the sunflower oil in a large pot. Add in the leeks, garlic, celery and potato and cook over low heat, stirring frequently, for about 8 or so minutes. I call it good when the potatoes start looking translucent from the oil.
(I seasoned with cinnamon again, which is of course totally optional. I'm just addicted to cooking with it)
2. Add the carrots, parnips, turnips, bay leaves, parsley sprigs and stir well for about 2-4 minutes. Increase the heat to medium, then pour in the water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 1 hour.
ONE HOUR LATER:
Yeah, this looks vaguely inedible. Which is fine! Because you're not eating that part, duh.
3. Remove from heat and strain the stock into a bowl through a fine strainer. This is my set up, featuring the outragelously large tupperware my mother mysteriously bought me four years ago:
4. Press the vegetables with the back of a ladle to get as much liquid out as possible. Strain the stock again, let it cool, then either store it or start cookin' your next meal.
Congratulations! You've just made 8 cups of super healthy vegetable stock!
We now transition over to Squash and Lentil soup!
SQUASH AND LENTIL SOUP
WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
3 tbsp olive oil
1 leek, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground coriander
~ 2lb butternut squash, seeded and cut into small chunks (original recipe also suggests using pumpkin instead of butternut)
1 1/2 cups red or yellow lentils, uncooked
7 1/2 cups basic vegetable stock
creme fraiche or plain yogurt, to garnish
You favorite vegetable chopping knife
cutting board
Blender (REQUIRED)
Ladle
Here's everything ready to go! The squash was prepared previously, as was the vegetable stock. Uh, ignore the lemon. It's so optional I forgot about it until after eating the soup. I can use it for other purposes.
1. Heat the olive oil in a large pan, then add the leeks and garlic and cook over low heat for about 5 minutes. Add the cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and coriander and cook, stirring constantly for 1 minute.
2. Stir in the butternut squash and lentils and cook, stirring constantly for 2 minutes, then pour in the vegetable stock and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat and simmer for 50-60 minutes, until veggies are tender. Since I cooked the squash beforehand (in your FACE original recipe!), I only simmered for 50 minutes, but it could easily be done before then.
Well, this looks... delicious? Don't worry, it gets grosser! But it tastes wonderful, and will warm you up on even the coldest of days.
3. Remove from heat and let it cool off for a bit. You want to wait depending on how fussy your blender is about hot foods. Once it's cool enough, ladle batches of the soup into the blender. Process to a smooth puree.
...yeah, the first time I made this the look of it makes you want to gag. But the smell? Oh goodness you will be in heaven. Suck it up, because that nasty slop is DELICIOUS.
4. Season with salt and pepper if you wish, and then swirl in some yogurt. That creates these nice little cold pockets in an otherwise toasty soup. Ignore how gross it looks and eat up!
And that's how I spent most of yesterday. I hope you got something out of it, and enjoy something super yummy!
The stock will take about 2 hours to make, including chopping and simmering time. It's a bit labor intensive, but it's worthwhile and your dishes will be better for it. You can store it in the freezer for a long time, too. The stuff from the store is not only packed with sodium, but is a darker stock I think. I've cheated with these dishes before and used the store stuff and it always tastes... weird. I think with the other stuff they put veggies in a blender and call it stock (or V8).
At any rate, I hope this guide/recipe is helpful to you!
BASIC VEGETABLE STOCK
WHAT YOU'LL NEED
4 tbsp sunflower oil
2 leeks, thinly sliced
4 celery stalks, finely chopped
2 md potatoes, diced
4 carrots, thinly sliced (use matchstick carrots if available)
1 large parsnip (or two little ones)
2 sm turnips
4 bay leaves
2 garlic cloves, minced
12 fresh parsley sprigs
8 cups water
Your favorite vegetable chopping knife
cutting board
Blender (optional, but HIGHLY recommended)
The largest pot you probably own
Strainer
Ladle
Ready to chop? Horray! When I first started doing Real Cooking, half of these ingredients looked like they came from another planet. Thankfully patience and YouTube have taught me how to properly do these things. I'm certain most of you already know how to do this stuff, but I'm going into detail to show how I made my life easier with these techniques. If you have one of your own, or a suggestion, let me know!
LEEKS
I chopped these totally wrong for well over a year. Once I figured them out, I started using them every time a recipe called for an onion. I like the taste of these better, AND they're easier to chop.
Start by lopping off the dark green parts and the roots. I usually peel off the first layer to flush out any dirt that might be wedged in there, and then get to the slicing.
Slice the leek in half, flushing out dirt again if you have to.
Slice it in half again. Now chop it vertically to get all the thin little pieces.
The result should be slighlty less blurry than this picture:
Bonus Story: Not too long ago I finally sat down and watched Red vs. Blue. I made the mistake of going grocery shopping after a marathon, and as I thought 'Oh, I need to pick up some leeks' I suddenly heard Sarge bellow in my mind: 'That's disgusting! You should be ashamed of yourself! Use the restroom!'
PARSNIP (and turnips)
The parsnip remains my Arch Nemesis of this recipe. Suggestions are welcome for how to tackle this evil thing.
I start by shearing the skin off with a vegetable peeler. After that I cut it into slices, then quarter it. The step I suggest skipping is the one where I cut a chunk of my thumb off while doing this. God I hate parsnips.
ANYWAYS. This is where the blender becomes your friend. The trick to keeping this recipe simple is remembering the end result: a liquid. Whatever you can do to make those vegetable give up their sweet nutrients, DO IT. For the carrots I usually buy either matchstick or already shaved. For the parsnip, I make the blender do the work for me.
BEFORE:
AND AFTER CHOP FUNCTION:
Repeat this process with the turnips, which are far less sinister and smell kind of good.
GARLIC
Garlic is pretty straight forward, but here's some tricks to make it as easy to deal with as possible. As far as I've found, anyways!
First off, the skin can be irritating to peel off for those of us that don't own fancy garlic presses that mince AND remove the skin. PFAH. Place the clove on the cutting board and press the flat of a knife blade against it.
Press until it squashes or cracks. Haha my hand is orange from shredding carrots :D
Ta dah! The skin peels right off and is ready for mincing. Perfect. Also: to get garlic smell of your hands, rub them on stainless steel. My tea pot is multifunctional!
Celery and potatoes should be self explanatory, no tricks there. If you need help, talk to me after class and we'll sign you up for Remedial Cooking 100.
Phew! Everything's chopped and ready to go! On to the actual stock-making part.
1. Heat the sunflower oil in a large pot. Add in the leeks, garlic, celery and potato and cook over low heat, stirring frequently, for about 8 or so minutes. I call it good when the potatoes start looking translucent from the oil.
(I seasoned with cinnamon again, which is of course totally optional. I'm just addicted to cooking with it)
2. Add the carrots, parnips, turnips, bay leaves, parsley sprigs and stir well for about 2-4 minutes. Increase the heat to medium, then pour in the water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 1 hour.
ONE HOUR LATER:
Yeah, this looks vaguely inedible. Which is fine! Because you're not eating that part, duh.
3. Remove from heat and strain the stock into a bowl through a fine strainer. This is my set up, featuring the outragelously large tupperware my mother mysteriously bought me four years ago:
4. Press the vegetables with the back of a ladle to get as much liquid out as possible. Strain the stock again, let it cool, then either store it or start cookin' your next meal.
Congratulations! You've just made 8 cups of super healthy vegetable stock!
We now transition over to Squash and Lentil soup!
SQUASH AND LENTIL SOUP
WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
3 tbsp olive oil
1 leek, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground coriander
~ 2lb butternut squash, seeded and cut into small chunks (original recipe also suggests using pumpkin instead of butternut)
1 1/2 cups red or yellow lentils, uncooked
7 1/2 cups basic vegetable stock
creme fraiche or plain yogurt, to garnish
You favorite vegetable chopping knife
cutting board
Blender (REQUIRED)
Ladle
Here's everything ready to go! The squash was prepared previously, as was the vegetable stock. Uh, ignore the lemon. It's so optional I forgot about it until after eating the soup. I can use it for other purposes.
1. Heat the olive oil in a large pan, then add the leeks and garlic and cook over low heat for about 5 minutes. Add the cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and coriander and cook, stirring constantly for 1 minute.
2. Stir in the butternut squash and lentils and cook, stirring constantly for 2 minutes, then pour in the vegetable stock and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat and simmer for 50-60 minutes, until veggies are tender. Since I cooked the squash beforehand (in your FACE original recipe!), I only simmered for 50 minutes, but it could easily be done before then.
Well, this looks... delicious? Don't worry, it gets grosser! But it tastes wonderful, and will warm you up on even the coldest of days.
3. Remove from heat and let it cool off for a bit. You want to wait depending on how fussy your blender is about hot foods. Once it's cool enough, ladle batches of the soup into the blender. Process to a smooth puree.
...yeah, the first time I made this the look of it makes you want to gag. But the smell? Oh goodness you will be in heaven. Suck it up, because that nasty slop is DELICIOUS.
4. Season with salt and pepper if you wish, and then swirl in some yogurt. That creates these nice little cold pockets in an otherwise toasty soup. Ignore how gross it looks and eat up!
And that's how I spent most of yesterday. I hope you got something out of it, and enjoy something super yummy!