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What Are You Simmering Right Now? A Place for Mid-Stew Musings


jparrott

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The veal bones have arrived! I had real trouble finding them locally, so ordered online yesterday: MarxFoods: 30 lbs of veal bones for $114, which includes overnight shipping via FedEx. That works out to $3.80 per pound, which I think is a good price. Especially considering that these are from humanely-raised veal calves.

Can you share your strategy for tackling the task of making all this stock? I'm intrigued (would never have thought to go to MarxFoods for the bones)!

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I have an All-Purpose Turkey Broth on the stove from Lidia's Family Table cookbook. It includes the meat from turkey wings, carrots, celery, onion, leek, garlic, plum tomato, parsley, black peppercorn, Ditalini pasta, salt and some parmigiano-reggiano rind we picked up from Marchone's in Wheaton. We also fried up some bacon and have olive oil & grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese to add when serving.

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^^

Also simmering chicken stock. I'll be retrieving the (whole) chicken in a bit to strip the meat off, then throw the carcass back in for a bit. Along with the usual suspects of aromatics, I added a Star vegetable bouillon cube to make up for not having any fresh herbs on hand.

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I'm also simmering chicken stock right now. Made vegetable stock yesterday. Used up all of the chicken and veg stock I made at the end of December. I can't keep up! I'm following Molly Stevens's recipe from All About Braising, so I roasted the cut up chicken parts at 400o for 35 minutes before adding to the stockpot. Now I'm looking for ideas of what to do with all of that leftover cooked chicken. I don't want to feed it all to the cats. Don't think I want to make chicken salad in this weather. I've got a lot of homemade chicken noodle soup in the freezer already. What do you all do with your cooked chicken meat after making stock?

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What do you all do with your cooked chicken meat after making stock?

I cook mine until the bones fall apart, by which time the meat is quite devoid of anything approaching flavor (the presence of onions in the stock prevents me from feeding the chicken to my dogs so it goes into the trash with all of the other bits).

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I cook mine until the bones fall apart, by which time the meat is quite devoid of anything approaching flavor (the presence of onions in the stock prevents me from feeding the chicken to my dogs so it goes into the trash with all of the other bits).

That's why I've been following the lead of The Barefoot Contessa, and taking my chicken out after 90 min or so of slow simmer. That way, the meat's still intact and I can chunk it up. I usually wind up adding it back to the soup, making chicken salad sandwiches (reminds me of eating it as a kid) and sharing with the dogs.

Although it isn't deeply-flavored, it doesn't go to waste (not like anything does with dogs!).

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What do you all do with your cooked chicken meat after making stock?

chicken enchiladas. blend with sauteed onion and cooked potato and make croquettes. chicken curry with Patak's korma sauce, mushrooms and frozen peas.

right now, I've got veal stock simmering; I stopped at the new Lebanese Butcher shop yesterday, around the corner from the old spot. and they had several beautiful veal breasts in the case--they called them shoulders. I chose a small one, had them take the meat off the bones in one piece, and then saw up the bones for my stock pot. The thin sheet of meat is going to get turned into a roulade with a stuffing of layered spinach and porcini/crimini mushroom duxelles. looks so pretty when the roulade is sliced. a woman who came in after me told me that when she heard my order she decided to do the same thing--and we consulted on the stuffing ingredients. everyone else in there had been ordering hamburger meat and chicken. the butcher thanked me profusely as I left the shop... :)

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I've got a veggie stock simmering, something I started doing only after I read the "Creating Depth Of Flavor" thread...it really does add depth to soups, risotto, etc, and it's so much better than the cartons of veggie stock which look rather swampy. We're getting about 20 inches of snow up here in western Mass tomorrow and I'm planning to use the veggie stock in a lentil soup recipe from Gordon Hammersley's "Bistro Cooking at Home" cookbook.

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the presence of onions in the stock prevents me from feeding the chicken to my dogs so it goes into the trash with all of the other bits

Are the onions harmful to dogs? Or, do they just not care for the taste? I don't currently have dogs, only cats; we have had dogs in the past and hope that we will have dogs in the not-too-distant-future.

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Did another oven braise in my La Chamba pot-chuck roast, leeks, potatoes, celery, carrots, mushrooms, garlic, just a bit of olive oil/butter, chicken broth/beer, s & p, fresh oregano/rosemary-smells heavenly. I think my taste buds are dulled, though-to my serving, I have to add a bit of hot sauce to kick it up...

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Just removed a veal breast roulade from the pot of veal stock in which it poached. I stuffed it with layers of crimini-shiitake- porcini duxelles, spinach and herbs, and roasted red pepper strips. I'm chilling it overnight so I can get nice thin slices tomorrow.

Now I'm reducing the stock to replenish my supply of glace de viande packets in the freezer.

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Pork and daikon soup. From that, it branched to shitake mushroom, daikon and tofu soup, using some of the same pork bone stock used in pork and daikon soup. Also simmering is a pork belly-mushroom gravy dish (what is 香菇肉燥 in English?) to go over rice.

Really have to shake this whatever I have!

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Well, it was simmering over the weekend... beef stock. I used Keller's recipe that called for browning the bones in the oven (I had to turn on fans and open windows for the smoke!) then simmering for 5 hours before adding roasted aromatics and herbs.

I got 4 quarts of golden brown, slightly to moderately gelatinous stock from 5 lbs of bones* after skimming off the firmed-up fat on top.

*bones from The Lebanese Butcher for $1 per pound.

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I made both beef and chicken stock over the weekend as well. Followed Molly Stevens's directions in 'All About Braising.' So, basically spent much of the weekend in my kitchen. The beef stock calls for painting the bones with tomato paste, then roasting, before adding to the stock pot. The chicken stock calls for removing the skin and roasting the pieces for 35 mins before adding to the stock pot. As usual, I'm really happy with the results. My freezer over-floweth.

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As I lay incapacitated by day two of monster cold, I am NOT simmering the tom yum mix I brought back from Chiang Mai. It's a big, beautiful bag of dried chilis, ginger, lemongrass, herbs, and spices that I know in my heart of hearts will make a soup that will make me feel better. But aside from this here bag of baby carrots, I have no veggies (or tofu or meat) to add to the broth once it's done. And that would just be a waste of what promises to be some yummy tom yum.

Then again, I'm heading back to Thailand in a month and could get some more. Worth the waste? Sniff.

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As I lay incapacitated by day two of monster cold, I am NOT simmering the tom yum mix I brought back from Chiang Mai. It's a big, beautiful bag of dried chilis, ginger, lemongrass, herbs, and spices that I know in my heart of hearts will make a soup that will make me feel better. But aside from this here bag of baby carrots, I have no veggies (or tofu or meat) to add to the broth once it's done. And that would just be a waste of what promises to be some yummy tom yum.

Then again, I'm heading back to Thailand in a month and could get some more. Worth the waste? Sniff.

At this point, most of what you can taste is the heat and spices anyway. Go with carrots and any other thing you've got that could remotely go into the soup. Get more mix when you go back.

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As I lay incapacitated by day two of monster cold, I am NOT simmering the tom yum mix I brought back from Chiang Mai. It's a big, beautiful bag of dried chilis, ginger, lemongrass, herbs, and spices that I know in my heart of hearts will make a soup that will make me feel better. But aside from this here bag of baby carrots, I have no veggies (or tofu or meat) to add to the broth once it's done. And that would just be a waste of what promises to be some yummy tom yum.

Then again, I'm heading back to Thailand in a month and could get some more. Worth the waste? Sniff.

Feel better. Tom Yum and Hot and Sour soup are the best remedies for what ails you. I make a pot of a bastardized TY/wonton/egg drop soup with chicken stock, sliced mushrooms, lemongrass paste, ginger, tamari, cilantro, lime and egg drop. If I have some mini-wontons, they go in too.

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cabbage borscht with a hunk of beef shank with a marrow bone. I make it at least once every winter, a tribute to my russki roots. it's already tasting really good, but I'll finish it with some citric acid and some honey, to make it more sweet/sour. it would be better if we had some rye bread with caraway seeds to have with it, but I didn't get up to Breads Unlimited today to buy some. they have the best rye bread I've found in the area--our favorite is the corn rye, so called because it has coarse cornmeal on the bottom. we liked the "Brooklyn rye" less. not sure what's different beside the shape, but J thought it tasted "sweeter."

I'm also poaching some bosc pears in spiced syrup with some slices of meyer lemon and blood orange, for dessert.

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Chicken stock. Oh, it smells good...

I picked up 3 packages of necks and backs (roughly 4 1/2 lbs.) at Whole Foods earlier this week and they are simmering away with carrots, celery (with leaves), onion, kale stems, bay leaves, and peppercorns. I make stock with roasted carcasses sometimes, but the depth of flavor using the necks and backs is always better.

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Italian-American food: Meatballs in modification of Marcella's tomato-butter sauce to serve over spaghetti.

Meatballs also plant-based: roasted a largish "Chinese" eggplant, halved w slivers of garlics poked into pierced flesh. When mashed, combined w contents of a Butifarra sausage, egg, whole-wheat bread crumbs, pecorino, garlic paste, parsley and a few seasonings.

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traditionally, pork shoulder is used for carnitas and goat is made into barbacoa de cabrito. whatever you call it, I'm sure it will be delicious.

I somehow remember reading about goat carnitas on DR (as a suggestion) and just got it into my head that I was going to try this. At any rate, I seared and braised it very low (200F) for a few hours while we went to the St. Patty's parade in Old Town. It's fork tender and seems juicy, so I'm holding it warm for a while until we eat.

Now, to look up barbacoa de cabrito for the next time!

I know I can count on Z. for a teaching moment :)

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I've got some braciole braising in the oven right now. I've wanted to try making it for quite some time and finally got to it, with a 2009 vintage flank steak I pulled out of the freezer a couple of days ago. I looked at a bunch of recipes but am, more or less, making the one from Giada de Laurentiis's Everyday Italian cookbook. The steak was the right weight and everything :).

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baked beans. my original plan was red beans and rice, but I didn't have any cajun sausage. I was going to "make douille" with Jamie Stachowski's linguiça and some extra cayenne pepper. but J's long face when he heard my plan was enough to cause me to change directions. he wanted baked beans and was willing to accept a version made with red kidney beans, which I had already blanched and soaked. I cooked them until just tender with bay leaf, thyme, celery leaf and parsley. now they've been in the oven for an hour with onion sauteed with bacon, brunoised linguiça, brown mustard, ketchup, molasses, maple syrup, cider vinegar, bourbon, and a leek-wrapped bouquet garnie. another hour to go. I'd better not hear any complaints...

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Chicken thighs braised in Guinness. I marinated the chicken (about 2 lbs boneless skinless thighs) in 2 c of Guinness with a couple smashed cloves of garlic for an hour or so. Then, I browned the chicken in two batches in olive oil, removed that from the pan, and let about 1 c of sliced shallots cook down a bit. Then I added the Guinness marinade (minus the garlic, but you could leave it in) and scraped up any bits from the bottom of the pan. To that I added about a cup of sliced carrots and maybe a cup or so of chicken stock and a big teaspoon of thyme and salt and pepper. Add the chicken back in. Let this all come to a boil, and then simmer for an hour or more, til the liquid has reduced some and the chicken is super tender and flavorful. Adjust for seasoning, and serve on top of creamy polenta. The house smells SO good right now -- and this tastes delicious.

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This recipe for Jamaican Oxtail Stew from the NYT http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/magazine/06Food-t-001.html

My father made it and thought it was so good he photocopied and mailed the recipe to me. I cooked up a batch over the weekend (using beef shank since there were no oxtails at WF) and made the coconut rice recipe in the article as a side. Both were fantastic, although next time I might substitute regular stew meat for the shank which was gristly after a couple of hours of cooking. The smells and flavor were fantastic and I highly recommend this to anyone.

Final note -- beware if using a nicely seasoned lodge cast iron dutch oven like I was. The high heat caramelization of the sugar basically bonded with the patina and I have had to scour off my hard-won cast iron seasoning to clean it :)

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.Final note -- beware if using a nicely seasoned lodge cast iron dutch oven like I was. The high heat caramelization of the sugar basically bonded with the patina and I have had to scour off my hard-won cast iron seasoning to clean it :)

Next time it happens, boil some water with baking soda in the pot and then let it soak for a while. Most of the burnt stuff, even sugar, will come off without a lot of hard scouring.

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