The stock that pays endless dividend

 

 

Do you want a simple trick to make everything you cook have an otherworldly flavor? As though a goddess in her royal kitchen waved her hand and with the jingle of her gold bangles turned every vegetable, soup or meat perfect. As though a diaphanous fairy sprinkled fairy dust in your ladle as you were stirring the sauce. Then make your own stock. I started simple with vegetable stock, the recipe given to me by Mr. Saffron, with the assurance that it would make me an instant domestic goddess.

 

Most of the labor is the shopping for vegetables, which I strangely seem to enjoy immensely. While the rest of the world is at happy hour on a Friday evening I am invariably at the Co-op pressing, pealing, pinching all sought of fruits and vegetables.

 

I started with the root vegetables, beet, parsnips and celery root. Having never laid eyes on celery root, when a co-op volunteer guided me to the root, I was surprised. I had imagined a fine, delicate lacy root and what I found was a wrinkly leathery monstrosity! I later realized that the ugly root was also responsible for the monstrous flavor of the stock. Whoever said don't judge a book by its cover! Then came the classic mirepoix combination of onion, celery, carrots and leek. Three different kinds of mushrooms add extra aromatic flavor.

 

Finally, the herb bouquet. Thyme, rosemary, marjoram, parsley and bay leaves and I had my own herb garden on my kitchen table. Marjoram is an understated herb, a favorite of Ms. Butterfish. It has a mellow taste and enticing fragrance that does not overpower like parsley or rosemary and goes well with all meat dishes.

After sautéing all the vegetables, I added them to water and the herb bouquet in a crock pot and cooked it overnight. The next morning I walked groggy eyed to the kitchen desperate for coffee. Like the early morning sun filtering through the dark northwestern clouds, the deep aromatic herbaceous fragrance of the stock tingled my nostrils and woke me up before the coffee.

With a huge pot of the stock I felt richer than the first fifty employees at Microsoft with stock options.

Parsnips, beet and and yes the root with face of the beast but taste of beauty

The classic mirepoix

 

Portabella and shitake mushrooms

 

Garlic and onions

 

Bouquet garni, with thyme, rosemary, parsley and marjoram

 

Sauté onion, garlic and carrots

 

Leek

 

Pungent celery

 

Sauté some more

 

Zebra beets!

 

 

Celery root was hard to cut but Mr. Sweet Potato chopped away

 

 

Mushrooms next, just clean them with a cloth, never wash them

 

All sautéed out

 

 

Cook in crockpot for 6 hours and then strain after extracting all the taste from the vegetables.

 

The broth for the Gods is ready