Vegetable Stock and Unexpected Soup

It turns out I am not so great at being home sick for a day. I don't do well sitting around doing nothing, so I decided to make vegetable stock. I've been making quite a bit of soup lately and most call or vegetable or chicken stock. I wanted to try making my own instead of reconstituting what looks like an herbed mould of golden jello (but really). So here we go...

Vegetable Stock

Makes 4-5 cups

1 large onion, chopped, keep skins
2 carrots, sliced
1/4 lb parsnips, sliced
3 celery stalks including tops, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced, keep skins
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp salt
2 tsp peppercorns
2 Tbs olive oil
7-8 cups water

Optional: Any additional vegetables and/or vegetable leftover bits you have. I used the chopped off ends of zucchini, extra carrot peelings, and asparagus ends.

In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat and add all vegetable, excluding tomatoes, herbs, salt/pepper, and onion/garlic skins. Cook for 5-10 minutes or until vegetables start to brown slightly.

Add the tomatoes, herbs, and salt and pepper. Continue to saute in oil for a couple minutes.

Add garlic and onion skins with the water. Depending on how much extra veggies you throw in there, you may need to alter the amount of water.

Bring to a boil, then turn down, partially cover and simmer for an hour. Turn off heat and let cool for 10 minutes before straining vegetables. I found it useful to dump all the contents of the pot into a colander with a bowl underneath to capture the liquid. You're all set! What you get should be a golden-ish liquid that smells delicious. You can use directly, refrigerate for a couple days, or freeze to use later!

Vegetable Puree Soup

After straining all the vegetables, I realized I didn't just want to throw them away. That and I'm poor so I wanted to be able to use them. Make sure you remove all the onion/garlic skins or any other questionable bits out as best you can. Throw everything into a food processor with some of the vegetable stock you just made - may need to do so in a couple batches depending on how much stock you make. I decided to add some beans (some protein) to the mix, I would've used white northern beans but I only had chick peas available. Adding all that to a pot, you will need to add spices to give it some flavor. Most of the vegetable flavors will have been 'washed out' in the stock. I decided to use nutmeg, cinnamon, and turmeric. Since I made quite a bit of stock, I had quite a bit of soup. I also froze most of this.

Happy eating.

Koober Jr.

Koober Jr Joins the Ranks

Hello Food Blogosphere,

It seems as though the great Dr. Koob has invited his daughter to participate in what will forthwith be deemed as the greatest food blog EVER. Just wait world, your brain won't know how to handle the picturesque creations of delectable, tantalizing, and coma-inducing cuisine that will be laid before you. You will have no choice but to drop what you are doing, pick up that spatula and re-create a spectacle so fabulous your taste buds will never be the same.

And on that note, I will tell you now I am just beginning to dabble in the culinary arts and such masterpieces will likely continue to come from the Doc himself whereas I will flourish the space between his blogs. I do what I can.

I got to thinking about what my contribution to this blog will be and got too excited to wait until I make something worthy, so I will be submitting something that will likely come up often for me. Pizza. I love pizza.

There's no way to deny it. I would eat practically anything on pizza, heck, anything CAN be eaten on pizza. What's not to like? There's the crust, a warm, perfectly browned dough that creates a cozy bed for any topping you so choose to pile on. And let's not even talk about the cheese...THE CHEESE. Although I suppose not all pizza must have cheese, but let's be real, it wouldn't be legitimate pizza if there wasn't cheese.

So without further ado, I give you a pizza I made with what was in my refrigerator at the time of conception:

 Asparagus and Sweet Potato White Pizza

Dough (NY Style):

I use this recipe for all my pizza-endeavors.

1 package of instant dry-active yeast
1 cup warm water
1/2 Tbs sugar
3 cups of bread flour
2 Tbs olive oil
1 1/2 tsp salt

Add the water, yeast, sugar, and a 1/2 cup of the flour into a mixing bowl. Stir well and let sit for 20 minutes (It will get bubbly). Add olive oil, salt, and 2 cups of the flour, and mix with a wooden spoon until it's together enough to turn out on to a lightly floured work surface to knead.

Knead for about 10 minutes, while adding more flour a little at a time, to produce a soft, elastic and slightly sticky dough. Do not add too much flour, just enough to keep it from sticking to the work surface as you knead. Form the dough into a ball and place in a large oiled bowl.

Drizzle a few drops of oil and coat the top of dough to prevent the surface from becoming dry. Cover with a kitchen towel and place in a warm spot for 2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size. From here you can divide into two separate doughs for two thinner crust medium-large pizzas or use as one, thicker crust large pizza. Dough can be frozen to use at a later date, but be forewarned that it will not be as easy to use. Dough can also be placed in the refrigerator overnight to use the following day.

Toppings:

I had made home-fries the day before for brunch and decided to plop those onto my pizza. To make them, I used 1 regular yukon potato and 1 sweet potato, diced and sauteed in a pan with a little olive oil. To give them some spice, I sprinkled cayenne pepper (~1 tsp) on top half way through cooking. While preheating the oven and pizza stone, I sauteed asparagus, onion and garlic to join the pizza topping party.

White Sauce: 

This is an extremely easy and delicious sauce to make if you are tired of the same 'ol tomato-based sauce on pizza. It can make quite a bit, so if you split the dough in two and are making two different-sauced pizzas, halve this recipe.

1 cup of milk
2 Tbs unsalted butter
3 Tbs flour
1/2 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp salt and pepper
1-2 garlic cloves
1/2 Tbs of an herb (I tend to use basil or parsley)

 Heat butter in a small sauce pan over medium heat and add flour. Stir until completely mixed (will clump). Slowly add milk (dribble it in), stirring constantly, then add remaining ingredients. No need to leave it on heat after all ingredients have been mixed. The sauce will thicken upon cooling, so you may want to add more milk depending on the consistency you want. I tend to follow this pretty closely. The 'sauce' ends up looking like mashed potatoes, with a similar consistency, but trust me...it's delicious and you won't notice on the pizza.

 And that's it! Load up the pizza and sprinkle with any sort of white cheese on top, I used a mozzarella/provolone mix. I would have probably added a meat component (prosciutto or pancetta would be delicious) to this pizza if I had thought about it ahead of time and gotten the ingredients, but it was great the way it was!

I bake the pizza at 425 on a pizza stone (make sure to heat the pizza stone with the oven beforehand) for about 15 minutes. Alternatively (if using a regular pizza pan or baking sheet), I bake the crust for 5-10 minutes prior to loading on the toppings, then another 5-10 after.

Enjoy fellow pizza fiends.

 Koober Jr.