stock

The rain has fallen all day, and I realize that unlike last winter, we have not had much snow.

At least with a little warmer temps, the ice has melted.

I cooked a couple of chickens last night, and will use the meat and stock tonight for chicken tortilla soup.

We use a stock recipe given to us from a friend in DC who shared it out of her rubber-band held together copy of Alice B. Toklas' cookbook. And yes, there are no controlled substances in the recipe.

I brown the chicken parts in olive oil and put them in the pot. I throw in a couple of carrots, celery, and garlic cloves. I also make quarter indentions in a couple of onions and then stick about 8 cloves in different parts of the onion. I add salt and pepper, and also thyme and savory. I add one to two cups of white wine and fill the rest with water, and cook it all slowly, not bringing the pot to more than a simmer.

All the veggies are cast away in the trash, their flavor cooked out of them. The meat is de-skinned and boned, useful for chicken pot pie, chicken salad, or a soup. And after it is strained and the fat is skimmed off (either with one of those fancy fat seperators or after it has cooled in the fridge and the fat has gelled on the top, the stock is ready for use.

I've frozen the stock broth in ice cube trays before and then put them in freezer bags. If not, the stock is only good for a few days.