I’ve just finished my first recipe out of “Keeping Food Fresh”, and it was great. I try to keep enough vegetable stock around, but it is hard for me to always remember to replace it, so inevitably I end up using bullion every once in awhile. Now, I no longer will feel bad when I forget to make stock, because all I will need to do is whip out my very own homemade jar of instant soup stock.
This recipe is fun and easy, because all it involves is using a food processor to grind up the vegetables, and then adding salt. The salt keeps it from spoiling, and according to the recipe it can last up to 3 years. This is great because it makes a fair bit of stock. I think that I am going to put half in small jars to use as presents.
Migaine De Thezou (Mixed Vegetable Stock)
Adapted from “Keeping Food Fresh” by The Gardeners and Farmers of Terre Vivante (this book is out of print, their second edition is called “Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning,” but I am uncertain if this recipe appears in that book.)
Ingredients
- 1 Ib. leeks
- 1 Ib. carrots
- 1 Ib. onions
- 3/4 Ib. parsley
- 1/2 Ib. turnips
- 1/2 Ib. celery
- 10 cloves of garlic
- 1 Ib. salt (I prefer sea salt or kosher salt)
Directions
- In a food processor, grind up all ingredients. You will probably have to do this in batches.
- Put the mixture in a large bowl and stir till well combined.
- Cover and let sit overnight.
- Remix and put in jars.
- Store in the cellar or some other cool place.
- Use 1 Tbs for every 2-3 cups water in soup, or to taste. I would also cut back the amount of salt you add to any soup recipe, because this stock has a fair bit of it already.
————-
Old-fashioned food preservation:
Did you have to do the whole canning thing or is the ginormous amount of salt supposed to preserve it? This is very interesting…
BTW you have been tagged with a meme. Please consult my blog for details. :0)
Mimi – The salt does it all. Of course, it would need to be a clean jar, but no canning required, at least according to the book.
It must be some sort of fermentation process. Very interesting. I just read Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz. He does a lot of fermentation with just veggies or fruit and salt so it must be similar. I haven’t been brave enough to try anything from that book yet except some really great sourdough pancakes.
The stock seems super concentrated, kind of like a bullion. You’ll have to let us know what the stock is like after you open a jar months from now. I for one would be very interested in knowing what the flavor turns out like.
that sounds like a great idea! i might make a smaller batch just to try it out.
Mimi – I really want to read Wild Fermentation. I think because there is so much salt, that the salt is what preserves it as opposed to lactic fermentation. There was a whole other chapter on that method, which I’m looking forward to trying again, hopefully successfully this time. My first time was with green beans and it got a bit gross when I forgot to skim it for a couple days.
Julia – It should be easy to cut the recipe in half. I would probably actually cut in to a quarter. I couldn’t believe how much this made.
thank you for this post! i definitely intend to try this.
Cookinpanda- I hope that you like it!
[…] you’re settled in for the day, head over to the kitchen to prepare the freshest-looking vegetable stock base I’ve EVER seen! Use some of that stock in lieu of water in some belly-warming black beans and […]
Oh my. I might be in love!
Maria – It you are in love with this, will will be amazed by the book! I highly recommend checking it out.
This sounds wonderful! Thanks for sharing the recipe. I’m still a little scared of how well it would keep long term and whether the taste would change over time. I’m a bit unlucky when it comes to things that should work fine! 🙂 I’m game for at least a half recipe though. Now to find enough canning jars…..
Wow, I have to get this book…that looks wonderful! Any idea yet how it tastes?
Robbyn – it tastes a little less mellow than regular stock. I’m not sure exactly how to describe it. It has more of a tang unless you put it in at the beginning and boil it for a while (say 30 minutes total).
Alicia – I was very scared too, but so far it tastes exactly like it did the day I prepared it. I understand the fear though. Let us know how your half-batch turns out.
Another idea for this stock is to freeze as ice cubes. Then you could just drop a couple into your soup. Couldn’t you? The stock sound wonderful.
Donna – This would be a good idea if you wanted to cut down on the salt, or if you were afraid of spoiling. It does make quite a bit though, so you would probably want to make a fair bit less, unless you have a nice big freezer.
Leeks. Two E’s. I loved your post, but as I read it the second time I could not move my eyes past that tiny typo (sorry!)
I will for sure try this very soon, thank you!
Oppps, thank you Sarah! I hope that you like the recipe.
I made a half-recipe of this yesterday and put it in jars this morning. It made almost exactly three pints. This is enough to make 15 gallons of stock if you use 1T per 2.5C water. This was a great way to use up the rest of my fresh parsley–I was going to dry it, but this was way easier.
A couple of suggestions to anyone trying this:
1) Make sure you have a large enough work space–trimming, washing and chopping all those veggies takes a fair amount of time and room, plus your equipment (food processor, bowl for finished product, cutting board, scale, intermediate containers and compost bucket), and at the end I had a mess of veggie parts & juice to clean up.
2) I have a small food processor, but even a large one would not have handled even the half-recipe I made in a single batch. Take the extra few seconds to cut your veggies into small enough pieces–about half an inch. It makes the food processing easier. You might also find that there’s not enough liquid initially to get the veggies grinding smoothly, instead of just sticking to the sides of the food processor bowl. I ended up processing about 2/3 of my ingredients in batches, then ran a second series of batches–the second time through there was enough liquid for smooth processing. I added salt at the end when mixing, but perhaps adding it to the chopped vegetables and letting them sit for a half hour or so would have drawn enough liquid out of the veggies for easier processing?