Chicken Noodle Soup can be good eats, too. The secret is to embrace your Mennonite heritage. Even if you don’t have one.
What I mean is that the secret is in the stock – you have to make your own to really kick chick-soup up to eleven. Which, if you really think about it, is GREAT – because making your own stock is EASY and BASICALLY FREE.
Hokay, here’s what you’re gonna do. You’re gonna get a gallon freezer bag, and you’re gonna put scraps in it from all the “mostly plants” and “real food” you’ve been eating. So you’re having a nice celery and PB snack? Stick the ends you trim off in the freezer bag. Use carrots for something? The tops that you would usually throw away go in the bag. I had some junk from a leek I used, scraps from some fennel I didn’t need, stalks from some parsley I choped up, junk like that. It’s a great way to get rid of slightly-wilted, not-so-awesome-anymore veggies/herbs. And meat bits. Don’t forget the MEAT BITS. Make something with a bone-in chicken breast, and then throw the bones and bits you don’t eat into the bag. Throw fat you trimmed off a roast IN THE BAG. If you’ve bought a whole chicken recently, it probably came with a neck and some organs (this is in fact a biological entity we’re talking about here. Don’t get grossed out on me). It goes in the freezer. In the bag. What’s that? You bought some shrimp and now you’ve got some shimpy shells and tails and stuff? You know what to do.
So basically, over a period of weeks or months, you just try to remember not to throw things out without thinking about stock first. After a little while, probably right around the time you start to need more stock, you should have a nice little collection of stuff in your bag. You put in in the biggest pot you have and add an onion (quartered). Add 5-10 whole peppercorns, and fill it up to the top with water. Don’t add salt. You can always add salt later, but it’s purdy hard to get rid of it once you’ve put it in. Bring it to a boil and then simmer for HOURS. Go play some Wii Fit or something. Check it every now and then, maybe give it a little stir. Add more water if you want. The idea here is that more time is better, up to a point. So whenever you decide you’re done, pour the stock into a bowl, through a strainer, and discard the veggie-meat junk. The liquid is what you want. After it cools a bid, measure it out and put 1 cup each in ziploc baggies, then freeze. If you want, you can also fill an ice cube tray with the stuff, for smaller quantities.
So now you have this STUFF – which is basically yummy-infused water. What do you do with it? Well, you make soup! Or you use it to make cous cous! Or… if you’re doing a big skillet full of yummy kind of thing it usually calls for liquid, so use stock! You can usually substitute stock pretty well for anything that calls for white wine without too many troubles. Which is handy if you don’t want to use or don’t have any wine in the house.
Anyway, stock has flavor. Store-bought stock doesn’t have quite as much, but fools you into thinking it has flavor by adding a lot of salt. Don’t be fooled. Make you own stock. It’s worth it, I swear.
