We don't like using dried/preserved (chicken) stock squares in our cooking. We prefer the real deal. i.e. If we want beef stock, we boil it up from beef bones and meat. If we want vegetable stock, we grill the vegetables and stir them into soup stock. The problem is, the man uses soup stock for all sorts of dishes, even if it's just the 2 of us. So it's not quite worth it to go through all that effort to make soup stock. When we cook for dinner parties, it's quite a heavy day already. We don't particularly want to wake up at 6am just to do the stock from scratch as well.
So we cook all sorts of stock on other days. About five liters for each type of stock. Then we pour the soup stock into little ice cube trays and freeze it. Once the stock solidify into cubes, we pour them out, put them into ziplock bags and pile them deep into the freezer. There, the cubes of stock stay frozen till they're needed.
Frozen stock cubes keep for months! We don't just save money from buying soup stock at the gourmet stores. We can control how healthy or salty we want the stock to be. The major advantage is the pure convenience of spending less time hunched over the stove.
14 comments:
Hmm... so it works for chicken stock too? I make chicken stock from chicken carcass and chicken feet... I boil them for hours too... think I'll try the same thing! :D It's definitely a solution for my craving for soupy homecooked food on a weekday night.
I must do this for healthier cooking.
I know i should do that too.. for chloe.. but i really prefer it fresh.. if i do cook.. for the lil' brat.
heh! as i've always said- deep freeze everything. even milk. when one lives alone, one can get very imaginative with the freezer.
do you also freeze leftover wines? they come really handy for making wine sauce or to add flavour to stews.
man. that's an absolutely brillant idea! they do this for baby's food but dunno why i never thought of using this for stock...
hersheys: it should!
lms: you can control the salt content!
mamabok: oh. the stock is not as a fresh soup to eat. not meant to be a starter soup. cannot just eat it like that. but this is a basic stock for pasta gravy/sauce, risotto, lamb etc. coz to boil stock like that takes 4hrs already. so it's easier to freeze it. otherwise, we gotta brown/grill the meats/bones and do a stock frm ground up.
fern: yes! you and your famous frozen bread. and all sorts of nonsense!
kikare: no leh. we NEVER have leftover wine. wahahahahhaha. :D we IS alcoholics!
fuchsiacow: if u cook often enough, this is one way.
goodie idea - something i should find time to try and make space in the freezer for!
corsage: can can! frozen cubes only!
wow, 5 litres of each stock is a lot!! we used to make fish and chicken stock and freeze them too, esp when latte was sick and only wanted broth. now, erm...we is lazy. :p
yuling: hehehhee. we work hard for a night and cook 5 litres to last for 3 months! we IS also lazy!
wonderful tip. thank you.
One thing I cannot do without in my cooking is onion and garlic oil. I do the same, I shallow fry lots of onion and garlic and keep the oil in an oil pot. It makes the food (esp stir fries) really fragrant. Learnt this from my mil.
I used to do this every week for my boy for about a year so that I can use the frozen chicken stock for his porridge. Occasionally I still do it but I have an irrational phobia of keeping the frozen stuff too long actually.
jomel: hmmm...will keep in mind. we haven't done any sort of stir-fry yet.
sesame: that's true! don't dare to keep for too long! so far, i think the max is 2 months. heheheh.
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