linky do's!

Saturday, November 10, 2012

jewish penicillin

last weekend we went to penn state for hubby's LCM board meeting.  we ate lunch at the the deli where i had the most delicious bowl of matzo ball soup.  the kids are still sick with colds and hubby is half hatching it as well, so i decided to arm myself with homemade jewish penicillin.

i roasted a chicken earlier this week and made stock from the carcass.  it made the most wonderful chicken stock, flavorful and fragrant.  this is the broth recipe i followed, more or less, except i didn't have any parsnip. i froze two quarts of it, froze another quart of it via a muffin tin (making half cup disks to flavor things up in cooking) and i had another quart and a pint of stock that i my matzo ball soup with.

i reheated the broth on the stovetop.  after it started simmering i added about a half cup of shredded carrot, one stalk of celery diced, and half a chicken breast, shredded.  i mixed up a packet of matzo ball mix and made matzo balls and simmered them in the broth.  i added two cups of water to the soup to stretch the broth a bit (the balls really soak it up).

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golly ned did this really hit the spot.  fragrant, flavorful chicken broth with salty matzo balls.

i must do some research on canning broth and stock and soups.  i froze my broth in freezer jars but i'd rather have shelf stable jars of stock.  next time i make broth, i'll have to break out my pressure cooker as well becos i think that's the only way to ensure safe canning of broth or soup.

i also discovered that using a pasta pot (a pot with a large basket that fits inside) is awesome for making stock.  i used my mom's pasta pot, putting the carcass, Mirepoix and tea balls of herbs in the pasta basket.  my broth was less cloudy and had less bits of herbs floating around, plus it was easy to just toss the cooked bones and vegetables into the garbage (saving the tea balls, of course).

i'm a huge advocate of making broth from roasted bones.  you'll find frozen carcasses in my freezer awaiting stock day.  i love using my own stock and broth becos i know what is in it, unlike the broth and stocks you buy at the store.  it just tastes better.

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