What do your meals look like (show me pictures)....

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  • mjbnj0001
    mjbnj0001 Posts: 1,269 Member
    I also use stock/broth for cooking grains and legumes instead of water. Actually often replace for water in recipes for many things like mashed potatoes, braising, added liquids for sautee and stir fries - fell into that as a way to intensify flavor when reducing salt.
    ...

    @mtaratoot @Adventurista @acpgee

    "Team Broth" here ... where it will enhance the result over plain water. For instance, I cooked pasta the other night using the left remaining chicken boil stock from the curry dish I made and posted recently. It really perked up the flavor of the pasta.

    While neither of us are on salt restrictions, we follow a generally "lower salt is better" approach and make sure guests know both sodium and potassium salts are available for their pleasure if they want at the table.

    For a number of years, i have used one or another of the no salt / low salt boxed broths and bases, and sometimes the regular or reduced sodium version of the boullion pastes more recently available, sometimes mixing them both for intensity, still achieving lower sodium.It took a while to adjust our taste buds and when we dine out, the added sodium from most restaurants' cuisine really stands out. We aren't purists, and so long as we aren't on a low/no salt prescribed diet, doing what we can suffices.

    I generated a fair amount of veg waste tonight ... carrot skins, broccoli stems, onion skins, etc., which got me thinking about these discussions on saving them for broth.

  • mjbnj0001
    mjbnj0001 Posts: 1,269 Member
    edited November 18
    acpgee wrote: »
    So what does everyone use their stock for. I don't cook much soup as the hubby claims it upsets his stomach. I only regularly use it for risotto and oat risotto. As my kitchen does generate quite a lot of stock, ideas for using it would be welcome.

    For those of you who have been unhappy the flavour of your homemade stock, I would suggest roasting any bones you put in. I toss chicken bones for 10 minutes on the hottest setting of the air fryer.

    we're entering soup, stew, slow cooker season here. all require cooking liquid. y'all have me thinking the veg scraps' stock prep now. i do not have a lot of bone-in items.

  • Adventurista
    Adventurista Posts: 1,962 Member
    edited November 18
    @mjbnj0001 - Speaking of using things, i also retain pan drippings and veg waters that are usually drained off and use them later in soups too.

    I was surprised how easy it is to make homemade broths and stocks... my family pretty much transitioned to store-bought versions of so many foods and products....

    So i find the shares online, like here helpful as I explore new things!

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    For instance, stumbled across this tray with persimmons... beautiful... adding to my list to try. Curious.
  • mjbnj0001
    mjbnj0001 Posts: 1,269 Member
    tonight's meal, wife's requests. homemade turkey burger, glazed carrots, steamed broccoli and salad. the bread is from my new batch (yesterday) of lite whole wheat. simple, straightforward stuff.

    did a fair amount of chopping and peeling tonight, yielding some veg scraps which recent conversations here had me thinking I should save for a broth. Did not,this time, but the thought is gaining some traction.

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  • mjbnj0001
    mjbnj0001 Posts: 1,269 Member
    acpgee wrote: »
    Hubby complains that having a large amount of liquids upsets his stomach.

    everyone is different, but sounds as if might be worth checking into.
  • mjbnj0001
    mjbnj0001 Posts: 1,269 Member
    @mjbnj0001 - Speaking of using things, i also retain pan drippings and veg waters that are usually drained off and use them later in soups too.

    I was surprised how easy it is to make homemade broths and stocks... my family pretty much transitioned to store-bought versions of so many foods and products....

    So i find the shares online, like here helpful as I explore new things!

    4p9ny6k4bd1h.png

    For instance, stumbled across this tray with persimmons... beautiful... adding to my list to try. Curious.
    you can get persimmons at good markets around here, but i have not tried them. they look great on the plate in the photo.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,974 Member
    I adore persimmon. But be aware if unripe, some varieties can be astringent leaving your mouth feeling woolly. They should feel as soft as a ripe tomato.
  • mjbnj0001
    mjbnj0001 Posts: 1,269 Member
    acpgee wrote: »
    Fancied up dutch herring salad as a starter. Spinach and pork ravioli with burnt butter and sage as primo. I made cheat's ravioli on Sunday using gyoza wrappers and some leftover pork loin blitzed with charcuterie for seasoning.
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    always interesting!
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,974 Member
    A little leftover chilli in a taco with aji verde, feta and pickled onion that were in the fridge with green sriracha and a few leaves of chopped spinach.. I keep corn tortillas in the freezer for using up small quantities of leftovers as a starter. Pumpkin gnocchi from the freezer with spinach and store bought pesto. Roast courgette and daikon cooked in the air fryer.
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  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,974 Member
    Thanks for the rice in broth tip. It reminds of Hainanese chicken rice, a classic dish of poached chicken served with rice cooked in broth, ginger and scallion pesto and cucumber. It is a hawker (=street vendor) dish I remember eating in Singapore where the broth made from bones of yesterday's orders would flavour the rice from today's orders. I have chicken thighs and chicken stock in the freezer so should make this on the weekend.
    https://adamliaw.com/recipe/hainanese-chicken-rice
  • mjbnj0001
    mjbnj0001 Posts: 1,269 Member
    edited November 21
    acpgee wrote: »
    Thanks for the rice in broth tip. It reminds of Hainanese chicken rice, a classic dish of poached chicken served with rice cooked in broth, ginger and scallion pesto and cucumber. It is a hawker (=street vendor) dish I remember eating in Singapore where the broth made from bones of yesterday's orders would flavour the rice from today's orders. I have chicken thighs and chicken stock in the freezer so should make this on the weekend.
    https://adamliaw.com/recipe/hainanese-chicken-rice

    you're welcome. we each and all contribute ideas to the others. i looked at that recipe link. looks interesting.

    i used brown rice, it doesn't take up the chicken flavor as robustly as white, but is still a nice touch. i used a low sodium chicken boullion paste that is popular here in the states, as i don't have right now any homemade broth at hand.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,974 Member
    Dressed up Dutch herring salad as an antipasto. Funny thing is that the poncy act of keeping the different flavours separate actually tastes a little better than mixing up beets, apples, onion, potato, gherkins, mayo, boiled egg and herring all together. Primo of paparadelle using the last jar of truffle paste we brought back from vacation in Bologna last year. Contorno of roast cherry tomato.
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  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,974 Member
    Friday night we mostly eat out. We wanted to go to a new Filipino place soft launching with 50% off but it was too crowded. Ended up at a rather lousy Thai noodle soup place across the street.
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  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,974 Member
    While we are on the topic of homemade broths I wanted to remind people to remember to save the bones from store bought stuff and takeaways like a rotisserie chicken or a bucket of KFC. Also if you order in seafood such as prawns with your Chinese takeaway remember to save all the shells for bisque.
  • SafariGalNYC
    SafariGalNYC Posts: 1,518 Member
    acpgee wrote: »
    Fancied up dutch herring salad as a starter. Spinach and pork ravioli with burnt butter and sage as primo. I made cheat's ravioli on Sunday using gyoza wrappers and some leftover pork loin blitzed with charcuterie for seasoning.
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    @acpgee - love the herring!!!! 🐟
  • mjbnj0001
    mjbnj0001 Posts: 1,269 Member
    acpgee wrote: »
    While we are on the topic of homemade broths I wanted to remind people to remember to save the bones from store bought stuff and takeaways like a rotisserie chicken or a bucket of KFC. Also if you order in seafood such as prawns with your Chinese takeaway remember to save all the shells for bisque.

    right you are! just got finished doing my autumn oven clean, refreshing my memory while it was self-cleaning (an imperfect process, groan) by watching some vids on rendering down a turkey carcass for broth (with all the disruption of moving into a new place and etc, it has been several years since i have bothered - thanks to you all for re-inspiring me in this regard, looking forward to some of the liquid deliciousness next weekend).
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,974 Member
    An old friend was visiting from Copenhagen and we ate at the great creative taco place nearby. I made NY cheesecake in little ring molds for dessert at home afterwards.
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  • SafariGalNYC
    SafariGalNYC Posts: 1,518 Member
    edited November 24
    I did use chicken broth I had in the freezer instead of water. This was a great way to use chicken stock, as I am getting tired of the risottos in my repertoire. I did make the sauces yesterday when I didn't need to do any cooking because we were eating out with an out of town guest. Next time, I will see if I can do the sauces with the food processor in the time it takes for the rice to cook.

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    Broth does impart such great flavor. I recently tried legume pasta cooked in broth instead of salted water and it was a clever taste enhancer!

  • mjbnj0001
    mjbnj0001 Posts: 1,269 Member
    Tonight (Sunday): savory cream of pumpkin soup with white beans. There's a ton of recipe variants online for pumpkin soup, ranging from, essentially, liquid pumpkin pie to more savory options such as this one. I combined a couple in this batch. Rather than start with raw pumpkin, I used a couple of cans of organic puree. It came out pretty well, nicely robust and filling,and fairly easy to make. I cleaned the oven the other day in prep for Thanksgiving this week, so I am doing non-baked/non-roasted things for a couple of days, the exception being a couple of loaves of my bread, of which I toasted a couple of slices to go with the soup. I sort of failed with my soup barista cream artwork, lol.

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  • Adventurista
    Adventurista Posts: 1,962 Member
    edited November 25
    Yum!

    Roast chicken hind-quarter & wing (roasted in skin then removed/not eaten), cornbread & butter, petite peas & green beans (used 1/2c of stock/broth instead of of water in the pan - it does add a subtle flavor hint on the veggies.)

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    For next batch stock - Included rough cut onion, bell pepper, celery stalk and baby carrots under the chicken for roasting - will freeze liquid pan drippings with the cooked vegs and bones for broth making later

    Looking ahead, will add the chicken bones along with same vegs and bones from under the holiday turkey and ham this week and what we gather most of December likely.

    Last year ended up with a 5 gal batch compared to the smaller 3 gal batch last week when i cleared out the freezer. Not much added sodium except when we use a rotisserie chicken for convenience, so we use the home cooked stock liberally in our daily cooking.