Bender - Stock, Broth & Bowl: Recipes for Cooking, Drinking & Nourishing

Other books by Jo n athan Bender

Cookies & Beer

LEGO : A Love Story

To my mom, who makes chicken soup that cures all ills. And to my grandmother, the only woman who could ever get me to eat creamed mushroom soup out of a can.

Contents

Introduction

Stock is the little black dress of your fridge.

It can be sexy, but its more likely to be sensible. Its great on its own, but it is, by nature, unfinished. Think of it as a perfect start. It gives you the base that you can then accessorize or build on to make that killer outfit, which, in this case, is a righteous cup of drinking broth or a dinner that sparkles because it starts with the stock youre about to learn how to make.

Stock shouldnt be a convenience foodit takes time to develop flavor. But that doesnt mean it cant make your life more convenient. Stock and broth are being touted as miracle cures. And they are miracle cures... for your meal plan.

Stock, Broth & Bowl is about investing time and effort in the beginning of the week to help you eat well the entire week. Im breaking down stock to its base elements, giving you optionswhether it is made with animal bones, root vegetables, or shrimp shells because the versatility of stock is its true beauty.

The nine stocks in this book intentionally build in complexity from straightforward bone-based creations to spiced and sweet pots of liquid great for drinking or braising. Chefs Alex Pope and Todd Schulte, who own a butcher shop and a soup company respectively, developed the stock recipes. Thats because outside of grandmas, butchers and soup makers are the people who best know what to do with bones and stock.

The stock recipes are also right-sized. The goal is to let you produce enough, 2 to 3 quarts, to have a few cups of drinking broth during a week, as well as make the one or two recipes provided for each stock. I dont want this to be a flash in the flavor pan for you. Lets treat this like a summer camp romance: Fall in love with something new every week, and if it turns out you want to keep writing after you get home from camp, you can easily double whats recommended and store your extra stock in the freezer.

The first way the stocks become finished broths is through an infusion of herbs or aromatics. This gives you something to sip while you think about what you want to cook for the upcoming week. Ill share three suggestions for each stock, but my hope is that youll take these as suggestions, not gospel. Broths are best treated like taco bars and frozen yogurt shopscram them full of what you love and just try not to put together too many flavors that conflict (read: gummy bears and anything else).

The lunch, dinner, and side recipes that follow are designed to show off the time you spent building flavor in stock. The , which follow the same path as the stocka little bit of prep and a lot of unattended cooking time in exchange for an Instagram-worthy dish.

Stock has long been a part of what makes food delicious. And now broth, its finished, seasoned counterpart, is finally getting some of the same heat. On a cool fall day, I had a cup of cocktail later in the afternoon. The flavors werent the revelation. The revelation was the idea that broth can be so easily integrated into my diet in meaningful and tasty ways.

This is about being realistic about the time you can commit to making stock or preparing drinking broth. Youre not opening up a soup shop, but you can make a soup that makes friends think you should. You are not a pot watcher. You dont want to stand over a stove for hours on end, moving a wooden spoon in slow, mindless circles. Youre a human being with a dog to walk, a toddler to chase, or a DVR list thats not getting any shorter.

Being busy is what made it easy to accept the wrongful notion that stock is a food that takes too much effort in the modern era. The truth is that stock is exactly what you need today. Its what lets you create drinking broths and layers of flavor in a midweek dinner that youve got to make after you get home from work. Its time to Stock, Broth & Bowl .

A Well-Stocked Kitchen

Equipment

Stockpot. If you dont own one, borrow one the first time you make stock. Some are oval-shaped, and some are taller. Some are made of thin metal. Were taking a cue from Goldilocks here on size and fit. I have short armsusing the tallest stockpots on the market are like being in Cirque du Soleil for me.

If you want to take the plunge, follow the example of a friends husband during the wedding-registry process: He sat at tables and imagined eating cereal from each of the potential bowls on their registry. Stand over a pot in an aisle and imagine adding ingredients, and more importantly, emptying them without the hot metal touching your arms or chest. A 12-quart stockpot with straight sides will give you plenty of room (and the opportunity to double the recipes in this book if you want to make a big old batch of stock). As far as material, stainless steel with an aluminum core in the base is a good midpoint option, price wise, and will also heat rapidly and evenly.