Colorful stock

I am boiling our weekly bone broth for 24 hours this time, rather than the usual 6-8; we will see how it turns out! It certainly looked beautiful going into the pot, with the tops from a bunch of carrots and an onion, plus extra purple onion skins (after all, why let all that good stuff go into the compost? there's still a lot to be had from the leaves and skins of veggies). I always add 2 tbsp. raw vinegar to the water and let everything sit for about half an hour before turning on the heat to begin pulling minerals from the bones, cartilage, and veggies. You will see from the picture that we are still using an old unclaimed pot I snitched from my grad school apartment that has some sort of evil black coating on it (ugh). Any sponsors out there who want to send us a test pot? :)

*Note added later: This broth turned out oddly -- it tasted quite bad actually, somewhere between bitter and burned. I can only figure it was the carrot tops, though I have seen recipes that include carrot tops... the other possibility is that our horrible pot has at last bitten the proverbial dust, so maybe that was the problem. For my next batch I will stick with the conventional aromatic veggies and chicken - nothing else.

Stock improves!

Many people in the responsible-omnivore movement highlight the importance of "eating the whole animal," not just chicken breasts or prime rib. This was an important practice of traditional people, who recognized the nutritional value to be found in all parts of the animal; it also made food go much further and meant that families could be satisfied with less meat because they were using other nutrient-dense animal parts that kept them going much longer than meat alone could ever do. Farm wives of the past would use everything from feathers, feet, and gizzards when slaughtering a valuable chicken (and all chickens were very valuable). Many people who live on farms today still follow these practices. The summer issue of Gastronomica had a fascinating article on a traditional dish of the Piedmont area of Italy that incorporates such unmentionable chicken parts as testicles and wattles -- and yes, people still eat this!


I am slowly incorporating more of these methods into our way of eating, and while I don't plan on eating rooster wattles or testicles any time soon, I finally got brave enough to try making stock with chicken feet. There was a bit of the grossness factor that I had to get over, so I just tried not to look at them as I slipped them into the big pot of water along with a chicken carcass, cut-up onions, celery, and carrots, and 1 tbsp. of vinegar. I simmered everything for at least 6 hours, adding sea salt along the way, then strained out all the solids, and let me tell you, the end result was like no stock I have ever tasted. It was absolutely divine: deep golden-brown, rich, flavorful, and (as a single sip told me instantly) just brimming with minerals. Turns out this stock was also incredibly gelatin-rich -- it gelled beautifully in the fridge, which is THE sign of a truly nutritious, properly-made stock. Many people are tempted to believe this "jelly" is just fat and therefore must be bad for them, but it is actually gelatin which improves digestion and absorption of nutrients, imparts valuable minerals to our bodies, and has many healing properties (thus the old adage that chicken soup is good for a cold). People in many traditional cultures have sayings to the effect that "broth will cure anything" or "a good broth will raise the dead."


An endocrinologist I used to see (hurrah! no more need for that!) told me once in horror about the oxtail soup her mother made for her after her difficult labor and delivery with her first child. She was eating it gleefully for days, but then one day when she was finally up and around again she looked in the fridge for something to eat and discovered a big pot of what looked like pale-brown jelly. She was horrified when her mother told her that this was the oxtail soup she had been eating! The wise Western medical doctor, believing this to be pure saturated fat, gave her silly traditional Venezuelan mother a good scolding and promptly threw away the soup -- along with its amazing store of nutrients and healing gelatin. I had no idea at the time she told me this tale that the jellied soup had actually been gelatin rather than fat, though I suspected that something was amiss in her beliefs about it (as many of us know, saturated fat would be solid after refrigeration, like butter). Of course, her mother couldn't explain why it was so good for her, but definitely knew that she needed to feed it to her recovering daughter! Alas, how sad that we now think we know better than our ancestors what it takes to be healthy and well.

A bag of chicken feet from our buyers' club cost me $1.75. Since I can only order this from them once per month (the other farmer I order from doesn't offer them), I picked up a bag for $5 at the Union Square Greenmarket last Friday (from Flying Pigs Farm) and will be making stock with it sometime this coming weekend. At either price, chicken feet are now an indispensable part of chicken stock in our house. Here is the yield from this stock-making episode (a little less than 3 quarts, a typical amount from our large pot). I've included the carrots in the picture as these are the pieces I saved to feed Oliver:

Preparing for the week

I will be honest with you here: eating well does require commitment, time, and planning ahead. I probably spend 2 hours per day preparing food (this includes 3 meals and sometimes packing a lunch for Hugo), and this doesn't include planning and shopping or cleaning up. I could do it more quickly, but I enjoy my time in the kitchen with Oliver playing at my feet, so I do things at a somewhat leisurely pace. I realize, of course, that I am pretty spoiled to be able to take time preparing healthy meals from fresh ingredients, but most of the things I make are far from elaborate and with a little prep work on the weekend it's possible to enjoy delicious meals all week without too much labor.

The picture above shows seeds (all beans, nuts, and whole grains are really seeds) of various kinds soaking in water and either salt or whey. Soaking neutralizes phytic acid in whole grains and de-activates enzyme inhibitors found in all forms of seeds. Soaking also renders seeds of all kinds more nutritious and digestible. For this week I am preparing the following:
1) black beans (which must be soaked with something acidic, like whey or lemon juice -- 2 tbsp. per cup of beans, and enough water to keep the beans covered as they swell)
2) peanuts (soaked with plenty of water and 1 tbsp. sea salt for about 4 cups of peanuts; later I will toast these in the oven for about 12-24 hours at 140 degrees, and make them into peanut butter with some coconut oil and sea salt)
3) quinoa (soaked with whey or lemon juice: 1 tbsp. per cup of grain. The longer you soak quinoa the better the results when it's cooked! Five days is great, but it should be at least one day.)
4) brown rice (also should be soaked overnight with lemon juice or whey: 1 tbsp. per cup of rice)

Other tasks for the week include:
-washing, chopping and taking the lettuce for a spin in the salad spinner
-cutting up the cantaloupe and melon
-making stock from the leftover chicken bones of last week's roasted chicken (I use carrots, celery, and onions for this, plus a big pot of water and 2 tbsp. raw apple cider vinegar to bring the minerals out of the bones and veggies). When the stock is done I will season it with sea salt and strain everything into freezer containers to be used later (such as, when cooking the beans and quinoa). I will also reserve the cooked carrots from the stock to use in the stuffed peppers.
-making bean dip after the beans are soaked and cooked (I use sour cream and spices and mix everything together in the food processor)
-making ice cream
-making salad dressing
-making peanut butter (when the peanuts have been soaked and toasted)
-marinating the tuna (rinse & pat dry the raw fresh tuna; then slice as desired and marinate in 2-4 tbsp. lime juice and an optional 2 tbsp. whey -- the bacteria found in raw lime juice and liquid whey will crowd out any dangerous bacteria on the raw fish so that it will be totally safe to eat. It also begins invisibly breaking down the tuna which makes it much easier to digest and absorb.)

I will also make mayo at some point this week, and chicken liver & onion pate (recipe to follow at some point soon!). Stay tuned for stuffed peppers with quinoa, and khoresh bademjan later in the week.

Please share about what you will be cooking (and/or eating) this week. What types of food preparations do you do early in the week so that you can eat well all week long?

Easy stock

Making stock is quite easy; all you need is all the leftover stuff (bones, skin, bits of meat) from making (and eating) a roast chicken (or just a piece of chicken on the bone), a bone-in steak, short ribs, or a ham. You can make a small quantity if you only have a little left over, or make a larger amount. The point is to let nothing go to waste! Bone broth is a fantastic source of calcium and many other minerals in the form of electrolytes which are easy to absorb. Here is how I do it:

Easy Stock:
Place leftover bones & skin from roast chicken, short ribs, or whatever in a large pot; OR you can buy about 3 lbs. of soup bones and use them for this. Cover with water and add 1-2 tbsp. of vinegar (or just a splash if you are only making a few cups of stock - this is essential as it will help draw the minerals out of the bone, marrow, and cartilage and into the broth). Bring to a boil and skim off the foam. Turn down to low heat and simmer for 6 hours or more. Add sea salt to taste. Remove the bones and strain the liquid into leftover plastic containers like this. Label and freeze each container. When you're ready, you can simply remove a container from the freezer and use it in a recipe! It thaws quickly in a hot pot. Of course, if you have veggies and fresh herbs on hand, as well as a little more time, it adds even greater nutritional benefit and delicious flavoring to include celery, carrots, onions, and fresh thyme while simmering the bones.

Today I made about 2-3 cups of broth from the leg bones of last night's roast chicken. I made a super-speedy version by covering the bones with water and a splash of vinegar, then simmering for about an hour; I added sea salt for the final touch, then strained out the bones and skin and enjoyed a little with Oliver. This afternoon I gave Ollie part of the neck from the roast chicken, which I read the other day in Real Food for Mother and Baby makes a good teething toy/treat for babies! This sounds pretty barbaric, but Oliver took to it very naturally. It's great for babies, pets, and anyone in general to gnaw on bones because they are such a good source of minerals. Of course, it's always best to make sure the bones are from an animal that was raised responsibly and happily on a clean, sustainable farm.

Oliver decides what's for lunch

After deliberating for a few minutes Oliver decided he would go with two butter-fried eggs dressed simply with Celtic sea salt and fresh-ground black pepper, some ends of olive-rosemary whole wheat sourdough toasted with raw butter (alas! all out of sourdough now), two breakfast sausage links, and a cup of Mama's special turkey-spelt-fava bean soup. Actually Mama ended up eating pretty much everything, but Oliver enjoyed some delicious bright-orange egg yolk and even some cooled turkey broth in his little bottle shaken vigorously with pureed chicken liver! He was having so much fun drinking from the bottle that he didn't even realize he was getting lots of great nutrients and minerals, particularly iron and calcium.

On to the soup...

Remember how I was soaking spelt and kamut the other day? Well, first I simmered our turkey remnants (bones, skin, etc. from 3 drumsticks) for an entire afternoon (about 6 hours) in a potfull of water with 1 tbsp. apple-cider vinegar. This (apparently) is how you make stock, though of course usually you would want to add veggies to flavor the broth. I prefer to add vegetables later. In the early evening I removed all the bones and pulled off all remaining meat to return to the pot, then added the pre-soaked whole grains to the broth and allowed them to simmer several more hours to get nice and soft and a little puffy. I also added celery (w/leaves), onions, carrots, and a can of fava beans, plus some frozen peas that had been hanging around too long, and a good amount of seasoning (sea salt, rosemary, thyme, etc.). I let this simmer again the second day so the flavors could incorporate well and the broth could gel properly. Bone broth (as this might be called) that is properly made will become a bit gelatinous in the fridge, which is a good thing -- it's a sign that it is full of minerals. Broths and stocks made from bones of conventionally-raised animals will sometimes not even form gelatin at all, which is not a good sign. Of course, when you re-heat the soup the consistency returns to liquid. Broths are especially good for sick persons because they are so incredibly rich in minerals and absorbed very easily.