Yesterday I wrote today’s focus was Firm Cashew Nut ‘Cheese.’ However, there are a couple of ingredients we need to make first that are essential in nut ‘cheeses’ and many other dishes. Homemade Vegetable Soup Stock takes pride of place today as a basic but core ingredient.
This morning I woke up to the sun flooding through my window and the intense heat propelling me out of bed. Facing east, the mornings are bright and cheerful in my kitchen often prompting me to start cooking first thing. Today was no exception.
I have a 3 litre airtight container I use to store washed vegetable cut offs in the refrigerator…the ends of carrots, parsnips, turnips, leeks, zucchinis, celery, daikon, radishes, eggplants, green beans, capsicum seeds and stems, all vegetable peels including ginger and turmeric and the skins from pumpkin, and butternut squash, inner stalks from kale, rainbow/swiss chard, silverbeet and stems or roots from broccoli, cauliflower, cilantro, parsley, mint, dill, rosemary and thyme. Whatever fresh vegetables and herbs you have are suitable. Once stuffed full, I dump my container of vegetable cut offs into a large soup pot and add about 14 cups of filtered water to liberally cover the vegetables. Since I use this stock for everything from pancake batter, to soups, curries, sauces, nut cheeses and bagels, I do not add any chilis, strong herbs, salt or any fats.
I cover the pot, bring to a boil and simmer for 1 hour. I take the pot off the heat and let it stand on my stove top until it is room temperature. Then I scoop out the vegetables with a slotted spoon and put them in a large strainer sitting in a big bowl to drain. Straining all the liquid possible out of the vegetables, I store the stock in my 3 litre container in the refrigerator as I use it frequently and it lasts for a long time. it can be frozen as well.
I rarely make one dish at a time. I tend to start a couple of things simultaneously. I often think ahead as I have discovered many dishes require multiple stages; preparing things in advance makes more complex dishes delightfully easy and fast.
As I put my soup stock on, I started to make the soup base for Cold Korean Noodles by Emily Han. I found her recipe recently and it reminded me of the cold noodle soup I discovered and loved when I lived in Japan. The weather right now is just perfect for cold noodle soup!
I adopted her broth making some substitutions and altering the amounts. Here is what I made this morning;
Korean-Style Cold Noodle Soup Broth
ingredients
6 cups homemade vegetable soup stock (no salt or fats added)
1 heaping tbs peeled and grated fresh ginger root
2 brown onions, peeled and chopped into small pieces
4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tbs raw honey
4 tbs Redboat Fish Sauce
Method
Place all the ingredients in a dutch oven, cover and bring to a boil on the stove top. Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the broth cool to room temperature. Store in a glass airtight container in the refrigerator overnight.
In preparation for tomorrow’s cold noodle soup, I filled two ice trays with homemade vegetable soup stock. I put that in the freezer.
Tomorrow’s Korean-style Cold Noodle Soup will take no time to assemble and devour! I can’t wait! Fingers crossed it is as good as I anticipate!