Chicken Stock

OK, it is the holiday season, and what better time to post a pantry ingredient that can be used in a lot of holiday recipes – chicken stock. Alright, this is kind of boring, like the photo above, but really good stock can be made cheaply and adjusted to you own personal preferences. I use a pretty basic preparation, but minimize the amount of salt, while keeping the fat.

I have also posted this recipe on my Bases and Compounds page for future reference.

The next posts I make will also be somewhat holiday themed !

Ingredients

• 7 quarts water
• 5 pounds bone-in chicken (I use thighs – richer flavor)
• 2 medium yellow onions
• 8 celery stalks
• 4 large carrots
• 1 bunch flat leaf parsley
• 1 sprig of rosemary
• 2 sprigs of sage
• 15 sprigs of thyme
• 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
• 4 tablespoons of salt

Start by quartering the onions (you can leave the peel on), and coarsely chopping the celery and carrots. Put the water in a large stock pot, then add the chicken, and all ingredients. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Let the stock simmer for 4 hours.

When done, strain the stock through a fine metal sieve into 1 quart containers with lids. Refrigerate the containers. After they have cooled overnight, any fat may easily be removed from the top. I usually leave the fat to get maximum flavor. Also note that this stock is pretty low sodium. You can always add more when you begin to use it.

Bases and Compounds

There are a lot of dishes I create that rely on base or compound ingredients, which, themselves, can be prepared ahead of time. Most of these can be made well ahead of time, and stored for quite some period. And all of them may be used in a variety of dishes.

This is my Bases and Compounds page ; I will update it as I add new things, and reference it often in the recipes that I present.

Maligned

The REAL truth about MSG

Let me make one thing very clear at the onset of this post – I am in no way trying to convince anyone to have an opinion about Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) other than the opinion they already have. I have tried, over the years, to convince many people to abandon foolish ideas, and frankly, this never works out. It seems that if people believe something, then evidence and reasoning be damned – they will continue to believe it. So I am writing here to influence those who really have no opinion on the merits (or demerits) of using MSG in food.

First, what is MSG ? It is a naturally occurring non-essential amino acid found naturally in a great many of the foods we eat. If was first isolated and marketed in Japan, where it was discovered to be a key element in the ‘fifth taste’, Umami (The others are Salty, Bitter, Sweet, and Sour). Umami is the ‘savory’ taste associated with meats and aged cheeses, but can be experienced in a lot of foods. MSG is closely associated with Umami, as this list of foods with naturally occurring MSG can attest to.

So what’s the big deal? Well, ‘Chinese Restaurant Syndrome’ for one thing. This is a condition, when upon eating foods with MSG, a person experiences headache, numbness, etc. Wow, sounds scary, right? Well, not so much. Because every valid double-blind scientific study has shown that MSG in food does not cause these effects. Just ask the FDA, European SCF , the WHO, and the Mayo Clinic. Of course, why bother with science, when you can ask sites like MSG Myth, Rense (written by an unknown author !) , or my favorite, MSG Truth (HaHaHa). Seriously, just take a look at what MSG Truth says we should avoid :

AVOID all CHICKEN items
AVOID all SAUSAGE items
AVOID all PARMESAN products
AVOID all Ranch dressings
AVOID Croutons
AVOID KFC

AVOID Dipping Sauces

AVOID Gravy
AVOID Soups
CANNED AND INSTANT SOUP
CANNED TUNA
FRESH TURKEY

While some of these things may not be especially god for you, it is for reasons other than MSG. Seriously, if MSG were bad for you, I think a lot of us would be in pretty bad condition ! Or has been said, “If MSG is bad for you, why isn’t everyone in Asia walking around with a headache?”. For a truly entertaining expose of the whole concept, see these two videos (Part One , Part Two) from Food Network TV Host Ted Allen’s show, Food Detectives. Then read the comments – they are hysterical – and as I said, if you believe it, then facts do not matter.

So why do I bother? Two reasons:

• MSG is a food seasoning, and a good one at that.
• MSG has less sodium (about 60%) than salt.

No, I do not recommend dumping mass quantities of MSG on your food, any more than I would recommend dumping huge quantities of salt (or any other seasoning) on or in your food. But limited use of MSG is actually quite good as a substitute for salt. I generally use 1/2 salt and 1/2 MSG when salt is called for, though never in baking (it just does not taste right).

So where do I get MSG? You would think it is impossible, judging by how many products and restaurants advertise “No MSG”, but it is not. B&G Foods has long produced Ac’cent, which is pure MSG, and is found in nearly every supermarket’s spice aisle. And if you have access to an Asian grocery store, look for Ajinomoto, the original MSG created in Japan.

Four Hot Sauces no kitchen should be without

Tabasco

OK, this sounds very pedestrian, until you think about it. This sauce has been around for more than a 150 years ! Many cookbooks written over the last several decades mention it specifically in their recipes. It have been imitated over and over again, but never exactly duplicated, by scores of companies. In a world full of hundreds of readily available hot sauces, it still outsells them all.

You can watch this YouTube video from the TV show ‘How It’s Made’ to see how extensive the process really is.

Tabasco provides a nice, unobtrusive heat to, as the company suggests, just about anything.

Melinda’s XXXHot Habanero

Melinda’s XXXHot Habanero Sauce may not have been around as long as Tabasco, but it is one of the oldest habanero sauces around. This sauce is based on one of the hottest peppers there is, but the use of carrots and onions in the base give this sauce a great balance between flavor and heat. I use copious amounts of this stuff in chili and southwestern dishes.

Sriracha

A quintessential sauce for spicing up southeast Asian cooking, the use of garlic and sugar in the sauce is what makes it unique. It is almost like a more liquid form of sambal.

Sriracha is really a generic name, named after a city in Thailand, but I always seem to get the brand with the rooster on it. God only knows what the brand name is !

Pepper Vinegar

A splash on greens. A splash in slaw. A splash on BBQ. Heck, anywhere you need a spicy, acidic bite, pepper vinegar is the choice.

There are plenty of brands that are commercially available, but why not just make your own. Mine uses:

• Thai hot peppers (75%)
• Habanero peppers (25%)
• 1 smashed garlic clove
• distilled white vinegar
• red wine vinegar

Remove stems form the peppers and slit them, so the vinegar can easily penetrate the pepper. Put the peppers and garlic clove in a condiment bottle. Fill the bottle with a half and half mixture of the 2 vinegars. Let it sit for at least a week prior to use.

To make the sauce last longer, replenish the vinegar every time you use a significant amount.