Trash Heap

I keep a baggie in my freezer for all of my vegetable scraps; onion skins, parsley stems, dried out garlic, awkward ends-of-kale, yes, carrot tops. I keep a separate baggie of anything mushroom related, mostly stems. When I have a day off, and a full baggie, I put the refuse in a stock pot, cover it with water, and let it boil away until the water is full flavored, or I am very bored.

My mother once gave me one of those gigantic pasta pots with a colander insert which always seems like overkill for making pasta, but is perfect for making stock. When it's done I hoist the colander, let the veggies drain a while and that's it: perfect vegetable broth. If you don't have this kind of pot you can just pour your stock through a colander and into a separate pot or storage container. Someone more patient than me would strain this through a cheese cloth, but I don't mind the bits of vegetable refuse that make their way back into to liquid. This can be frozen for later use, but remember to leave a good amount of space in your containers as liquids expand in volume as they cool.

This week I made a roast chicken stuffed with Meyer lemons and thyme, and once it was carved, I threw it in a pot of water and let it simmer overnight. I had the next day off from work and slept in, so this was quite a long simmer. When I woke up I added my freezer scraps and the bowl of veggie ends you see above and let it all go another two hours. After straining, I added some cloves and a star anise and let it all reduce a bit. For dinner, I ladeled this stock over the left over torn chicken breast, and topped with bean sprouts and a mess of fresh herbs and a splash of fish sauce, for a very inauthentic (but very true to the leftovers-for-infinity approach to food-making that is central to Vietnamese cuisine) Pho.

A note on scraps: pretty much all of your kitchen scraps can get a second life as the base for stock. You might need to take consideration of strong flavors that might not blend well with others. For example, I save  my fennel scraps for a special strong bone broth I make in the winter when I am sick as it adds a strange mentholated taste to the final stock, which is not unwelcome. Mushrooms get their own baggie in my case because I truly love mushrooms and make a very potent mushroom garlic stock that I use to make shitake soup and is amazing in risotto and braised bok choy as well. You can add yours to your veggie stock if you like.

Carrot Tops

First of all, you can stop buying baby carrots in the bag. Go ahead and grab some big beautiful babies with the long green tops attached. You can cut them thumbsize if you like, but I like to keep them full size and roast them whole. Here I added some olive oil and coriander, which has a soft, subtle flavor that complements the earthy sweetness of the carrots. Roast at 400 F for about 20 minutes, or until they're tender. I like to make a quick dressing of fresh orange juice and a dollop of honey to toss on the carrots. And then, DUH, I garish them with a fistful of chopped up carrot tops. They're astringent and herbal, like a woodsy parsley. Like anything green from the earth, they're nutrient dense and good for you.

Extra carrot tops can be thrown in a blender with oil, some nuts and garlic for a pesto that would be nice on pasta, but also delicious stirred into an Indian curry or a soup. A version with cashew nuts would be amazing on curried lentils with coconut milk.