Thursday 15 March 2012

Tight-Arse Thursday: Make your own stock.

Welcome to Tight-Arse Thursday!

Frugal Friday sounds good too, but it doesn't quite have the same ring to it, now, does it?

Throughout my forays into the depths of the Internet (or, the un-depths of facebook might me more like it) I have discovered various money saving, tight-arse, DIY tips. I've decided to do a regular post with a tight-arse tip.

This week we have: Making your own stock! (How exciting!) This one's from the lovely Ange Smith.

Keep a giant snap-lock bag in your freezer. Whenever you use carrots, celery or onions, put all the bits that you'd normally throw out (or compost or give to the worms if you're a good girl/guy) into the snap-lock bag. That includes the skins and all the fuzzy bits - just nothing mouldy. Aim for around 1/3 carrots, 1/3 celery, 1/3 onions. If you'd like chicken stock, pop the carcass of your roast chook into the freezer once you're finished eating all the yummy bits.


 Once the bag is full, whack the lot into your pressure cooker, slow cooker or pot. But make sure you take the scraps out of the bag - it probably wouldn't be to tasty if you put the bag in too. One bag of scraps makes around six litres. Add some salt and pepper, some parsley, thyme and a cinnamon stick if you feel like it. Add your chicken carcass here too. Fill 'er up with water and cook it for a long time - 12ish hours on low in a slow cooker, 6 ish in a pot, 2ish in a pressure cooker.


When your stock is smelling good and everything in it is hugely mushy, strain it through a sieve and into freezer-proof containers (or more snap-lock bags). I do a few litre lots, a few 500ml lots and a few 200ml lots so I don't have to defrost a whole heap that I not going to use all at once. Give the chunky bits to your chooks, or compost, or whatnot, write the date on your containers and pop them into the freezer.


Voila! Your own, home made, yummy stock, and it was almost free.

Enjoy!

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