Squash and Collard Soup with Homemade Beef Stock
June 4th, 2008 Posted in Admin, Cooking ideas, Interview, Media related
The other day I roasted a huge batch of beef bones, since they came with my recent purchase of the amazing meat raised by Mike Gale at Chileno Valley ranch (four of us split an entire cow, yielding roughly 110 pounds of meat each — more on this later if anyone’s interested). In they went at 400, and out they came an hour later, browned and marrow a-bubble. After making a tasty little snack of toasted Tartine country loaf schmeared with marrow, avocado, and lavender salt, I threw them in two big stockpots, covered with water, and simmered for about six hours. I let it sit overnight, and in the morning each pot had a solid inch of fat on top. That got skimmed and used to make some seriously good French fries, and the stock was poured into eight ziplock bags and frozen.
Today I pulled a bag out and let it thaw. Meanwhile I chopped up a yellow zucchini, some de-backboned collard greens, a bunch of green onions, and sprinkled in plenty of smoked paprika salt and freshly ground pepper. The stock was added to that, then everything got blended in the VitaPrep. It was good, possibly even ethereally good. Another excellent quickie soup for the lunch repertoire.
It’s a rare treat for me to make beef stock — I wouldn’t really seek out 10 pounds of bones, roast them, do all the icky de-fatting (it gets *everywhere*), but when they’re presented to me in a bag, I certainly will. I normally use, and am happy with, the organic beef stock sold at TJs and Whole Foods in the tetrabox. I have a hunch my homemade would prevail in a blind taste test, but not by that much — maybe not enough to make it worthwhile on a regular basis. But then again, I did get eight quarts out of it . . . .
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4 Responses to “Squash and Collard Soup with Homemade Beef Stock”
By
Karena on Jun 4, 2008
It’s totally worth making your own beef stock, even if it does take all day and the stockpot gets a bit slick with grease. I think the body of a homemade stock is superior to boxed stock. BTW, since it’s usually so rich on its own, I never thought to add avocado to marrow toasts. How did you come up with that combination?
By
Eric on Jun 5, 2008
There’s no doubt it’s better–still though, hassle factor must be accounted for. If you HAVE the bones AND the time AND don’t mind the grease, definitely, but if not . . . .
As with almost all my experiments, it’s all about serendipity and enabling: I happen to have the avocado sitting there as I was spooning out the marrow, and the bread was nearby . . . it was indeed very rich, much more so than I usually go for, but I was hungry and it was great!
By
Deno on Jun 5, 2008
First off, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, marrow on toast! In fact, I was telling a co-worker on Monday how tasty it is, but I just don’t think she is that adventurous an eater. I will definitely try this with the avocado and lavender salt.
I have to say that I personally I feel a little bit of a moral obligation, on some level, to make stocks from time to time. It is senseless to waste the bones if you just throw them out. So, I typically save and freeze beef/pork and poultry bones (even shrimp shells too) for a stock making day. I try to do this with a little preplanning, on a cold and mellow day. I cut up all the veggies and roast the bones one day while making dinner and the next day throw the bones into various pots with the vegetables. From there I move them to the stove with the water, adjust the heat to a simmer, and go read a book or something. I agree, the trick is to let everything stand overnight and cool since it makes removing the fat is much easier, any solids also separate out a bit, and it improves the flavor. The great thing is by the time lunch/dinner rolls around you can just spoon a little stock over some noodles and vegetables and enjoy a nice simple meal. All day the kitchen is filled with a nice warming aroma. In my opinion, it is a great way for someone who cooks to spend a lazy day.
By
Eric on Jun 5, 2008
There is indeed a moral obligation of sorts to use the bones. So many of buy our meats boneless, all butchered and wrapped–it’s actually quite rare to buy pieces of meat with bones, big bones, bones that make it worthwhile to roast. Which is one reason I’m so happy to buy meat the way I do, from a farmer I know (Mike Gale).
The house smelled amazing as first the bones roasted, and then as the stock simmered away — I totally agree about stock-making day being a great day to laze at home.