Cooking

[billbenson]

Don't know who cooks out there. I used to cook a lot when I was younger and had more time. I still like good food. My career of 22 years was basically wining and dining clients. Young, my room mate spearfished and was a chick magnet so we always had good seafood and good party's.

These days I don't have much time for cooking but still like good food. I'm big on making stuff that I use regularly weekly or even biannually. Weekly, I like to saute up some muchrooms, onions, a few other things on a saturday to use through the week. I always have bacon bits as well as bacon fat (and other fats) in the freezer.

Last night I had a filet mignon with a mushroom pepper sauce and baked potato and it took me 10 minutes to make.

So here is the kicker. I make duck stock every 6 months. Gonna make some this weekend. Usually lasts about 6 months. I buy online 25 lbs of duck backs and necks. Costs about $75 delivered frozen the next day. I make a heavily reduced duck stock out of it and freeze it flat in zip lock bags.

Whether I'm sick and just want a duck broth over some Chinese noodles or like last night when I made my filet and wanted a good sauce, I take a chip of the duck stock and toss it in for a really great flavor. 1000% better than the boxed chicken broth in the store. I keep the duck fat for sauteing things.

It takes linear time to make, but not much tending to. I'll post my recipe if anybody is interested. You can be cleaver and still eat well without spending much time cooking on a busy schedule.

So that's going to be my weekend.

[Freelancier]

Go ahead and post it.

I'm the cook in my family, it's my "wind down" time from work. I had a wonderful "french onion soup burger" in NYC back in February that I'm close to perfecting at home. Involves adding a splash of sherry to the burger before cooking, caramelized onions (which turn out to be simple to make in small batches) and Gruyere cheese on an onion roll. YUM!

A few days ago, I made a nice batch of chopped liver the way mom used to make.

I'm all about simple, freezable, and good.

[billbenson]

Like I said it's a linear process.

I buy a throw away turkey roasting pan.

I put a large layer of onions celery and garlic on the bottom - that's my roasting rack.

I cover that with the duck backs and necks - because of the quantity I cook, this usually takes a few iterations.

Depending on my mood I may season with some spice blend at this point and broil it until brown.

I put this in a huge stock pot with some basic spices. Thyme, a couple of cloves. bay leaves, garlic, parsley.

I have a great outdoor stove, 35k btu's

Boil this for a few hours. Usually 4. Theoretically you should skim foam off the top as it boils, I don't do that.

Strain it leaving only the broth.

Keep cooking the broth until its reduced enough to fit in the fridge.

Let it cool and stick it in the fridge.

After it cools in the fridge the fat will congele at the top and the stock should be geletanous at this point.

I skim off the fat at the top and save. Duck fat is great stuff..

I warm up the the remaining stocki and put it through a really fine strainer or cheese cloth.

I reduce the remaining stock until it is very concentrated.

I save it in zip lock bags flat so I can just take a chip off when I need it. Doesn't take up much room in the freezer.

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It sounds like a lot of work, but remember each step is really 10 minutes. It just takes a lot of linear time.

And like everything cooking, its open to modification for your taste.

[billbenson]

Oh an addition to the above. 'Sometimes I add chicken feet to the above. Here they are readily available at Latin markets. Chicken feet are heavy in collagen and will make the stock gel much more quickly. Might gross some people out, so don't use it... You have probably had it at Oriental restaurants without knowing it though.

[billbenson]

Been 9 months since I did this. A bit more work than I thought, but really worth it. The duck stock came out really good. I mean really really good. I ended up with about 5 large zip lock bags of concentrated stock.

I think that mostly the work was cleaning pans. For the quantity I made, I have a huge stock pot and after straining a medium stock pot. There is no way I could lift the large stock pot alone when it's full. When I'm done with my first iteration of reducing the vegetables and duck bones, I keep removing the vegetables and bones bit by bit. I kept reducing the stock until I had a pot that I could actually lift and strain completely. Really worth it!

I have the tools required for this. A 35k btu outdoor stove; big pots and a back yard to do the initial cleaning of the pots. In the quantity I do this, everything from stoves to pots need to be big. But I only do it once every 6 to 9 months. Ya, it gets some freezer burn, but it's not the sort of thing you want to do to order. That's what restaurants are for.

I started doing this by cooking a duck and making a stock. Don't need the big stock pots and big stoves. Either way it tastes great.