The Food Docs

Hi there! This is my first entry here at the Food Docs since Chase invited me join her as a contributor. You can read a bit about my history with food here.

Alrighty, then! Let's get down to it.

One of the basics in my kitchen, indeed in any kitchen, and one of the first things I ever learned to make, is chicken stock. And as I am not only too cheap and have better standards than to buy the canned stuff at the grocery (though I have), it is, more importantly, nowhere near as tasty or as healthful as it is if you would make your own. And it's really easy too, if you've got a few hours to spare, with minimal pot-tending required. A lazy Saturday or Sunday afternoon would do just fine. You're just hanging around anyway, aren't you? And it makes your house smell really good to boot.

The ingredients:

• Some chicken. It could be a whole fryer chicken, some leg and thigh pieces, some drumsticks, or even just some bone-on, skin-on whole chicken breasts, or a combination of all of those. Two or three pounds is about enough. And, if you're like me, take those little wing tips and necks and gizzards and such that you throw in the freezer for just these times and toss those in too.
  
• A few unpeeled carrots, washed and chopped in half
  
• A few stalks of celery, also just chopped in half or thirds to fit into the pot. It's fine to leave the leaves on.
  
• An onion or two, skins on, cut into halves or quarters
  
• A bay leaf or two
  
• A good sprinkle of peppercorns
  
• A few good sprigs of parsley

1. Throw all the ingredients into a good sized pot and fill with cold water, about 1 1/2 or 2 quarts (six to eight cups). If your ingredients fill about 3/4 of your pot up, just fill the pot almost to the top with water. That's about the right proportion. This is not rocket science, just cooking.
   
   
2. Place the pot over low heat and bring slowly up to a simmer. This is the only not-even-hard, but longish part of the process. It might take 30-45 minutes, depending on how big your pot is. The point of all this is that you want to slowly bring it to a simmer to extract all the flavor out of all the ingredients as you bring the water up to heat.
   
   
3. Once it gets up to the point where you just see the faint bubblings of the simmer, you will notice some icky, grayish, foamy scum forming on the surface. Not to worry. Just get yourself a slotted spoon or something with holes in it, skim it off and discard it. This stage may take up to ten minutes or so.
   
   
4. After all the scum (it's really just protein molecules or something) is gone, just let it all simmer at that really low point for about 2-2 1/2 hours. Never, ever bring it up to a full boil thinking that it will get done faster. It won't. Not only will your stock have less of that wonderful, rich chickeny taste, but it will make the end product cloudy rather than you ending up with that beautiful, golden color of a well-made stock.
   
   
5. After the time is up, strain the chicken and vegetable pieces out and let cool for a bit. Discard the vegetables (or save them: I used to add these to our dog's food and she had the shiniest coat ever) and, when cool enough to handle, pull the chicken meat from the bones and store separately. Strain the stock through a fine sieve or colander to remove any other particles.
   
   
6. Chill the stock overnight. If you live where it's cold in the winter
   (like me), stick the pot outside or in your garage overnight. The fat will rise to the top and solidify, and the next morning you can just pick it right off in chunks with a spoon. (If you make matzo balls, make sure to save some of this schmaltz for those. Otherwise, discard it.)

That's it! How easy was that? Notice that there was no salt added up to this point. There's usually enough added to the soups you make from this that I never add it when I make the stock.

Now you have a beautiful half-gallon, probably more, of homemade chicken stock. You can make some soup with it right now, which I heartily recommend, or freeze it for later use in any quantity you like. I usually freeze mine in 4-cup portions, which is just fine for two bowls whenever I get the urge for some good soup, which is about every other day.

Here are some things you can do with it:

• Basic Chicken Noodle Soup: Dice up some onion, carrots and celery and saute in a teeny bit of oive oil for five minutes. Add the chicken stock, bring up to a medium simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Add the noodles of your choice and cook, partially covered, for another 15 minutes or until noodles are done. (If you use spaghetti noodles or something similar, break them in pieces before adding. Rice would take at least 20 minutes.) Add as much of the reserved chicken meat as you like, either chopped or just torn into chunks, at this time too. Taste for seasoning, add some salt if needed, crack some freshly ground black pepper over, sprinkle with parsley and serve.
  
  
• Mexican chicken soup: Bring the stock up to a simmer, add some drained black beans, drained canned or frozen corn, a can of undrained diced tomatoes (these even come in a Mexican style) and the reserved chicken meat. If I have zucchini I add that too. Garnish with sliced green onions, diced avocado, shredded cheese (cheddar or a Monterey Jack blend), and chopped cilantro. Instead of crackers I like to crumble some good tortilla chips in mine. Oh, and hot sauce, of course.
  
  
• Italian tortellini soup: Simply cook your cheese or meat tortellini in the simmering stock until done. Grate some Parmesan cheese over it, and sprinkle with parsley and some freshly ground pepper.
  
  
• Oriental chicken soup: Put a few slices of fresh ginger into your simmering stock (you will remove these later.) Add some sliced bok choy and your chicken, and some soba (or other) noodles if you like. Garnish with green onion sliced on the diagonal, cilantro, bean sprouts, and finish off with a few drops of dark sesame oil.

Chicken soup is one of the best things in the world. Make it your own, with whatever you have on hand. You can't ever go wrong.

For a long time I tried to make good chocolate chip cookies, to no avail, I couldn't get the tatse right. After much (and trust me, I'm talking years) time, I finally, finally got a recipe that I'm very happy with, and the best part is how simple it is to make.

I like mine with at least 2 cups or more chocolate chips, and Jessica likes here's with almost no chocolate chips, she just likes the cookie. It's all up to your taste. I've used macadamia nuts (awesome), butterscotch chips (my neighbor is still begging for more of those), white chocolate chunks (i love the white chocolate and macadamia together, yumm)

• 1 cup granulated white sugar
  
• 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
  
• 2 sticks soft unsalted butter (take them out the night before)
  
  
• 2 large eggs
  
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  
  
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  (if using self rising flour, omit baking soda & salt)
  
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  
  
• 1 cup - 1 - 2 cups semisweet or milk chocolate chips
  
• 1 cup of preferred chopped nuts (optional)
  
  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C)
place rack on center holder

I use cookie sheets with wax paper, or non stick cookie sheets

Using a mixer or by hand, stir your soft butter in a bowl until creamy (30-50 strokes if by hand. 1 minute if by mixer) Add brown & white sugars and beat until fluffy (about 2 minutes). Beat in eggs, one at a time, making sure to beat well after each egg. Add vanilla and beat until mixed in.

In a separate bowl, mix together your flour, baking soda, and salt. If you are using self rising flour, there's no need for a seperate bowl.

Add flour to the sugar/egg mixture and beat until well mixed.

Add your chips, nuts, or other extras, and mix just until incorporated.

For regular size cookies, use 1 tbs dough
for larger cookies, use 2 or 3 tbs dough
Set cookies about 2 inches apart

If dough is too soft, put in fridge for 30 min.

Bake about 12 - 14 minutes (check for light brown around edges)
Cool completely on flat surface, wire rack, or if using multible sheets, cool on sheet

Cookies come out somewhat crunchy when cooled. If you keep the cookies in the oven a few minutes longer, they will be crunchier (the way I like them). Once they are cool, store them in an airtight container to keep them crunchy. If you leave the lid loose on the jar, or have the cookies loosely covered they will get chewier as the days pass (that is if you're able to keep them that long, lol. This recipe makes a couple dozen cookies. Also, you can freeze the dough, by forming tsp of dough into balls, put them on a nonstick or wax paper lined cookie sheet and freezing them, after they are frozen, put them in a ziplock until you're ready to bake them. When you're ready to make some cookies, just bake as normal, increasing baking time by a minute or two.

Make sure you let me know how they come out if you try them, ok?