The Frugal Gourmet: how to use, re-use, recycle and recondition your ktchen staples...

[femmennoir]

Even though I live in a NYC apartment with a small kitchen, and a small fridge, I always freeze chicken bones (since I live alone I usually only get chicken breast with bones in) and occasionally a ham or leg of lamb bone, or a whole duck or chicken carcass, as well as vegetable trimmings, to make broth. When it looks like there is enough, I make broth and after de-fattening it, freeze the broth in small plastic containers, so I can grab one whenever I need broth in a recipe. I never buy broth! I usually add carrots, celeri, garlic and leeks when I make the broth, as well as herbs, unless I have enough vegetable trimmings.
What are vegetable trimmings, might you ask? Well, mushroom stems and peelings, potato and carrot peelings, carrot tops (I buy the organic carrots with tops on whenever possible), the very dark green part of leeks, which are tough, the stems of artichokes, also any vegetable I know I won't use before it spoils (I go crazy at the farmer's market and forget I usually cook only for one), and of course the stems of fresh herbs or if I have too much parsley or basil at hand, I freeze them and use some in broths.
There is for me something very satisfying in making broth and stashing it away in the freezer!
When (so rarely) I don't have any broth on hand, I use tea in place of broth. Different teas will give different flavour to what I am preparing: if I need a smoky flavour I use Lapsang Souchong tea, if I want a floral note I use either a flower tea (lavender, chamomile) or a flavoured tea (apricot, rose, ginger/peach)....These really add a depth of flavour to any recipe!
Elle*