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Taking Stock From Thanksgiving

Anytime stock pot

After the excesses of Thanksgiving, I like to have a few days of brothy soups to clear the body of all that stuffing. I am always surprised by how easy it is to make a nourishing bowl of aromatic broth from modest beginnings. Think of it — an old carcass, some water and a paltry handful of vegetables, add some heat, skim a bit and soon you have a steaming bowl of flavorful stock — really, turning dust into gold is nothing compared with this type of alchemy.

Though I’m not a big fan of this particular holiday, I do look forward to making some post-feast broths from the bones of that big old bird. Having gone to the trouble of roasting the turkey, the least we can do is extract every bit of nourishment from it.

That being said, the carcass is not even necessary; with the right combination of vegetables, a vegan stock can shut out the cold of a November night just as successfully as a beef stew. Years ago, I was testing recipes for braised leeks; my freezer was soon bursting with discarded green leek tops. The solution: simmer the tops in a large pot of water with some herbs to create a lovely leeky infusion — perfect on its own for those ascetic moments of cleansing, or great as a base for a thick vegetable potage.

Worth their weight in nutritional value, broth- rich soups don’t weigh you down. A friend couldn’t figure out why he was losing 5-10 pounds every winter, until he realized that cold weather prompted him to have soup for lunch every day, instead of his usual sandwich. Now he has soup in hot weather and cold.

Of course there are days when I rely on store- bought stock, but the more I read the labels, the less happy I am to do so. I am still trying to figure out why so many stock manufacturers feel that sugar is a necessary ingredient. Why on earth would you put sugar in broth? It has no business there. Also, what is beef flavoring? And many factory-made vegetarian broths include too much tomato to my liking. All in all, it seems better to make your own.

In this era of get-it-done-yesterday, making stock may seem like a time-consuming occupation, but the part requiring your attention does not take that long. As you will see from the recipe below, the skimming is the only time you need to spend bent over the stove. Then the stock simmers for a couple of hours while you work on your novel, plan your vegetable garden or write your mother. Vegan broths take even less time and little or no skimming.

It is always comforting to know that you have a couple of quarts of your own homemade stock in the freezer, no matter whether it is vegetable, poultry, beef or fish: it means that a warming meal is moments away. I store my stock in glass containers in the freezer, and transfer them to a saucepan to defrost on the stove, not in the microwave. If you want to use a microwave, that is up to you.

Aside from fancy stews and such, a bowl of broth is one of the best home remedies in any parent’s arsenal. The other day, I had a child at home with a nasty cold who needed some restitution. I took some leek broth from the fridge, added a chunk of peeled ginger (so good for respiratory ailments), slices of carrot and celery, half a garlic clove (sometimes called the king of healing plants) and some parsley for vitamin C. We let it simmer for a while, fished out the big chunk of ginger and then treated ourselves to a bowl of vegetable rich broth.

Just the ticket!

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