To cube or paste it!

So while most will run the the local supermarket to buy a packet of stock cubes to 'add flavour' to their dinner tonight - I just wanted to share my vegetable stock paste I made up from scratch and have preserved it so I always have some in my cupboard.

To me, its one step closer to being self sustaining (and yes I have a long long way to go), but also, I know exactly what is in it and by jingos it tastes sensational.

Basically it is a way of using up some veggies that are 'on the verge' you might say! Not good enough to do anything else with - except maybe feed to the chickens. Well they aren't rotten but not good enough for selling or puting into your childrens lunch boxes.

I used any amount of veggies you may have just in your fridge including but not limited to carrots, silverbeet, capsicum, zucchini, celery, mushies, tomatoes, onion, garlic, rosemary, basil, thyme, and processed them until they are very small or even paste like to begin with. Put into a large pot a dollop of olive oil and begin the cooking process. Add to this (its a bit of personal taste and largely dependent upon the quantity of vegetables you have in the pot) but about 1/4 to 1/2 bottle of white wine and upto 200g salt.

My first batch I only put 1/4 bottle of wine and 130g of salt and it was fine, but my second one I had twice the vege and would have put twice the wine (so 1/2 bottle) and twice the salt (so roughly 250g). Lets face it - I don't have a recipe and each time I make it it will taste different and to be honest - it tastes and smells divine. (It is salty if you just have a spoonful but in a casserole/stew etc it lifts it way better than a normal stock cube)

Thirdly keep it cooking so that it does form a paste and cooks up the vege a bit.

Once it is paste like I gather some glass jars. Make sure they are clean and sterilised (you can find out how to do this via google!), and after re-processing the paste so that it is a tad finer, start popping it into the jars, seal them and boil them (to vaccum seal them) for approx 5 mins.

Pop a label on them with the date and leave to cool before storing them in your pantry. Incase you are wondering - 1-2 tablespoons is equivalent to 1 stock cube.

Here is today's batch (yes I know I haven't labelled it!)

Veggie stock paste - Sept 4 2011

So that is pretty much it from Longancis yard today
Bye for now
BW