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Just like Alex in Dresden, I have a bag in the freezer where I toss all
the vegetable trimmings. Onion peels, the paper from garlic, the ends of green onions, parsley stems, nubby bits shaved off of celeriac, the ends of carrots and root vegetables,
weird looking bits of ginger and leek greens all land in the bag. Nothing that is rotten,
nothing with any trace of mold. The bag fills up every ten days
or so and the contents are used to make stock, which,
as everybody knows, is the foundation of good cooking. I must be doing something right because
I have my two children with me in the kitchen, helping out. I'd like
to believe that this activity is central to a healthy family and of
economy in the kitchen that is both frugal and generous. Maybe I am right. Perhaps the universe is saying: "Be wise and teach your children and
you will be rewarded with the hooves of swine."
These hooves are from a biodynamically certified German pigfarm. Pretty nifty food sourcing, I must say.
One need not go overboard with cooking the stock. Some bone-broth aficionados use an autoclave for 30 hours until everything is reduced to primordial ooze as if they were trying to summon the spirit of Hildegard of Bingen to a séance. But working that way stinks, so we just boil it all in the pressure cooker for four hours so as not to denature everything. The aroma of happy pork and vegetables wafts out of the kitchen and everybody is happy.
The stock that results is very hearty. With one and a half kilo of trotters and a liter bag of trimmings we make about four liters of stock that solidifies at room temperature and in which you can stand a spoon in. This is the stuff which powers our cooking and this is how we make it.
Check out these great value wines to go along with your homemade food to be enjoyed with family and friends.
Cheers!
