There have been times that I've bought mushrooms just to find that I don't need as many as I bought. This is what I found that can be done so I'm not throwing my money away. Using my blender I puree them in a little liquid such as beef, chicken stock or just water. I pour that into an inexpensive, plastic ice tray and freeze. When they are frozen I store the cubes in a plastic bag. These work great for soups, stews and sauces.
For left over veggies I keep a container in the freezer and just keep adding them until it's full. When it's soup time I thaw the whole container and add the veggies to my soup pot.
And when you cook a beef roast, save the juices. Pour them into your ice trays and freeze. When frozen place them in a plastic bag and you have instant beef stock when needed.
Did you know that when you can prevent milk from curdling when making cream soups like tomato by adding the soup to the milk and not the milk to the soup. I tried this the last time I made tomato soup from a can and it worked!
And one more - if you add minced clams to chowder at the very last moment it will keep hem from getting mushy and tasteless.
I freeze broths, etc. all the time. Great idea.
ReplyDeleteAs a former sou(p) chef, I used to make three different soups a day. About 40 gallons in all. One little tip I'd like to pass on is for meat sauces, like spaghetti sauce, etc.
When using ground beef, pork, chicken gizzards, etc. brown the meat first in a little (olive) oil before continuing and the sauce will hold up much better and longer. Failing to brown the meats first tends to cause the product to sour more quickly and that's not a good thing. I didn't learn that in the chef's school I didn't attend, but rather through bitter experience.