I had a blast this weekend in preparing our meals for this week. I started off by making beef stock and chicken stock on Saturday morning, followed by rotisseried whole chicken, golden pilaf, and steamed sweet corn kernels for dinner. I don't want to get ahead of myself and spoil everything for you so I'll do the play by play commentary. It would be disappointing for me to just tell you what we had without me explaining the process. It was imperative that I started with making the beef stock because overall it would take the longest to complete. Generally beef stock simmers for 24 to 48 hours while chicken stock only takes 6 to 8 hours. Needless to say, that took out two of my 12,000 BTU burners on my stove, leaving me with two 9,500 BTU & the big mama 18,000 BTU burners. I started the beef stock by coating a large beef rib with olive oil and placing it on a baking sheet to roast of my convection oven at 350 degrees Farenheit for about 20 - 25 minutes. You can also do this on the stove by browing the meat in a saute pan, although the oven will give you a more consistently even browing. If you are trying this out, I will have to warn you that this will be the time when people will start to come to the kitchen to see what you are cooking. While the rib was browning, I started preparing my mirepoix which is a fancy term for cut up onions, carrots, and celery. This is the part of the flavor base of many soups, stocks and broths. What's that? Aren't they all the same things?! Why, no - my young padawan... soups are the finished products that is made of stocks or broths, and other ingredients. They are seasoned and ready-to-eat. Stocks and broths however are generally not seasoned (not salted), although most of the ones that you purchase from the store are pre-seasoned. The problem with using them is that you limit the control that you have in the amount of salt added to the final dish especially if you are using them in some sort of reduction sauce. Since the moisture in a reduction sauce gets evaporated, the concentration of the seasonings get intensified. For sauces, it is always best to do your final seasoning towards the end. Oh yeah, stocks and broths - they are almost similar in the cooking process except that stocks are made with bones and cartilage while broths are made with meats. The difference is the end consistency where you would see a more gelatenous liquid for cold stocks while cold broths will remain watery liquids. How's my rib doing?... Okay, just about there. Anyway, as I said, I prepared my mirepoix (one large onion quartered, one medium carrot cut into 1 inch slices, one rib of celery cut into 1 inch slices). I also prepared my herbs (1 sprig of parsley, 1 sprig of thyme, 1 bay leaf, 1 clove of garlic, and 7 peppercorns). Lastly, I prepared my tomato paste and deglazing liquid (2 ounces of sherry). Once the rib was browned (not burnt), I placed it in a 4 quart stock pot filled with cold water (very important that stocks are started with cold water) about 3/4 of the way full. I then placed my mirepoix in the same sheet pan that I roasted the meat and placed it in the oven to roast for about 5 minutes. I swirled the vegetables around the pan to dislodge as much of the brown bits (called fond) from the roasting of the meat. I then added one tablespoon of tomato paste to the vegetables and mixed it to get fully incorporated, then placed the pan back into the oven until the paste is brick red in color (again, not burnt). I deglace the pan with the sherry and scaped everything into the stock pot. Then I add enough cold water to reach about 1 inch from the rim of pot. I added the herbs, garlic, and pepper corns into the pot and turned the fire on medium to high heat. By the way, the herbs, garlic, and pepper corns can be placed inside a cheesecloth tied with a twine (called bouquet garni - see my article from June 18 regarding this). I just threw mine in directly into the pot since I'm going to end up straining the whole thing anyway and discarding the solids. Once the water started that rolling boil, I turned down the heat to simmer and this is where the magic really starts. After about a couple of minutes of simmering, white bubbly islands started to develop at the top of the stock called impurities which I proceeded to skim off. I had to do this several times since over the course of simmering, more impurities would surface. Those darn impurites! Well, the rest was all down hill since all I had to do is make sure that the stock didn't boil (just simmer), and that I refilled the pot with more water to an inch from the rim of the pot. While the beef stock was simmering, I made my chicken stock with the back of a chicken that I had in the freezer just for this occasion. Oh, and I also had a chicken neck with it. For the chicken stock, I intended it to be a white stock so I ommitted the roasting process including the tomato paste and the deglazing liquid. I just threw (actually gently placed) the bones, mirepoix and herbs in another 4 quart stock pot and filled it with cold water just to an inch from the rim of the pot. The rest of the cooking process was similar to the beef stock. Why go through all this hassle just to make stock? Well, for me it keeps me in practice and I know exactly what goes into my stock. It's also very economical and cost effective for me to make it myself since the price of beef stock at the store averages about $3.00 per 32 ounces while my cost is around $2.00 per 128 ounces. My cost for chicken stock is somewhere around $1.50 per 128 ounces. I have about 32 ounces in the refrigerator handy while I freeze the rest in smaller containers for when I need them. So now that I had my stock going, I started dinner by injecting a whole chicken with my flavor enhancer. My flavor enhancer was liquid based made from a mixture of quarter cup lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of kosher salt, 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper, 1 teaspoon of garlic powder, and a half cup of cold water. Normally, I would truss the chicken before I inject the meat with this concoction but the one I purchased from Fresh and Easy was already tied up. I like it when grocery stores make it easy for me like this. After injecting the chicken with flavor, I placed it in the rotisserie spit, sprayed the chicken with oil and rubbed it with salt, pepper, and fresh thyme. I positioned the spit in its holder of my Ronco Rotisserie, set it for 45 minutes for a 3 pound bird, and forget it. Got the protein taken care of and on to the starch and fiber of the meal. For the accompaniment, I decided to make it simple as well but not ordinary (like rice or pasta). I decided to make use of the grains that I had purchased from Whole Foods called Golden Pilaf which was comprised of quinoi, millet, green lentils, and yellow split peas. How did I know how to make this dish?! Well the name of the product basically told me - Pilaf. While some would think that Pilaf is a type of grain or ingredients that comprise the dish, they would be wrong. Pilaf is a cooking process that I will describe for you now by telling you of how I prepared the accompanying dish for the chicken. I first started by dicing an eighth of an onion into small dice (about a quarter inch square - although you don't need to be exact, you can chop it up to little bits for all I care). In a small pot, I heated up about a tablespoon of olive oil and sweated the onions (don't burn...), then I added the grains (about a cup) to coat with the oil. I then deglazed the pot with about an ounce of sherry (you can also use any type of white wine that you like - although I'd stay away from sweet wines like Reislings or dessert wines; especially dessert wines!) After which, I dipped into some of that great chicken stock that I just made (about 1 and a half cups worth - that's okay I've got plenty!) and added my seasonings (pinches of Kosher salt and pepper). I stirred it and let it continued cooking until it started to boil. I then reduced the heat to simmer, covered the pot and let it continue to simmer for about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, I turned off the heat (no peeking!). Hey, get your hands away from the lid! Keep it covered for at least 10 minutes before opening the lid. While I was waiting, I took out the frozen white corn that I had reserved in the freezer just for these types of occassions and place the corn kernels in a small bowl. I added about 2 teaspoons of water, a pinch of salt and a pinch of black pepper, and placed it into the microwave oven... Whah?????! Yes, that's right... I said a microwave oven - don't worry, I know what I'm doing! After all, I am a trained professional! I set the microwave oven for three minutes and pressed start just after I heard the Ronco Rotisserie binged. I let the chicken sit in the Ronco for another five minutes to settle the internal juices while I plated the grains and corn. I took out the chicken and cut the thigh and drumstick combo for my wife and I (one for each), and that's what we had for dinner Saturday night. Getting back to the stocks - Once the chicken stock had simmered for six hours, I turned off the heat and strained it onto a clean plastic bucket. I positioned the bucket in the sink filled with ice water (I plugged the sink of course) while I strained the stock. With stock, it is important that it is cooled right away so that it can properly be refrigerated. Once cooled, I covered the bucket with it's airtight lid and placed it in the refrigerator. This week I will divide it into smaller containers for freezing. ... And that was only Saturday (to be continued....)