small cooking note

[redbird]

cattitude and I periodically make chicken stock, and freeze most of it for cooking with.

I bought half a roast duck in Chinatown a couple of weeks ago. That gave us a very nice duck salad for dinner, and I froze the bones and much of the skin. Then I threw some vegetable peelings (carrot and rutabaga) into the freezer bag. We had baked chicken thighs for dinner on Friday, and I kept the chicken bones.

Saturday I bought a bunch of orange beets, and saved the tops. I don't like most cooked greens, for texture reasons, but I figured they might be a good addition to the stock.

I think I was right; I got almost three liters of tasty stock, which came out a bit darker than usual. Now that I know it works (for our tastes; I knew it wouldn't be poison), I may use more beet greens next time. A bunch of four beets has what looks like a lot of greenery.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Caution: Red beet tops will dye your stock pink-purple.

[redbird]

These were green tops from orange beets; is it similar-looking tops from red or purple beets that I need to watch out for?

[jesse_the_k]

I don't know from red beets. Around these parts we have orange, concentric circle, and purple beets. It's the last which will turn your stock strange.

[amaebi]

I like beet greens. We had some with our udon last night.