I was watching Top Chef: Las Vegas and saw one of the contestants struggling with sauce velouté. Really? You can’t make a blonde roux and mix it with white stock? So, for future contestants, here’s what you need to know, and I’ll even teach you how to make it into a soup. First, make a [...]

Categories: Soup, mother recipe, sauce, stock, technique
Tagged: mother recipe, sauce, Soup, stock, technique

I needed a meal for four. I had chicken for two, veal shanks for two, and absolutely no desire to go to the store. A look into the pantry revealed potatoes and carrots. I had what I needed for a stew!

Categories: beef, braising, chicken, dairy-free, entrée, poultry, stock, supper, technique, veal
Tagged: chicken, dairy-free, entrée, main course, mushroom, one-pot meals, stock, supper, technique

There was a time when every home cook knew how to break down whole poultry into parts, because they didn’t have a choice. Then we learned to pay exorbitant amounts of money for other people to do it for us. Well that’s just silly. It only takes a small amount of instruction and one chicken to learn how to break down poultry, and you get to eat the chicken because YOU CAN’T FAIL.

Categories: chicken, pantry, poultry, stock, technique
Tagged: chicken, pantry, poultry, stock, technique

When mushrooms have been sitting around a day or two longer than they really should, or you find a sale on dried mushrooms, make some mushroom stock. Then, when you need an umami-filled light lunch or quick soup, you’ll have a great base to build upon.

Categories: Lunch, Soup, dairy-free, gluten-free, mushroom, stock, vegan, vegetarian
Tagged: dairy-free, gluten-free, Lunch, mushroom, Soup, stock, vegan, vegetarian

What’s pantry soup? That’s when you make a soup out of what you have in your pantry and freezer. The trick is to make sure you have a ready supply of the sorts of things you almost always need.

Categories: Lunch, Soup, dairy-free, gluten-free, pantry, stock
Tagged: dairy-free, gluten-free, Lunch, pantry, Soup