Ok, so you maybe never heard of Hing. Hing is also call Asafoetida. Wikipedia says “The resin-like gum comes from the dried sap extracted from the stem and roots and is used as a spice. ” It a secret weapon to give an leak/onion/garlic flavour when used in small quantities. Literally, you should only ever have a pinch of it. (I suggest you start with 1/2 a teaspoon in a pot of food until you learn if it’s for you.) In large quantities it’s quite pungent so avoid this. It’s often used in vegetarian curry dish to give the umami/savory component. Totally, ads some zip to your dish. I found it on amazon and had to wait for it to show up but I really like adding a pinch to my bowl of chilli as I find it give me those flavours I miss on a low FODMAP diet.
Survival Mode – Potato water
Things are still a little scary. Right now it’s a great time to practice saving a dollar or maybe you just want to reduce on waste. Here’s a quick tip that I learned recently.
I like to make potatoes. I typically boil them. (I definitely usually add stock to the water.) But for the sake of this argument lets pretend I don’t. When you are done with your potato water what do you do with it? If you are like me you probably dump it down the sink. Here are some alternative uses to help use it up.
Use it in whipped potatoes. Don’t have a lot of extra’s in your fridge at the moment? Skip adding milk to your potatoes and instead add the potato water back in. This changes the flavour slightly but it saves a little economically. It also saves on calories, so if you are trying to trim off a couple pounds give it a shot. Or even consider 1/2 water and 1/2 milk.
Are you trying to be gluten free? Potato water makes a great thickener. You can use it in gravy or soups as a natural thickener and flavouring agent.
Potato water is best used within 24 hours or frozen and thawed later. I know I’m going to be making potato water ice cubes so that I can keep it for when I need it and have it in a ready to use format.
How to freeze stock.
I like to freeze stock in the size that I’m going to use it. I use zip lock freezer bags measured in proportions of either 1 cup or 1/2 cup.
Tip: Test the size of your soup ladle. My soup ladle is 4 oz, so 2 scoops is 1 cup.
I also like to ‘flat pack it.’ This mean freezing it “flat” on a tray first. It only takes about an hour to freeze. This not only gives a uniform shape, it allows more efficient packing into the freezer, Then, I pack them frozen into a bigger zip lock bag or container for storing up to two months. This way I don’t lose any at the bottom of the freezer!
To thaw the stock in a hurry ‘fold’ it into squares so that it can be placed into a bowl and quickly thaws easily.
Survivalist Mode – Low FODMAP
In this day and age, (with COVID-19) are you thinking about doing more self-sufficient cooking? Here’s some tips to help you get through leaner times.
Stock is your survival tool.
Make and use Stock. Stock is just food flavoured water. It’s super simple to make and incredibly versatile for adding flavour. It makes a great substitute for water in almost all recipes. I am a huge advocate for adding 1 cup of stock for boiling potatoes or rice, to enhance the flavour. A ton of recipes call for it and unless you have a good low FODMAP source, you need to be making it yourself. And lets not forget it’s the basis for almost all soups. Soup is the cheapest, most filling thing you can make on a budget.
Why is Soup the cheapest thing to make? Water is free, stock is mostly free. The most expensive part of it is the heating of it. To make stock you literally just need to add all of your vegetable scraps to a bag…just keep it refrigerated, or store in the freezer, and keep adding more to it. You peel a vegetable? Those peels go in your stock bag. Cut off the top of a carrot, celery, or parsnip? Put it in the stock bag. You have vegetables that are old but you don’t want to eat them? …cut them up and put in the stock bag. Bones from tonight’s low FODMAP dinner? Put them in your stock bag.
When you need a batch of stock, check the contents of the stock bag. Then in a large pot add veggies from the scrap bag and add water to cover ingredients (one or 2 liters of water, 1 or 2 tsp of salt, a teaspoon of black pepper corns, 1 teaspoon of thyme. Bring to a boil, skim off and discard any top foam, turn heat to low and simmer a few hours uncovered (2-4 hours). Taste for salt. Simmer longer for improved flavour. Strain and discard the solid ingredients. Keeps 3 days in fridge and freezes well.
This means of course to still obey FODMAP rules, so watch your quantities (i.e. Celery). Everything will boil down so don’t worry about ‘germs.’ If you are low on money this really is something you can do to stretch out your food dollars. Once you have stock, you can make soup, and just add some extra spices, chopped fresh herbs and vegetables and you are good to go. Super easy and super in-expensive.
Here our some of our recipes for stock: