Hi everyone!

I know I posted already about our weekend outdoor projects, but I also wanted to take a few minutes and update you all about the other weekend project from last weekend: making mushroom stock concentrate. I’m going to skip ahead for a second and just let you all know that it is delicious! Okay, now back to the beginning. I first got the idea about making mushroom stock concentrate from Hello Fresh. Honestly, we love that service and they send us great vegetarian food. But we want to be able to use the recipes without waiting for it to come back into rotation. The problem with that is a lot of the recipes we love have either veggie stock concentrate or mushroom stock concentrate. So I set out to make our own mushroom stock concentrate. It is actually deceptively easy! Here is what I did:

• take an entire head of garlic, crush each clove and peel them.

• take an onion or two, peel and cut into large chunks

• take 2 - 3 large containers of mushrooms (think Costco size), wash them, and then cut into quarters or sixths depending on the size. If they are very small mushrooms, you could just cut them in half.

• Heat a large drizzle of oil (I used olive oil) in a large stock pot. Add in the onion and cook to soften a little bit. Add in all the garlic (or however much you want) and cook to warm it up with the onion.

• Add the mushrooms, stir, and let some of the mushrooms start to brown on the bottom. Then fill the stock pot with water until the mushrooms are floating and/or covered with water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer. (First picture below is the stock pot as it was coming to a boil)

• You will be simmering for a LONG time, but just keep an eye on it. I also added salt substitute and pepper at this point (and a splash of red wine, since I read that suggestion online). (Second picture below is the simmering and reducing stock)

• Taste as it simmers and reduces, once you have the mushroom flavor that you want or you think that the mushrooms won’t give off any more flavor, remove the mushrooms, onion, and garlic. I used a strainer and a large metal bowl to accomplish this and then poured the liquid back into the stock pot. At this point, you have mushroom stock that you can use as is. (Third picture below is after straining out the mushrooms, onions, and garlic).

• Continue to simmer and reduce until desired concentrate level is reached. I let it simmer until the stock concentrate was thick and stuck to my wooden spoon. (Fourth picture below).

• Use a sieve (really fine strainer) to strain your concentrate through to ensure it is smooth and doesn’t have any debris from the mushrooms or salt/pepper in it. Now you have sock concentrate!

To store our homemade mushroom stock concentrate, I spooned the end product into an ice cube tray (last photo—which I know looks like it might be chocolate but it really is my mushroom stock concentrate!). I let the cubes cool on the counter, then in the fridge, before moving them to the freezer. Now we have nice stock concentrate in the freezer to use when we want to cook!

Hopefully I’ve inspired some of you to see how great cooking can be! This recipe (if you can call it that?) is so easy it just takes time and monitoring. I can’t wait to share this love of cooking and making things from scratch with our future child. I know I get it from both of my parents, who always were happy to have me help in the kitchen when I was growing up.

Natalie