Homemade Bouillon

[kirra]

Homemade Bouillon
101 Cookbooks

This recipe requires a food processor. I have a 8-cup / 2 liter / 2 quart model, and needed every cubic inch of it. I found the best approach if you are tight for space in your food processor is to add a few of the ingredients, then pulse a few times. The ingredients collapse and free up more space for the next few ingredients. If you don't find yourself using much bouillon, I will suggest making a half batch of this. And for those of you wanting to do a version with no salt, freeze the pureed vegetables in small amounts - say, ice cube trays, just after pureeing them. Introduce salt in whatever amount you like later in the cooking process.

Ingredients:

5 ounces leeks, sliced and well-washed
7 ounces fennel bulb, chopped
7 ounces carrot, well scrubbed and chopped
3.5 ounces celery
3.5 ounces celery root (celeriac), peeled and chopped
1 ounce sun-dried tomatoes
3.5 ounces shallots, peeled
3 medium garlic cloves
9 ounces fine grain sea salt
1.5 ounces flat-leaf parsley, loosely chopped
2 ounces cilantro (coriander), loosely chopped

Preparation:

Put the first four ingredients in your food processor and pulse about twenty times. Add the next four ingredients, and pulse again. Add the salt, pulse some more. Then add the parsley and cilantro. You may need to scoop some of the chopped vegetables on top of the herbs, so they get chopped. Mine tended to want to stay on top of everything else, initially escaping the blades.

You should end up with a moist, loose paste of sorts. Keep 1/4th of it in a jar in the refrigerator for easy access in the coming days, and freeze the remaining 3/4 for use in the next month. Because of all the salt it barely solidifies making it easy to spoon directly from the freezer into the pot before boiling.

Start by using 1 teaspoon of bouillon per 1 cup, and adjust from there based on your personal preference. Makes roughly 3 1/2 cups. Prep time: 40 min