RECIPE: REC: Chop Chops - these are wonderful flavoring cubes for sauces, soups and more...

RECIPE:

heather_in_sf

Well-known member
Since we are approaching drearier weather, here is a wonderful recipe that I made every year about now, to keep in my freezer. These are a little picky to make but so worth it in terms of flavor-ROI of your time.

From George Bradshaw's "Suppers and Midnight Snacks" 1969 - as he wrote it (rather amusing)

REC: Chop Chops

2 envelopes plain gelatin

1 cup H20

6 cloves garlic

3 medium onions

1 bunch watercress

10 sprigs parsley

juice of 1 lemon

Melt the gelatin in water, then heat to dissolve it. Allow to cool. Peel garlic and onions and chop coarsley. Cut off stems of watercress and parsley and discard. Dump everything into a blender, lemon juice, gelatin, garlic, onions, watercress and parsley, and let the blender to until you have a beautiful jade-green puree.

You will have bought beforehand, four mini ice cube trays, that are 1/2" deep and each making 90 cubes. The recipe will fill four trays.

Pour the puree into the trays and allow to freeze solid. Now you run into an unfortunate situation. No matter how you bend these plastic trays, or warm them with a hot towel, the little cubes will not pop out, the gelatin simply will not allow this.

However, if you loosen a cube around its edges with the sharp point of a paring knife, it will come out easily. Put the cubes into a plastic baggie and tie securely and store in the freezer.

You will have enough cubes to last forever, 360 of them. Because they are very strong. But if used correctly, they will give a pleasant sting to a sauce.

For instance, saute a couple of boneless chicken breasts in a little butter. When you remove them from the pan, add a little more butter, a splash of white wine and one of the cubes, heat and stir and pour over the chicken.

Do the same with fried fillets of fish, the sauce will do wonders for plain cod or broiled shrimps.

Or, if you are quickly sauteeing a slice or two of beef tenderloin, make the sauce, with red wine ths time, and pour over the fillets.

Suppose you are making a large beef stew. three or four of the cubes will give it practically all the flavor it will need. You can also add them to a fish boil.

I hope you give these a try, it's an unusual recipe and so good. I found the mini ice cube trays at a local five and dime shop in Chinatown.
Enjoy!

 
What a GREAT idea!

I love the gelatin in the mix. I sometimes will add some powdered gelatin to "less than spectular" sauces to give it that wonderful mouth feel of properly made stocks. This would be so convenient for quick suppers. Thanks!

 
Great idea! I have been freezing stock.left over from cooking chicken. Now,

using your recipe and sub. stock for water will make it taste even better. Thanks.

 
Terrific! I was doing my compund butter rolls for the freezer last night and was wondering

what I might do with so many leftover herbs. I made little graphic labels for them all and they are attractive enough to give as little gifts.

There are so many uses for the herbs in butter but still, not everything wants butter. And there you are with this great idea. Thank you Heather.

 
I don't think so - you could cut them in half once frozen if you felt they were too much...

the mini cube trays give cubes a little bigger than a cinema gum drop, if that helps any!

I'm shopping tonight for watercress et al to make on Saturday...

 
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