Seasonal pantry: Broths to add warmth, comfort to your day

If we have ever needed comfort food, we need it now: Creamy polenta made in a slow cooker, chicken soup, cheddar and sausage soup, macaroni and cheese, spaghetti and meatballs and similar dishes, preferably homemade, go a distance toward feeding our bodies and soothing our frayed nerves. When we can share it with friends, neighbors and fellow evacuees, so much the better.

Two tools can be helpful in times of trouble, pressure cookers - including their new cousin, the Instant Pot - and slow cookers make it easy to prepare generous portions. You can even line up several slow cookers to feed a crowd; it takes seven, large slow cookers, for example, to make polenta for about 200 people. You can find instructions on how to do this at “Eat This Now” at pantry.blogs.pressdemocrat.com.

When adrenaline runs high, it can be easy to forget to eat.

As happens when a loved one has passed away, hunger tends to vanish in times of sustained crisis, but we still need to eat.

With soups, polenta and such, you can keep them warm on the stove or in a slow-cooker so that they are ready whenever someone feels a surge of hunger or is reminded to eat.

If you talk to a chef about bone broth, he or she may grimace and walk away.

It is controversial in the food world because chefs have been making it for pretty much as long as anyone has been cooking over fire, and it is typically called stock. Today’s fascination with it as if it were some new thing is annoying.

My thoughts have always been if its new-found popularity makes home cooks comfortable with making it, I’m all for it. There are now many commercial versions, and this is where I join other chefs in their displeasure. Don’t buy it! Recent studies have revealed that so-called commercial organic bone broths are contaminated with pesticides, antibiotics and other ingredients you do not want.

These are national brands, of course. If your local market makes their own bone broth or stock, it is a great option if you cannot cook.

Making bone broth, either on top of the stove or in a slow cooker, is an imprecise technique.

I do not worry about measuring any of the ingredients, though I am careful not to add more than 2 tablespoons of vinegar, lest it influence the taste rather than assist with the extraction of minerals, its intended purpose.

It is something every generation of home cook has known how to do, until the last generation or so. The technique should be revived and passed on to our younger family members.

Once done, the broth can be seasoned simply, with salt and pepper, and enjoyed as it is or it can be used in other recipes. It is very nourishing and thus helpful in times of stress and trouble.

Slow-Cooker Bone Broth

Makes about 8 to 10 cups

5-6 pounds very meaty beef bones

- Kosher salt

- Filtered or spring water, hot

4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

2 bay leaves

1 carrot, in chunks, optional

1 yellow onion, quartered, optional

3 shallots, halved, optional

- Several slices of fresh ginger

3-4 garlic cloves, optional

1-2 parsley sprigs, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Put the bones on a baking sheet or in a roasting pan and season all over with kosher salt. Put them in the oven and roast until evenly browned, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Transfer the bones to a slow cooker and add the hot filtered or spring water, covering the bones by 1 or 2 inches.

Add 2 tablespoons of the apple cider vinegar, the bay leaves, and whatever optional ingredients you want.

Cook on high for 1 hour and then program on low for 12 hours or as long as your slow cooker will allow. Cook the bones for a total of 24 hours.

Check the liquid now and then, adding more as needed to keep the bones submerged. Skim off and discard the foam and other impurities that rise to the surface.

After 12 hours, you can remove a ladle or two to use immediately and replace it with fresh water. Use more broth as needed, always replacing it with fresh water.

After 24 hours, gently pour the broth into a container and cover the bones with fresh water and add the remaining 2 tablespoons of vinegar. Cook the second batch for 48 to 72 hours.

Cool the first batch of broth to room temperature, cover it and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled; overnight is best. Remove and discard the layer of fat that has congealed on the surface of the broth.

Transfer to another container, leaving behind the layer of impurities at the bottom of the stock.

As the second batch of broth cooks, use it for cooking dried beans and in soups that do not need a stronger broth; always top off with water. When the flavors diminish completely or to where you no longer like them, discard the bones and other ingredients.

Use remaining broth within 3 or 4 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

Scotch broth is not broth at all, but a rich, hearty soup full of great flavors and healthy nutrients.

Scotch Broth

Serves 6 to 8

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 pounds lamb necks or bone-in lamb stew meat, cut into 2-inch pieces

- Kosher salt

1 large onion, peeled and quartered

1 celery rib, cut in half crosswise

2 large carrots, peeled and cut in half crosswise

2 bay leaves

1/2 cup pearled barley, preferably soaked in water for several hours and drained

2 tablespoons butter

3-4 small leeks, white and pale green part only, washed and sliced into thin rounds

2 pounds young turnips, peeled and cut into quarters

2 large parsnips, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks

1/2 cup red lentils, picked over and rinsed

- Black pepper in a mill

4 tablespoons minced fresh Italian parsley

Put the olive oil in a pressure cooker set over medium heat, add the lamb, season generously with salt and brown, stirring frequently.

Add 8 cups of water, increase the heat to high and bring to a boil. Skim off the foam that rises to the surface.

Add the onion, celery ribs, carrot, bay leaves and barley.

Lock the lid in place and bring to high pressure. Reduce the heat just enough to maintain high pressure and cook for 20 minutes.

Quick-release the pressure according to manufacturer’s instructions. When the pressure has dropped completely, remove the lid, tilting it away from you so that the steam does not burn you.

Set a large strainer over a bowl or pot and strain the soup. Discard the vegetables (if you have a dog, save the carrots for him or her) and bay leaf; pull the meat off the bones and discard the bones.

Degrease the liquid (a gravy separator will do this nicely). Set the meat and barley aside.

Rinse the pressure cooker, set over medium heat and add the butter. Sauté the leeks until wilted, about 3 minutes.

Season with salt, add the broth, turnips, parsnips and red lentils, and add several turns of black pepper.

Increase the heat to high, lock the lid in place and bring to high pressure. Reduce the heat but maintain high pressure and cook for 4 minutes.

Quick-release the pressure and unlock the lid. Let cool for 2 to 3 minutes, stir in the meat and barley and ladle into soup bowls.

Top each portion with some of the parsley and serve immediately.

Michele Anna Jordan is the author of 24 books to date, including “Polenta” (Broadway Books, 1996). Email her at michele@micheleannajordan.com