Veggies for soups and stews...

It's started getting a little nippy at night here in LA of late. Given the rapid change in seasons this year, I caught a hell of a cold over the past week, and I'm now finally getting over it. Given that I was congested and generally miserable all week, I ate a lot of soups and stews that go down easy and just warm you up from the inside.

I made a big batch (7-qts) of home-made chicken stock as a base, (easy... get a whole chicken or family pack of wings, wash, cover with cold water, add couple each carrots and celery, a whole onion and simmer for a couple/several hours until the bones even fall apart, strain and reserve) and have been making soups and soups out of it for a while. Which got me to thinking... is there a good way of making sure that the veggies don't turn into mush while making a good and hearty slow cooked meal?

The answer is absolutely yes. Just because you let a stew or soup simmer for a couple hours to get the flavors together doesn't mean that you have to suffer potatoes and carrots that have no backbone left. The secret is remarkably simple... Start with cold water/stock, and take at least 10 minutes to bring it to a simmer. What? That's it??? Yes. Let me repeat. SLOWLY bring the pot up to a simmer.

The scientific reasoning for this, for those of you who are into that sort of thing (yes, I have been known to be a geek from time to time), is that the texture of cooked vegetables have everything to do with how a substance in them called pectin is handled. Pectin, by the way in its pure form, is the substance used to gel jams and jellies. It's a naturally occurring sugar-substance that is present in all fruits and vegetables in various concentrations. If you slowly bring the temperature of the veggies up as opposed to "shocking" them directly in boiling water, the pectin has a chance to "set up" thus protecting the integrity of the cellular structures. Once they've been tempered thus, you can cook the veggies for a long time while still retaining a crisp texture. Depending on what you like, you can adjust the tempering process to get varied results. If you want veggies that have just a slight crunch, just follow the "bring to simmer over 10 minutes guideline), if you want them really crunchy take longer... Of course, the reverse applies too, so in certain cases where you want your veggies to turn into mush (for bisques and other pureed applications, for example), you want to have the water at a boil before adding the veggies.

See, now you can have a soup or stew with a restaurant type mouth feel, and you won't have to worry about everything turning into mush... Oh, and if you're adding broccoli or cauliflower (or anything that "falls apart"), make sure that you blanch and shock them to keep their color, and add them at the very end of cooking after you take the soup/stew off the heat. They'll remain intact, and won't throw florets all over the place.