potatoes

been trying to use the potatoes we received from Mayumi quickly because whenever I buy potatoes they always turn green…here’s how I used them

hamburger stew

vichyssoise

hide the weiner

a batch of Maangchi’s braised potatoes

hash browns 

roasted potatoes topped with chili, a little kale & cheese

and scalloped potatoes

Do you have a favorite way to eat potatoes?

everything parmesan crusted potatoes

Saw someone's IG when I went down a Reel rabbit hole and came across these crusted parmesan potatoes.

Friday, Satoshi went out to drink with a friend, so I made myself one of these for my solo pupu party.

Adapted from a couple of online recipes.

Preheat the oven to 200C (400F)

Scrub the potato.

Cut it in half

Score the potato, but do not cut it all the way through.

On a parchment paper, put 1/2 a tablespoon of oil.

In a bowl, mix 1/2 tablespoon of parmesan, the "sandy" type, and 1/2 teaspoon of "everything" seasoning.

Put the cheese mixture onto the oil, mix it a little

Place the scored side of the potato onto the cheese oil  mixture

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes.

NOTES: so easy and so delicious.

Most recipes online make lots of these on a sheet pan in the oven, some use butter but this one used oil.

It probably doesn’t get as crispy but I like to use parchment whenever I bake so that I don't have to scrub anything afterwards.

If you don't like "everything" seasoning, use dried spices that you enjoy that match with parmesan cheese.

lady j

There is a potato variety called Lady J.

The outer flesh is red and the insides are pink.

I've seen them online fried up as potato chips, but it is so popular, I've never seen the chips in the stores.

I was happy to see the potatoes at the market recently so I picked them up for us to try.

At first I peeled one, but changed my mind and left the outer flesh on for the rest instead.

I made scalloped potatoes with a can of cream of mushroom soup.

My mom often made us this dish by placing sliced potatoes at the bottom of a baking dish, then searing some pork chops, covering the whole thing with cream of mushroom soup and baking everything in the oven until the potatoes are cooked through.

I actually wanted to eat the potatoes more than the pork, so I pan fried some really thin pieces of pork and cooked the potatoes separately in the oven.

These seemed a little more starchy than regular potatoes but I'm glad we got to try them.

I still have a few more of these potatoes and may get the courage to fry them as chips...

aaloo masala

Thank you to everyone who gave me feedback on yesterday's post.

After I work on re-pasting the photos on the posts that are connected to Flickr, I will work on rotating the ones in the albums...

Changing subjects...Tried a new recipe recently called Aaloo Masala.

Apparently Aaloo is the Hindi word for potato and Masala is spices.

This is kind of like middle eastern potato salad.

Adapted from "Spice Cafe" by Kazushiro Ito, makes about 4 servings
2 potatoes (about 300 grams total)
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon mustard seed
5 curry leaves
2 heaping tablespoons minced onion
2 heaping tablespoons minced carrot
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon salt

Peel and slice potatoes into cubes then boil until soft (about 15 minutes)
Drain and set aside
In a pan, heat oil on high and add mustard seeds
When you hear the seed start to pop, turn off the heat and cover the pan until the seeds stop popping.
Turn the heat back on to medium and tear up the curry leaves and add
Add the onion and carrots.
Cook until the onions are transparent
Add the turmeric and salt and mix well.
Add the spice veggies mixture to the potato, mashing the potato while stirring and leaving some chunks as well.
Serve warm.

NOTES: This was delicious and different. I served this with some tandoori chicken and would make this again.

Oh and with the other half, I made shepard's pie...in a baking dish, I put some steamed broccoli, cut up the tandoori chicken then topped it with the aaloo masala and then baked it in the oven for 20 minutes.

calbee croquette

If you are familiar with Japanese snacks, you'll know that Calbee makes potato chips.

Well, they recently teamed up with Hankyu Department Store in Umeda and started selling croquettes.

In Japan, traditional croquettes are mashed potatoes with bits of beef that are formed into oblong orbs and are deep fried. At the markets they sell these and other flavor variations too.

Anyway, before Golden Week, Calbee/Hankyu started selling these teeny snack types as well as regular sized croquettes.

And of course whenever something "new" appears, there are always krazy lines.

As you wait in line, they give you the "menu" so you can decide which flavors you want to get.

Then when you get closer to the glass case, they will give you tickets for the flavors you wish to purchase.

In front of the glass case, you hand over your tickets and someone readies your order.

Then you pay and go off with your purchases...pretty good system and the line moves quite quickly.

Luckily, this past Saturday while I waited for Satoshi to finish his German class, I was able to pick up some croquettes for us to try.

Their regular sized: plain, butter...we liked the butter one!

Snack type flavored like their chips: Nori shio (kelp & salt) and consomme punch (consomme)...we liked the nori shio one!

I'm glad we got to try these, definitely not something to buy everyday, but nice to maybe bring to a potluck party.

kodomo yoshoku

Another easy recipe from that quirky show, Kenmin Show, that shows all the different foods from the various prefectures in Japan.

Kodomo Yoshoku literally means Children Western Food, this recipe combines potatoes (western), worchestershire sauce (western), green onions and sakura ebi (sergia lucens)

They didn't give any specific measurements, so I made this one up: (serves 2)

1 medium sized potato
1 tablespoon olive oil
handful of dried sakura ebi
handful of green onions
2 teaspoons of worchestershire sauce

Boil potato with the skin on until soft.
Peel and cut into bite sized pieces
In a pan, heat up oil
Add potato and toss
When it is coated with the oil, added ebi and half of the green onions
Then add the sauce
When everything is coated with the sauce, serve and top with the rest of the green onions.

NOTES: super fast, easy and goes well with beer. I'm making this again.

ginger potato soup

I got the idea for this soup when I ate an instant version.

Knorr Japan has a creamy ginger potage which we tried and when I looked at the ingredients, I thought, "I could make this".

The weather is starting to slowly warm up during the daytime, but the nights are still cold, so I wanted to try making this soup before the weather totally warms up.

The potatoes really help thicken up the soup.

Here's the recipe if you'd like to try:
Kat's ginger potato soup :serves about 4

1 tablespoon canola oil
3 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
1/4 can of SPAM, chopped
1/3 carrot, chopped
1 nub (about 1/4 inch thick) ginger, chopped small
1.5 cups water
1 consomme cube
1 small bunch of spinach, cleaned and chopped
2 cups skim milk
grinds of pepper, to taste

Saute the onions, spam, carrot and potato in oil until onions are transparent
Add ginger, water and consomme
Cook on high for 15 minutes or until potatoes are soft
Turn heat down to simmer and add spinach and milk
Cook on low for another 3 minutes, just to wilt spinach and heat milk.
Turn off heat.
Add pepper and whizz with immersion blender.
When serving add another couple grinds of pepper.

NOTES: I had some SPAM leftover so I used it in this recipe. If you don't like SPAM, I think bacon would also be nice in this soup. The original soup doesn't have spinach in it, but I had some and wanted to use it.

The original also had some cheese in it, but I didn't put any in it, though if you want a richer soup, adding some cheese or even some cream would be good choices.

Be sure to whizz your soup well, you wouldn't want to bite into ginger. If you want to strain this soup, you could, but I didn't, wanting to eat all the fiber and nutrients. This soup is spicy and will definitely warm you up. This is a keeper for winter.

I'm sending this to Deb for her Souper Sundays, a great array of soups, salads & sammies.

UPDATE: this soup is delicious served cold too, like vichyssoise.

shin-jaga

Even though the weather is kinda wishy-washy, I know Spring is coming because there are shin-jagaimo or shin-jaga (new potatoes) in the markets. This particular variety is called May Queen.

The new potatoes here are tiny, only one or two inches, I think they maybe different from the new potatoes you see in the U.S.

When I first came to Japan, I had a hard time figuring out what types of potatoes there were. In Hawaii, the only types I've seen are red, yukon & russet, none of which are in Japan (to my knowledge anyway).

Anyway, here in Japan, certain types are good for curry and some good for croquettes (I think it depends on the texture of the potato, though I usually rely on the sign at the market to tell me which is good for what).

I bought this from a little yaoya (vegetable/fruit stand). A little less than a pound for only 100 yen (about US$1).

I thought I had posted this recipe before but looked through my archives and didn't see it.

The recipe is easy and delicious.

Shin-jaga to gyuniku no amakarani (Beef and new potatoes simmered in a sweet-salty sauce) adapted from Orange Page's "Haru ni Oishii Kondate": Serves 4

405grams (a little less than a pound) new potatoes, scrubbed, eyes removed
100 grams (about 3.5 ounces) beef, thinly sliced
1 carrot, cut into bite size pieces
2/3 cup dashi (stock)
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
olive oil (about 2 tablespoons)

Cut potatoes in half, lengthwise
Fry cut-side down on medium in olive oil, tossing around for about 7-8 minutes
Add meat, cook until meat changes color
Add stock, carrot, sugar and shoyu
Cook uncovered until all liquid evaporates, stir once in awhile
Enjoy with rice

NOTES: I loved the sweet and salty combination and it came together quite quickly. Probably the thing that would take the longest is to make your dashi (stock), though I normally cheat and use dashi packets, which look like tea bags and are filled with konbu (kelp), katsuo bushi (bonito) & niboshi (dried small sardines).

If you can find dashi in these packets, I would highly recommend it, this method is fast and you don't have to go out to look for the individual ingredients.

It's Friday, hope you have a nice weekend!

re-creating and a re-do

If you recall, last month I made taegu which was too salty. With the rest of the dried codfish, I soaked it in water overnight then used the same recipe for the sauce and I also added 1 teaspoon of kim chee starter.

I liked this version, it wasn't as salty as my first trial and the fish was softer. It was definitely easier to separate from the bone too (though I did find while eating that I missed some). I think the next time I try making this, I will try it with cuttlefish.

Since I had some potatoes that needed to be used, I wanted to try making the korean potatoes that I sometimes get in Hawaii whenever I eat Korean take-out. I found an easy recipe in Jean Watanabe Hee's "Salads, Sides and Soups".

Here is the recipe if you want to try making it:

Korean Potatoes : 6 servings

3 medium potatoes (about 2 pounds)
2 cups water
1 tablespoon Hawaiian salt

Soy sauce mixture:
1 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon pepper (or less, adjust to taste)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Peel and cut potatoes into bite sized pieces. Immerse in brine of water and salt for 10 minutes; drain. Place potatoes in skillet and pour soy sauce mixture over. Cook, uncovered, over medium-high heat for 10 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender.

NOTES: while typing this recipe, I realized I didn't put the oil into the sauce. Still, the potatoes are tasty and just like the potatoes you can get at most Hawaii Korean take-out places.

Another comfort food I tried making was portuguese sausage. When we lived in Hawaii, Satoshi and I loved this especially for breakfast and loved putting it into chili. There is supposed to be a flavor packet made by Noh Foods for making portuguese sausage, but I've never found it at the local markets in Hawaii. My mom clipped out the recipe from the paper and sent it to me this past Christmas. (Thanks Mom!)

Portuguese Sausage Patties from HSB "By Request", who got it from Muriel Miura's "Hawai`i Cooks & Saves"

2 pounds pork, coarsely ground or chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 to 2 chili peppers, chopped
2 to 2.5 teaspoons salt or 1.5 teaspoons rock salt
1/8 teaspoon cumin, optional
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 cup water
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon red food coloring, optional
1 tablespoon vinegar
1/4 teaspoon liquid smoke

Combine pork with garlic, chilies, salt and spices.
Combine water with food coloring, vinegar and liquid smoke.
Pour over pork mixture and mix well.
Cover and refrigerate 2 days, mixing occasionally.
Shape into thin, 2-inch wide patties and fry in ungreased skillet 5 to 10 minutes, until lightly browned and cooked through.
Makes 32 patties, serves 8.

NOTES: I didn't add the cumin, food coloring or liquid smoke. The texture was more like pork sausage, a little different from the portuguese sausage that we know, but it tasted ono (delicious in Hawaiian)! When I fried some up for breakfast, I used a tablespoon to scoop out the sausage mixture, rolled it in my palms then flattened it. The rest of the sausage mixture, I divvied up and put it into the freezer so we have some to fry up for other breakfasts.

The last thing I tried re-creating was a reuben. We don't have delis here where you can get sandwiches made, so I was happy to come across pastrami, rye bread and sauerkraut at the supermarket. The rye bread tasted more like white bread with hard seeds in it, but the pastrami and sauerkraut were delicious. I didn't add any type of dressing, but I did add some cheese and cornichons on the side....delicious.

What have you been eating?

spring veggies

With Spring, there are the "new" veggies...like shinjagaimo (new potatoes), these are tiny fingerling type (the photo shows the difference).

And shintamanegi (literally new onions), these are tender and sweet. I tried making caramelized onions (more on this in a later post). Both are great for roasting.

With the weather sort-of warming up, we've been eating more veggies as salads lately.

We also had hummus with tandoori chicken wraps.

Greek salad.

Roasted veggies with grilled chicken.

A small rant on asparagus. Would you pay 258 yen (about US$2.58) for 3 asparagus stalks from Japan or 99 yen (about US$.99) for 8 asparagus stalks from Mexico? I know neither is really a choice, but I really like to buy Japan when I can, but 3 versus 8....price wise and amount wise, I chose the Mexican asparagus.

Dark beer beef stew.

I found the recipe for the stew in a gas pamphlet at my MIL's.

500 grams gyumomo (beef top round)
salt/pepper
flour to coat
oil to brown
250 grams onion, sliced
150 grams carrot, chopped
1 celery, chopped
1 package shimeji (tricoloma)
celery leaf
350 ml dark beer
******************************
(a)
2 cup bouillon
100 grams tomato puree
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoon sugar
1 bay leaf
******************************
40 grams butter
salt/pepper
Italian parsley

1. Cut meat into 4 cm cubes, salt and pepper and coat with flour, brown in oil.
2. Cut vegetables, wash shimeji
3. After browning beef, add veggies and coat with oil, add beer and let alcohol burn off (about 10 minutes).
4. Add (a), celery leaf, scrape off scum.
5. Simmer for 15-20 minutes.
6. Add butter, turn off heat.
7. Top with parsley.

NOTES: this is rich and delicious, I used 1.5 onions, 1 carrot, 250 grams meat and only 12 grams butter (40 grams of butter seemed too much). I also used Yebisu black beer.

potato chips

I love potato chips, but the oil that most companies use aren't really good for you (that is probably why they taste so good!)

Anyway, I was reading La Fuji Mama and she was making sweet potato fries in her oven. Since I didn't have sweet potatoes (though I will try her recipe soon), I decided to try making potato chips in mine.

I sliced two "danshaku" potatoes thinly (note: be careful and don't nip the tip of your finger with the knife or in my case, finger nail...yipes! thank goodness there was the finger nail protruding...)

Dry potato slices and coat well with 1 tablespoon of olive oil.

Arrange on broiler pan or piece of foil. I then sprinkled some salt and some Herb de Provence.

Stick into 220 C (425 F) oven for 30 minutes.

Makes a great snack or nice accompaniment to a salad.

NOTE:Growing up in Hawaii, I only knew of red potatoes, russett and yukon gold. In Japan there are several varieties of potato, the ones mostly seen in the markets are danshaku and may queen. The may queen variety is mostly used in stews and curries.

It is another holiday here, Autumn Equinox.

new friend, new recipe, new flower

Yesterday I met a new friend. She contacted me through Flickr. Since she's travelling through Japan, she emailed me and we met for lunch and lots of sweets. (sorry no photos of the food) She gave me a mini bottle of her favorite liquer, which I hope to make ice cream or bon bons with!...thanks for a great time, Maui Luna!

The new recipe is something I tried for dinner.

Spring potato kinpira -- serves 2 from "Soshoku no susume-Spring recipes" by Hideo Makuuchi

400g new crop potatoes (about 1 pound?)
a pinch of dry chili
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/4 cup sake (rice wine)
2 tablespoon mirin (sweet rice wine)
2 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)

Wash the potatoes and keep the skins on (dig out any of the eyes--if any)
Cut the potato to about 4 or 5 mm.
Heat a pan and put in the oil
Toss the potato with chili around in oil until transparent
Add the sake, mirin and shoyu and simmer on medium until all liquid disappears.

This other recipe is adapted from a recipe I've used from Jamie Oliver. Cut an onion (preferable new crop as these are tender and sweet) into quarters but don't cut it all the way through.

Put a teaspoon of oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put into a 400F (200C) oven for about 30 minutes.

Lastly, I wanted to show you my new flowers. They are called "forget-me-not". They were really inexpensive, less than 100 yen each. I thought the little flowers were so cute.

monday

Monday's breakfast was an omlette made with eggs and shiofuki konbu (this is kelp that is seasoned with shoyu, mirin then dried) , gobo (burdock) salad (which was bought...I gotta figure out the recipe for this, I love it!), various tsukemono (pickled veggies), rice & strawberries.

Lunch was a bit of carb overloading...baked curry pan (bread filled with curry), potato croquette burger and yakisoba (fried noodles). I really like the yakisoba from the sozai-ya (a.k.a. okazyu-ya) in our shopping arcade, it is kind of dry, which makes the noodle kind of chewy but not burnt to a crisp and hard.

And dinner was a pork chop seasoned with some bottled spices, moroccan carrot salad, leftover potatoes, asparagus.

sunday

Okay, so we have replaced our computer, printer, bought an external disk drive, a USB flash drive, oh and new cell phones....so with all that, the thing that is driving me crazy is that every time my mouse rolls over a word, it highlights red and a little window pops up to surf the net with. I really hate using programs in Japanese, and Satoshi is of no help as he hates reading the manuals, which means I'm on my own with this stuff....Does anyone know how to turn this off?

Anywho...A reader, Colin, was interested to see what we eat that isn't blogged about.

So, for the next couple of posts, I'll show you what I've been eating.

First of all, I don't pack lunch for Satoshi, so I don't know what he eats for lunch, but I do know that he usually goes out to eat.

Sunday's breakfast started out with a fried egg and splash of okonomiyaki sauce, tsukemono (variety of veggies and an eggplant one), rice and green tea. (We tend to eat eggs in the morning, it is the fastest and easiest way to get protein.)

Lunch was picked up at the bakery inside of the supermarket. A ham sandwich and a nut danish. (I wish these bakeries would make different sandwiches like turkey or chicken, but most do the "nitrate thing"--ham, hot dog or tuna/egg salad. The chili cheese Fritos were brought home from Hawaii.)

Dinner was a combination of new recipes. Green pea miso soup, simmered new crop potatoes and asparagus with a ginger sauce.

Here are the recipes for the dishes: from "Soshoku no susume: Spring recipes" by Makuuchi Hideo : all recipes are servings for 2

1 cup green peas, shelled
2 tablespoons miso (soy bean paste)
a little salt

Put 2 cups of water into a pot and boil the peas until soft (about 12-13 minutes).
Take the peas out of the water and keep this water aside.
Whiz peas until paste-like. Add some of the boiling water to the paste in the processor to turn paste into a soup.
Return everything to pot and heat. Add miso and stir until miso combined with water and peas. Add salt if needed (I didn't put any).
*****************************************************
400g new crop potatoes with skins on
2 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
1 tablespoon mirin (sweet rice wine)

After washing potatoes, put into a pot and fill with enough water to cover them.
Boil on medium heat until soft. (about 30 minutes)
When soft, add shoyu and mirin. And put an oshibuta (piece of foil with 2 holes or a drop lid).
Turn heat down to simmer and simmer until all the liquid evaporates. (About an hour.)
*****************************************************
10 stalks asparagus
2 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
1 nub ginger, grated
1 tablespoon sesame seed

Cut asparagus into 4-5 cm pieces, add to boiling water and boil for 2 minutes.
Transfer to sauce mixture, toss.

Hope you enjoy these recipes, Colin! They are easy and delicious. Stay tuned for the rest of the week.

alternative to the bubble gum

Monday is Taiku no hi (Sports Day), it is a national holiday. So in commemoration of this day, I want to talk a little bit about...baseball.

In America, do the baseball cards still come with that really hard piece of gum? or do they just sell the cards without the gum?

In Japan, we get our baseball cards with....chips! Calbee, a large snack maker sells these 22 gram bags of chips with a packet of two cards attached to the bag.

Throughout the year, Calbee puts out 3 phases of the cards and you can get all sorts of players and stats, cards with hologram coatings, pretty exciting stuff...and so far, we've never gotten the same card! They also have a soccer version for you J-League fans.

Well, the play-offs (which the call "the climax series") start this Friday. But I need to rant....there are only 12 teams in the whole Japanese pro baseball league, I think the MLB has double that or maybe more? No reason to have play-offs here! they should just make more teams so there is more competition and more chances for the unknowns to get out there and play the game. They have only recently started having inter-league play where the teams of the 6 Pacific league teams get to play against the 6 Central League teams which is quite interesting and exciting. Up until then it was Pacific vs. Pacific and Central vs. Central and only during the "world series" do the two separate leagues' teams match up against each other,

So I shake my head as the play-offs start and hope that the Tigers (in 3rd place) can come from behind and whip everyone's butts to get a chance to play in the Japan's version of the world series.

Go Tigers!

p.s. Satoshi has been saying he wants to become a housewife and that I should go to work. I know why he says this....it is because our tv can view two baseball games (the play-offs) at the same time (one side with sound) and is being televised while he is at work! (as if watching the game was the only thing I did around here!)

nikujaga

The other day, I was reading Cass' mishap adventure making nikujaga. In Japanese, niku is meat and jaga is short for jagaimo which means potato. This is a Japanese-style "stew" and is sometimes called nimono (simmered dish). I have made this several times and it is a pretty simple one-pot dish.

As I read her post, I realized that I hadn't made this dish in awhile and with a bit of a nip in the air today, I thought that this dish would be a good thing for dinner.

Here's the recipe that I use (from Orange Page Book #5) -- Serves 4
Ingredients:
650g jagaimo (potato--4 large potato)
300g chicken thigh, boneless
1 onion
1 carrot
8-10 sayaendo or kinusaya (snow peas)
salt -- about a pinch
2 tablespoons oil
2.5 cups stock or water
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon mirin (sweet rice wine)
1 tablespoon sake (rice wine)
3.5 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)
shichimitogarashi (7 spice pepper) to taste

Preparation:
Rinse potatoes and cut into 3-4 cm pieces.
Cut the chicken into 3-4 cm pieces.
Cut the onion into sixths.
Cut the carrot into 3-4 cm pieces.
Take the wiry part of the snow peas off, put the snow peas into a bowl with a little salt and hot water and let steep for 1 minute. After the minute, take the snow peas out and leave in a strainer.

Let's get cooking:
Put 2 tablespoons oil into a pot then add chicken and stir with wooden spoon.
When the chicken starts to turn brown, add the potatoes and carrots, making sure to coat everything with the oil. (this helps everything to soak up the sauce)

When all is coated, add the onion.

Then add the 2.5 cups of stock or water, turn the heat down to low and simmer.

Raise the heat to medium and take off the scum that forms on the top. Simmer for another 3-4 minutes without the cover. Add 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespooon sake, 1 tablespoon mirin and 2.5 tablespoons of shoyu (reserve 1 tablespoon of shoyu for later). Stir. Then put an otoshibuta (drop lid) on top and simmer at medium heat for 17-18 minutes. (if you don't have a drop lid, you can make one from foil, it should be 1 size smaller than your pot and have 2 holes in the middle)

After 17-18 minutes, the amount of liquid in the pot should have dropped about a third. Add the 1 tablespoon reserved shoyu. Raise the heat up and simmer until the potatoes are tender but do not fall apart, add the reserved snow peas and serve. Before eating add a dash or two of the 7 spice pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

NOTES: I usually use chicken but today used beef, also I couldn't find snow peas, so I left them out. It is best to use stock if you can get your hands on it, it makes a difference in taste. I use an organic tea bag-style stock packet with ground up kombu (kelp), katsuo (bonito), niboshi (dried small sardines) and shiitake (mushroom).

Before starting a recipe, I make my stock by adding the packet to a pot of boiling water, following the directions on the package. Then I use the amount that the recipe calls for. The leftover stock must be used within 3 or 4 days, since there are no preservatives in the stock it will spoil quite quickly--make sure the leftover stock is cooled before putting it into the refrig.

Hope you are staying warm where you are!