Messing with a Good Thing

I have got Chicken Broth down. Cold. It is something I barely think about: I throw in the goods, let 'er sit, strain, pop in the fridge, defat and boil down to the essence. Then it gets stored in the freezer so I'm ready for rissotto, nummy sauces and soup projects.

So yesterday, what did I decide to do? Tinker. Rather than doing Euro seasoning (thyme, rosemary, parm rind, etc.) I went Asian and did something along these lines:

3 lbs chicken (parts is parts...)
2 stalks celery
1 large carrot
2 shallots
garlic
handful of shitake mushrooms
sliced fresh ginger
peppercorns
star anise
lemongrass
cilantro (actually, Golden Pacific Foods claimed it was cilantro but it was clearly a different variety...long broad leaves rather than the frilly normal kind, scent and flavor though was very similar)

I didn't add salt because I figured with this as the base I could then use it for either SE Asia or Chinese style cooking by adding in either soy or fish sauce.

Then today I pulled out my copy of Hot Sour Salty Sweet and put my broth to good use with a variation of the Silky Coconut Pumpkin Soup.

Sauteed roughly chopped shallots in a bit of oil, threw in diced winter squash, simmer in equal parts of the broth and coconut milk with a few splashes of fish sauce. When the squash was getting tender I added more fish sauce let then settle in and then added a big handful of chiffonaded sort of cilantro.

I'm looking forward to my lunch this week...