Sushi party

Last week was my son-in-law's birthday. As is our tradition, we have a family birthday party, usually on a Sunday; and, we pick something favored by the birthday guest of honor. For his birthday dinner, we decided to have a Sushi party. This is something we've done, at least, two times before. So, while we're certainly no experts, but we have developed a good idea of what we like.

Many people equate sushi with raw fish; but, you do not have to use raw fish if you don't want to. You can use cooked shrimp or fish, or even make vegetarian sushi rolls.

Disclaimer: I am going to describe how we do a sushi party - in no way am I suggesting that this is how Sushi parties should be done, nor am I claiming that the sushi we create is in any way authentic.

There is a reason that sushi is expensive - it is very labor intensive, there is a lot involved in making it. However, that is also what makes it a good party theme where guests can each take a turn making their own sushi creation.

INGREDIENTS

There are also a lot of ingredients involved; although, if you do any amount of asian cooking then you very well may have a lot of these already on hand. Only a couple of these are essential, the rest being optional, depending upon the type of sushi you want to make. This is what we had on hand for our sushi party.

1. Sushi rice. This is absolutely essential - you can't have sushi without sushi rice.
2. Crab sticks. I use imitation crab - which, truth be told, is what many sushi restaurants also use.
3. Sushi grade fish. For this sushi party we opted for the (cooked) eel; although, we've used raw salmon and tuna in previous parties.
4. Shrimp. I prefer the 16-20/pound size. Buy it raw, but it will be cooked before you use it.
5. Nori. This is another essential - it is the seaweed wrapper.
6. Carrots
7. Cucumber
8. Avocado
9. Sesame seeds
10. Wasabi powder
11. Mirin
12. Sriracha sauce
13. Chili garlic sauce
14. Lite soy sauce
15. Heavy soy sauce
16. Panko bread crumbs
17. Rice vinegar. Also called rice wine vinegar. I also comes in regular and sweet, I prefer the regular
18. Cream cheese

Not shown

• Mayonnaise
• Pickled ginger slices
• Sugar
• Sesame oil

Other possible ingredients

• Tofu (extra firm)
• Scallions (spring onions)
• Mushrooms
• Snow peas
• Asparagus (lightly steamed)
• Daikon radish

Notes:

• If you have a store that sells bulk items, check there first as it can be a lot cheaper. For example, those bags of sesame seeds and wasibe powder were each only about 50¢. Buying those prepackaged would each cost about $2, $3, or even $4.
• If you have a store that has a good fish counter then check with them. Our local Central Market carries frozen sushi grade fish: Salmon, tuna, and eel in 8 ounce packages. The salmon and tuna are raw, the eel is cooked.
• The wasabi we get in the US is not true wasabi - it is green tinted horseradish. You can get it premixed; but, it is cheaper to buy the powder and mix it yourself.
• Mirin is essentially cooking sake, not unlike other cooking wines. The kind I buy has a bit of salt (to avoid being sold as alcohol) and contains less than 1% alcohol. You should be able to find it in any large supermarket that has a good asian food section.
• The Sriracha sauce is sometimes referred to as "rooster sauce" because of the picture of the rooster on the bottle. Available in most large supermakets that have a good asian food section.
• The use of either lite or heavy soy sauce is a personal choice. It's good to have both on hand.
• Panko bread crumbs are made from bread without crusts and has a crisper, airier texture than other bread crumbs. Many large supermarkets now carry it. Although, it may or may not be in the asian food section - it may be in the baking goods section where other types of bread crumbs are sold.

EQUIPMENT

There is also some equipment you will need.

1. Chopsticks
2. Small bowls. These are for holding dips, sauces, wasibi, or whatever else.
3. Nigiri Sushi Mold. - this is highly optional and is just fun to have
4. Plastic wrap
5. Cutting board
6. Sharp knife
7. Sushi mat. These are inexpensive, so get a couple so that more than one person can be making sushi at a time

Not shown

• Squirt bottles (the kind used for ketchup and mustard at picnics)
• Bowls of various and sundry sizes for preparation
• Serving plates
• Eating plates

Notes:

• Nigirizushi is a hand-formed sushi consisting of an oblong glob of sushi rice usually topped with a bit of wasabi and fish such as raw salmon or tuna

PRE-PREPARATION

Some preparation steps can be done ahead of time. I don't recommend doing it too far in advance; but, doing it the morning of the sushi party is fine.

Prepare the sushi rice

First off, be sure to use real sushi rice which is a short grain sticky rice - the long grain variety that is common in the US will not work. Although, sushi rice should be available in any large supermarket that has a decent asian food section. If you have a store that sells items in bulk then check there first as it will likely be cheaper.

Properly prepared sushi rice is essential for making good sushi. If it's too dry or wet then making the sushi will be all the more difficult. Real sushi chef's will tell you that it takes years to perfect making sushi rice; so, as amateurs ours will not be perfect - but we do the best we can.

I'm not going to go into the process for making sushi rice as that would be a blog post all by itself. I don't mean to make this sound intimidating as it really isn't that difficult. Essentially, you cook the sushi rice according to the directions on the package and then, while still warm, gently fold in a mixture of rice wine vinegar and sugar.

The process is well documented on the internet. You can even search YouTube for video's showing how to make it. A good site to check out is:

Make My Sushi

Prepare the shrimp

As I indicated in the ingredients list, I prefer the 16-20/pound size, although any size will work. It's just that the larger ones are easier to work with.

A problem with shrimp is that it curls up tight when cooked. What we want is straight shrimp that can be easily put into a sushi roll. To accomplish this, I stick skewers into the raw shrimp to straighten it out.

Peel and devein the shrimp, trying to leave the tail piece on. Next push a thin skewer through the length of the shrimp to straighten.

To cook the shrimp I simply boil it; although, to increase flavor, I boil it with the shells I removed (there is a lot of flavor in the shells). I also add a bit of seaweed (for a hint of the sea). I add just enough water to cover the shimp, bring it to a boil and then turn it off as soon as it boils and let it cool in the water (to enhance the flavor). To prevent the shrimp from overcooking, I added a few ice cubes and then placed the pan into a larger pan filled with cold water to cool it enough to stop the cooking process.

Leave the skewers in the shrimp until completely cooled, otherwise they will curl if still warm. Remove the skewer by twisting it out. Then put it in a ziplock bag along with a tablespoon (or so) of Mirin. Massage the bag to make sure all of the shrimp is coated with the Mirin and then refrigerate until ready to use.

Slice the vegetables

Peel the cucumber, cut it in half lengthwise, and scrape out all of the seeds. Peel the carrots. You'll want to slice the vegetables into long strips. They should be as long as the width of the Nori. I used a pampered chef mandolin which has a julianne attachment; but, cutting them by hand wouldn't be that hard. Alternatively you could julianne cut them into matchstick size pieces.

You may want to parboil the carrots just a bit to soften them, be careful not to cook them completely as you still want to have a bit of crunch. You may need to run them under cold water after parboiling to stop the cooking process.

Slice the cream cheese

Slice the cream cheese into long slices about 1/2" wide X 1/4" thick and the length of the cream cheese block. It helps to stick it in the freezer a bit to firm it up. Just be sure to not keep it in the freezer too long as if it freezes it will change the consistency of the cream cheese.

Toast the sesame seeds and panko bread crumbs

You can toast them in an oven; however, I have a tendency to burn them. I prefer toasting them in a frying pan (no oil). That way I can watch them and toast them to a light golden color.

Put the sesame seeds and panko bread crumbs each into a shallow wide bowl large enough so that the sushi rolls can be rolled.

Wrap the sushi mat in plastic wrap

This is just to make cleanup easier at the end. Don't skimp on the plastic wrap, I wrap it around 2 or 3 times.

Prepare the wasibe

Start by mixing together equal parts of wasabi powder and water until it is the desired consistency. If you feel energetic, you can make it a bit thicker and then mold it into small shapes. I made mine into marble sized balls.

Prepare the nori

You can use the full sheets of nori to make sushi; however, experience has shown that doing so makes sushi that is too large to eat as a single bite. The nori sheets are perforated with 6 sections. We've found that carefully folding it on the 4th perforation and then tearing it makes the perfect size.

Unfortunately, cutting it in half (along the 3rd perforation) is a bit too small; so, you do end up with the remaining 2 sections as wasted pieces of nori. You could add one or two of these waste pieces to the water when boiling the shrimp. You could also cut the waste pieces into thin strips and add them to miso soup. Or, you could just discard them.

Prepare sauces

There are a number of sauces that can be used either inside the sushi or squirt on top after cutting the sushi

Kabayaki (eel) Sauce

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup mirin (sweet rice wine)
• 1/4 cup sugar

1. Pour all ingredients in a pan and then stir the mixture well. Put the pan on low heat and simmer for a few minutes.
2. Remove from the heat and cool the mixture. Store the sauce in a clean squirt bottle in the refrigerator or let cool to room temperature before serving.

Spicy Mayonnaise

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp Sriracha chilli sauce
• 1 tbsp hot sesame oil

1. Mix together and store the sauce in a clean squirt bottle

Wasabi Mayonnaise

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp wasabi powder

1. Mix together and store the sauce in a clean squirt bottle

Starting in the lower left corner and going clockwise

Boiled shrimp
Julianne cut carrots and cucumber
toasted panko bread crumbs
wasabi paste
wasabi balls
toasted sesame seeds






DIRECTIONS

You'll need to setup a work area to make the sushi with all of the ingredients laid out. Include a bowl of water large enough to dip the knife into as this will make slicing the sushi easier. You'll probably also want dishtowels to wipe and clean the hands as they tend to get sticky after working with the sushi rice.

Cut the avocado in half, remove the seed, carefully remove the peel while keeping the avocado halves intact, then slice it thinly. This is something that can't be done ahead of time because the avocado will brown.

If using eel then broil it according to package directions.

Place a sheet of Nori onto the sushi mat, put some sushi rice on top and spread it out into a thin layer across the entire sheet. Dip your fingers in the water frequently to keep the rice from sticking. Be sure to shake off excess water from your fingers so as to not make the sushi rice too wet.

You can then start placing the ingredients on the rice side, or you can make an inside-out sushi roll (as shown) by flipping it over and placing the ingredients on the nori side. Just be careful not to put too much as it will make it difficult to roll. The sushi roll shown has broiled eel (cut into thin strips), cream cheese strip, and avacado slices. You can add a bit of sauces on the inside before rolling. Just be creative.

Then just roll it up using the mat, trying to keep it as round as possible.

If making an inside-out roll then you can roll it in the toasted panko bread crumbs or sesame seeds before slicing. Doing so doesn't work as well if the nori is on the outside as it won't stick to the nori. You can also place avacado slices or fish slices on top and then press it into the roll before removing it from the sushi mat.

Sushi rolls are typically cut into 8 pieces - cut the roll in half, then cut each half in half, finally cut each quarter in half. You can leave the rolls on end and put sauces on the top. Or you can lay them out and put sauces on each piece.

Here are just a few of the sushi rolls we made. They don't look as pretty as those you get in sushi restaurants, but they sure were tasty!

Zesty Cheese Doodles

Here is the South, a tasty appetizer that is often served during the holidays is Cheese Straws. Well, I think that is true because 1) I've never actually tasted a cheese straw and 2) it's debatable if Texas is really part of the South. Anyway, I was looking at some recipe's in a holiday magazine and came across a cheese straw recipe. It's really quite simple; but, I decided to make it better. The original recipe included a bit of cayenne pepper. I decided to include some garlic powder. I also decided I would put a bit of blue cheese in the middle and roll them in sesame seeds

Warning: These are addictively good

Ingredients

• 8 oz sharp cheddar cheese shredded
• 1 cup flour
• 1 stick butter, softened
  
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 cup sesame seeds
• blue cheese crumbles

Equipment

• cookie sheet lined with parchment paper

Directions

1. Mix all of the ingredients except for the sesame seeds and blue cheese. It would probably be easiest in a food processor; however, my son borrowed ours, so I just kneaded it by hand. It makes a pretty stiff dough and will give your hands a work out.
2. Roll into 1-balls with a bit of blue cheese in the middle (maybe a 1/4 tsp or so, eyeball it).
3. Roll balls in sesame seeds and place on cookie sheet
4. Bake at 400 degrees until lightly browned on top - about 15 minutes (checking every minute or two after 10 minutes). Note that they will flatten and spread out, so be sure to leave room between them.
5. Let set on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes after removing from the oven and then slide parchment paper onto a cooling rack
   

Other variations to try (I haven't actually tried any of these yet)

• Substitute 1/2 tsp curry powder for the cayenne pepper and garlic powder
• Roll in crush pecans instead of sesame seeds
• Roll it around a slice of pickled jalapeño pepper instead of blue cheese
• Roll it around a couples of slices of black olive instead of blue cheese
• Roll it in panko bread crumbs instead of sesame seeds
  

Notes:

• I was impatient and didn't feel like waiting for the butter to soften; so, I just grated it with the cheese grater and mixed it in with the flour and cheese
• You could freeze the balls before baking and then have them to bake whenever company comes over or you just feel like a tasty snack. Either let them thaw before baking or increase baking time
  

Butternut Squash Soup

One fall I had butternut squash soup at corner bakery that was absolutely delicious. So, I set out on a internet search quest to recreate this wonderful culinary delight. With a few of my own twists, I think I've done it.

Ingredients

• 3 pounds fresh butternut squash
• 4 Tbl unsalted butter
• 1 large shallot
• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 6 cups water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• freshly ground nutmeg

Equipment

• Stock pot with steamer insert
• Hand blender

Directions

1. Remove any labels and wash squash under cold running water.
2. Cut squash into quarters lengthwise. Scrape out seeds and stringy stuff and reserve. Place squash quarters into steamer insert skin side up.
3. Dice shallot and red bell pepper into small pieces
4. Melt butter on medium in bottom of stockpot and add diced shallot and red bell pepper, saute until shallot is translucent (about 2-3 minutes)
5. Add reserved seeds and stringy stuff from squash. The idea is you want to lightly toast the seeds in the butter; but, first the liquid needs to be boiled out. This will take about 10-15 minutes stirring frequently.
6. When squash seeds begin to take on a light brown color then add the 6 cups of water and bring to a boil
7. Place steamer basket with squash into stock pot and cover. Steam the squash for about 30 minutes on medium high.
8. When the squash is tender, turn off heat and lift steamer basket out of pot and let drain. Leave squash draining into liquid until both are cool enough to handle
9. Strain steaming liquid and reserve, discard solids
10. Scrape squash pulp into a clean pan and discard skin
11. Using the hand blender, blend the squash pulp adding just enough of the reserved steaming liquid until smooth textured and of the desired consistency (you may or may not end up using all of the liquid)
12. Stir in cream, brown sugar, and nutmeg and adjust seasoning
13. Gently heat, being careful to stir often as it will scorch easily.
14. Enjoy with some nice chewy french bread

Baklava

I had a hankering for baklava the other day; so, I bought some phyllo pastry sheets, did an internet search to get ideas, and came up with the following

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 pounds of nuts (I used 8 oz blanched almond slivers, 6 oz raw pistachios, 4 oz pecans, and 6 oz walnuts)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 2-1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
• 1 pound phyllo pastry sheets (18 sheets, 13" x 17")

Syrup

• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup orange blossom honey
• Peeling from 2 clementine oranges with white pulp scraped off and discarded (i.e. orange zest slices)
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 1 cinnamon stick, 2" long
• 3 whole cloves

Equipment

• 9 x 13 pan
• Food processor
• Candy thermometer

Directions

1. If phyllo pastry is frozen, thaw in refrigerator for 24 hours. Remove from refrigerator at least 1 hour ahead of time to let it come to room temperature
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
3. Cut phyllo pastry sheets in half cross wise so that you have a pile of 36 sheets 13" x 8.5"
4. Finely chop nuts in food processor, mix in brown sugar ground cinnamon and cloves, set aside
5. Brush bottom and sides of 13"x9" baking pan with melted butter
6. Place a sheet of phylly pastry into pan and brush with butter. Repeat until there are 14 sheets.
7. Spread 1/2 of the nut mixture on top of the pastry sheets
8. Repeat placing phyllo pastry sheets brushed with butter for another 8 sheets
9. Spread remaining 1/2 of nut mixture on top of pastry sheets
10. Repeat placing phyllo pastry sheets brushed with butter for the remaining 14 sheets
11. Using a sharp knife, carefully through the sheets into diamond shapes, about 5 or 7 diagonal cuts each direction
12. Place in middle of oven and bake for 40 minutes, after about 20 minutes check and lightly cover with foil if it is starting to brown on top so as to not overcook the top. Remove from oven when done baking
13. While the phyllo/nut assembly is baking, mixed all incredients for syrup, bring to a boil and cook until the temperature reaches 230 degrees (just under the soft ball stage)
14. Remove orange peel, cinnamon stick, and whole cloves from syrup and gently pour syrup over the phyllo/nut assembly. Let stand several hours (or overnight) to let the syrup soak in and cool
15. Using a sharp knife, gently re-cut the baklava and enjoy

Turkey Enchiladas

On Friday, November 20th, we left on a 1,500 mile trek to Southern California to spend Thanksgiving with our daughter and her family. However, we still wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving with our local family and friends; so, on Sunday, November 15th, we had a pre-Thanksgiving dinner. We had our two children and their families who live locally as well as a couple of friends over for a potluck style dinner. Oh my goodness! We had so much food. We had two turkeys: One cooked in an oil-less turkey fryer and the other was a pre-cooked smoked turkey (bought on sale) that we heated in the oven. We made cornbread-sausage-apple stuffing. There was also 4 different salads, green bean casserole (using fresh green beans), homemade rolls, and 6 different kinds of pie. This isn't including all of the appetizer stuff we filled up on before dinner.

Anyway, my son took home the two turkey carcasses to make soup with and we divided up the left over turkey with each of the families. We ended up with about a little over a pound of turkey meat. After eating turkey sandwiches Monday and Tuesday on the leftover dinner rolls, I decided to make Turkey Enchiladas with what was left of the turkey meat (just under a pound).

I wanted something that had a lot of other flavors to it - because, frankly, I don't like leftover turkey. I can't explain why, I just don't like the flavor. I like cooked turkey fresh out of the oven. I'm OK with turkey sandwiches. But, beyond that, I don't like turkey (don't even get me started on turkey soup - can't stand the stuff).

So, here is my recipe for Turkey Enchiladas that I threw together using mostly stuff we had on hand. The only thing I had to go to the store to buy was the tortilla's.

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic, finely minced (using garlic press)
• oil (a Tbl or so)
• 1 pound leftover turkey meat, chopped up
  
• 1 14oz can Mexican Style stewed tomatoes
• 1 4oz can of chopped green chilies
• 1 10oz can enchilada sauce
• 1 chipotle in adobo sauce, finely chopped (optional)
  
• 1/2 cup frozen corn
• corn tortilla's (14-16)
• cheese (cheddar, or whatever you have on hand), grated
  

Directions

1. Saute onions and garlic in oil until soft. Mix in stewed tomatoes, chopped green chilies, chipotle in adobo sauce and corn. Add turkey, mix and heat through
2. Pour enchilada sauce in a flat bowl and heat in microwave for 1 minute
3. Heat tortillas in microwave to soften
4. Pour a little of the enchilida sauce in the pan, enough to coat the bottom
   

To assemble

1. Dip a tortilla in the enchilada sauce, add meat mixture (1-2 Tbl) and some cheese, roll up and place in pan seam side down
2. Repeat until all of the meat mixture is used
3. Top with cheese

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, until the cheese is melted and lightly toasted on top. Serve with sour cream and salsa.

Notes

• I used Del Monte brand Mexican style stewed tomatoes which had surprisingly large chunks of tomato which had to be broken up into smaller pieces while cooking.
  
• I used Old El Paso green enchilada sauce, simply because it was what we had on hand. Any good enchilada sauce should do fine.
  
• I made two 8" square pans of enchilada's - we cooked one for dinner and put the other in the freezer. I suppose it would also fill an 8" x 13" pan.

Peanut Flour

The October 2009 issue of "Southern Living" magazine has an ad by the National Peanut Board that included some peanut recipes. One that looked particularly intriguing is "Peanut Oven-Fried Chicken with Citrus-Ginger Sauce". We have pretty much all of the ingredients on hand, except for one: Peanut flour. Seriously, we even have the aromatic roasted peanut oil; so, I thought, I guess we're gonna have to get us some peanut flour.

First we first tried Sunflower Shoppe in Colleyville, a large health food store. They had almond flour, hazelnut flour, pecan flour, coconut flour - but no peanut flour. Next we tried Central Market in Southlake, an upscale gourmet grocery store. They had a similar selection of different flours - but no, alas, peanut flour.

So, I went to the web site for the National Peanut Board, found the recipe on their web site, and added a comment asking where I might be able to find peanut flour in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Lo and behold, I received an email within 24 hours from a Communications Specialist for the National Peanut Board with the following message:

Thanks for reading the National Peanut Board blog and for your interest in trying some of our recipes. Unfortunately, peanut flour isn’t yet available in retail stores, but we would be happy to send you some peanut flour to work with and would welcome any feedback you have about using it.

If you send your address, we’ll get that out to you early next week.

I replied, thanking her for responding, and gave her my mailing address. This week, a package arrived by UPS containing a 1 pound package of peanut flour. So, next week we'll be having "Peanut Oven-Fried Chicken with Citrus-Ginger Sauce" for dinner some evening. There are also other recipes on the National Peanut Board web site that look yummy, such as

Peanut-Parmesan Spiced Chicken
Vietnamese Pork Banh Mi with Spicy Peanut Aioli
Peanut Butter Pancakes

I may even try to come up with some recipe's of my own using peanut flour, stay tuned . . .

btw, the National Peanut Board has an extensive selection of peanut recipes - check them out if you're looking for new things to try.

Vegetable stock

Making a vegetable stock is a good use of excess vegetables in your fridge that may otherwise go to waste. I like to use fresh produce whenever possible. The problem is, so often we have to buy produce in a pre-measured package of some sort rather than just what we need. For example, the other day I was making a recipe that called for a leek (as in one leek). You can't buy just one leek - you have to buy 2 or 3 leeks. A week or so ago I needed a parsnip; but, you can't just buy one parsnip - they typically come in a cello package. Which I don't really understand because turnips, rutabagas, and even carrots (in upper end grocery stores) can be bought individually - but not parsnips, at least here in Texas.

Anyway, rather than letting the leftover vegetables go bad in the fridge (as typically happens), I decided to make a vegetable stock. I used a recipe for vegetable stock on the food network website - although not to the letter. I just used what I had.

My vegetable stock has

• 2 parsnips
• 4 carrots
• 1/2 bunch of celery that was starting to wilt
• 1/2 onion from the fridge plus a whole onion from the pantry
• 1/2 head garlic separated into cloves and coarsely chopped
• 1/2 package of snow peas
  
• Some string beans I bought the other day to have with dinner and forgot to cook
• 3/4 bunch of arugula
  
• a small red bell pepper from my garden
• A dozen (or so) black pepper corns
• A good sized handful of fresh herbs from the garden
  
• bay leaves
• thyme (2 types)
• savory
• marjoram
• oregan0
• rosemary

I washed everything under cold running water; but, I did not peel the carrots or parsnips - I just scrubbed them and cut them into quarters. Even the onion was chopped into quarters, skin and all, after washing.

Just dump everything into a big pot, bring it to a boil, then simmer for several hours. Turn off the heat, let it cool, strain and package into freezer containers and freeze.

I'll be using 1 cup and 2 cup containers. But, I'll have to figure out some way to distinguish them from the chicken stock containers we made a month or so ago. Hmmm, this makes me want to find a butcher to see if I can get some beef bones to make a good hearty beef stock. It's hard to find a real butcher these days since most grocery stores have gone to pre-packaged meat.

You may notice that there is no salt. The original food network recipe didn't call for salt either. Commercial stocks and broths are often loaded with salt - which is a good reason for making your own. We don't use a lot of salt in our home. I often put in 1/2 the amount of salt (or less) a recipe calls for, except for certain recipes, like baked goods, where the salt is essential to the chemical reaction.

A vegetable stock can be substituted in many recipes that call for chicken stock. I wouldn't substitute vegetable stock in something like chicken and dumplings; but, a acorn squash/pumpkin soup I made the other day called for chicken stock - and a vegetable stock would have worked just as well, perhaps even better (it wasn't as delicious as I wanted it to be - which is why the recipe isn't posted here).