Roasted Vegetable Stock with Extra Umami a la Mark Bittman

Original post with pictures here.

Yield: 3 quarts

Ingredients

• 2 large or 3-4 medium onions, quartered (don't have to peel)
• 4 carrots, peeled and cut in half
• 2 celery stalks, cut in half
• 2 medium potatoes, peeled or washed well and quartered
• 8 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
• 1 cup of trimmed mushrooms or mushroom bits*
• 1/4 cup reconstituted dried mushrooms with their soaking liquid reserved and strained
• 3 Tbls extra-virgin olive oil
• 15 whole peppercorns
• 1 cup white whine
• Kosher salt to taste
• 2 quarts + 4 cups water

Process 

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Place the onions, carrot, celery, potatoes, garlic and not-dried mushrooms in a roasting pan.  Drizzle with oil, sprinkle with a little salt and toss. Put pan in oven.
3. After about 10-15 minutes, shake pan and turn over vegetables, then return to oven.  Repeat after another 10-15 minutes. 
4. Roast until the vegetables are “nicely browned” per Bittman, and, he cautions, “don’t rush it.”  This generally takes about 45 minutes to an hour.
5. Once they are done, remove the pan from the oven and set on a stove burner (or across two if your pan is large).  Scoop the vegetables out with a slotted spoon into a stock pot.
6. Add the reconstituted dried mushroom, their soaking liquid, peppercorns and wine to the stock pot, along with 2 quarts of water. 
7. Turn the heat to high.
8. Turn the heat on the burner(s) under the roasting pan to high.  Add 2-4 cups of water, depending on how deep your pan is.  Bring it to a boil, and scrape the browned bits off the pan. 
9. VERY CAREFULLY if you have a million-pound cast iron roasting pan like I do, pour the water with the released brown bits into the stockpot.  If you only used 2 cups of water, add 2 more to the stock pot. 
10. Bring the stock just about to a boil, then "partially cover and adjust the heat so the mixture sends up a few bubbles at a time."
11. Taste and season several times while cooking.
12. Cook until vegetables are very soft, usually about 45 minutes to an hour.
13. Strain, and press the vegetables to squeeze out all liquid. 
14. Taste, season again.
15. Refrigerate and skim off any hardened fat if you like.

Advanced Prep Notes: Can be refrigerated for 4-5 days, or frozen.  If you freeze it, be sure to measure before freezing and label for easiest use.