If you're looking for non-salty stock, Kallo do a cube called "Very low salt vegetable cube" - we use it here (usually in combination with homemade stock and one of those chicken gloops called stock pods) to bring down the salt level.
Cheese: I'm a traditionalist, and like an occasional gorgonzola on peppered toast, as beloved of Sam Beckett. I'm looking sideways at a little Milleens cheese the last few days, and it's looking back at me; the makers say it's so individual and delicious because their cows graze in herby fields where the grass and herbs grow naturally - particular cows have particular favourite spots and their milk tastes of the herbs in those spots.
Last night I found I had a longing for a paradisal stuffed courgette dish I used to get on visits to Paris from a particular market stall - apparently the shop belonging to the stall burned down a few years back (with dramatic rescue of the two people sleeping upstairs by the people from the shop opposite, who were also sleeping upstairs in their shop when they were woken by crackling and burning). This dish involved those sliotar-sized, or slightly larger than cricket-ball-sized, courgettes, stuffed with a tomatoey fish and rice stuffing, and cooked in stock, all of which flavours mixed… oh, heaven!
I'd bought a gourd, a long yellow thing, more rugby-ball-sized, maybe hoping for the Irish team (sob). I went to cut it in half, but it was tough as old (rugby) boots, so I started softening it in the oven. This went on for, literally, a couple of hours before I could halve it; meanwhile I took 450g of mince (ground beef to Americans) and cooked it up with chopped onion, a tin of Italian tomatoes and a chopped pepper, a good dose of oregano and a dash of dry vermouth to loosen it out, then when the rugby ball finally softened enough to be cut, scooped out the seeds and filled in with the mincy mixture, and poured in some home chicken stock.
It was good, but nothing like the fish-stuffed courgettes.
Unfortunately, for any fish dishes other than fairly plain ones, I've lost my favourite ally, the sauce from heaven, XO Sauce. While this was shocking dear (about €15 for a jamjar of it), it gave a distinctive underlying loveliness to any fish soup or stuffed fish dish. It's disappeared off the market here - none of the oriental shops have it, they say they can't get it any more and have no explanation. If anyone knows what happened and why, it would mend at least a small crack in an old person's heart.