Talking Turkey.... Soup

For years the soup I regularly made from the turkey carcass was, to say the least, boring. That was before I discovered recipes that consider what the day after Thanksgiving would taste like if the Pilgrims were from France, China, or Italy.

Whether the soup is going to have a French influence, Chinese style, or Italian flavor, the first step is to make a stock from the bones. The longer this can cook, the better it will be; anything from two to four hours should do the job.

Basic turkey stock ingredients:

the carcass, broken up to fit into a soup pot, but getting rid of small, loose pieces of bone 

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

2 ribs of celery, coarsely chopped

2 carrot, scraped and coarsely chopped

The liquid added to cover the above ingredients depends somewhat on the direction the soup will take. Enough water to cover all of the above is one possibility.

Once the bones are removed, and any meat taken off the bones, the stock can be used strained, or the vegetables can be pureed and added back into the stock. Any meat can be used in the soup, or can be used to make croquets.

French Version

12 cups liquid: a combination of chicken stock, white wine, crushed canned plum tomatoes, and water. Cook for two hours over medium heat. Remove bones but keep any meat that has fallen off the bone.

Add:

1 chopped fennel bulb

2 cleaned and chopped leeks

1 tsp chopped garlic

½ tsp thyme

Cook 15 minutes.

Add:

½ tsp cumin

1 Tbsp anise flavored liquor

Any leftover sweet potatoes cut up,  ‘et ‘bon appétit.’

Italian Version

2 cups chopped fennel

4 ounces sliced pancetta chopped

1 pound cherry tomatoes

1 15 ounce can canellini beans, rinsed

4 cups turkey strained stock from basic recipe above

1 cup leftover turkey, chopped

1 cup leftover turkey gravy or puree of the vegetables from the basic stock

¼ tsp dried crushed red pepper

½ cup chopped fresh basil, or I tablespoon dried.

Cook fennel and pancetta in a soup pot until pancetta starts to brown

Add tomatoes and cook briefly

Add all other ingredients and cook 15 minutes.

Chinese Version

For this soup, the stock is strained so it can be used without the vegetables.

For six servings, figure six cups of the strained stock and the following:

6 ounces uncooked Chinese noodles

1 Tbsp to toasted sesame oil

5 tsp grated fresh ginger

4 Tbsp oyster sauce

6 Tbsp chopped cilantro

3 cups diced cooked turkey

¾ cup thinly sliced scallions

Heat the strained stock.

Cook noodles according to directions, drain and toss with sesame oil, ginger, oyster sauce and cilantro.

Divide the noodle mixture among 6 bowls and top with turkey and scallions.

Pour broth over noodles.

Sweet Potato and Red Pepper Soup

1 jar roasted red peppers, drained, or two small red peppers roasted and peeled

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

½ tsp thyme

2 cups leftover mashed sweet potatoes

4 cups stock (from basic recipe). The pureed vegetables from the stock can also be used, but will moderate the color of the soup.

¼ cup orange juice

pepper and salt to taste

Heat olive oil in soup pot. Add onion, thyme, salt and pepper. Cook over low heat until onion is soft.

Add remaining ingredients and cook for 20 minutes.

Puree in blender.

Taking Stock

What do you do when you are given the gift of feet from fifty chickens? This sounds like the beginning of a bad joke.  Instead, it is what happens around our house from time to time.

Our farmer son comes by every once in a while, after processing a batch of chickens, with bags of chicken feet for making stock. There used to be necks, too, but after a recent trip to France where he inspected numerous butcher shops and found meat sold ‘avec la tête’ (with the head), he compromised and left the necks on the chickens he sells.

Meanwhile, what happens to the feet of the fifty chickens? They get a bit of a spa treatment: they are submerged in a sink full of lukewarm water and undergo several rinsing. Any loose pieces of skin are removed and dark spots scrubbed. After three rinses the water is clear.

The next step is dividing the feet up between two large soup pots. Into each pot go three scraped carrots, three quartered onions, plus the leaves and upper third of a head of celery, divided between the pots. If I have any fresh herbs around, such as parsley, cilantro, tarragon or dill, those might go in, too. Lifting these pots is good for building upper body strength.

I add water until the feet and their accompaniment are well covered.  Once the mix is brought to a boil, I lower the temperature and cook the stock-to-be for two to three hours.

After the mix has cooked, I get rid of the feet as soon as it is possible to handle the contents. There is no point in putting the stock out to cool so that fat can be skimmed off because pasture raised chickens have no fat. They are athletes.

Then I remove the vegetables. I puree the vegetables in a blender with stock from one pot. This gives me two different kinds of stock: one is a thicker, opaque blend, and the other is a clearer, thinner liquid. These I freeze in gallon ziplock bags, 4 cups to a bag, labeled for future soup making.

Recently, the thicker mix became part of the base for a white bean soup and a curried cream of vegetable, while a bag of the clearer stock went into a mushroom velouté.

No antibiotics, no checking labels for salt content, these bags are like money in the bank.