Wednesday, January 13, 2016

East European style duck soup

Now that it is cold and snowy again, I love making huge pots of soup on Saturdays and Sundays. Once I serve it, I cover the pot, and out on the deck it goes to cool and freeze, ready for the next day. Last Saturday, I was making an East European style dinner. I made a veal paprikas, served over noodles, homemade cocktail rye bread, and this duck soup. 


Why is it called East European style? Actually, I don’t know if it really is. Certainly some of the ingredients aren’t traditional. Still, I kind of flavored it like some soups I’ve had at Polish or Bohemian restaurants. And, besides, if I was a farmer in Poland or Hungary, and I wanted to make a duck soup, this is how I would make it. So, you can rest assured that this is a genuine East European style duck soup. 

Whenever you have a roast chicken, duck, turkey, or even cornish hens, save the bones for soup. Here’s the recipe. When I make soup, I add in a lot of leftovers that I happen to have. That explains some of the ingredients. The lettuce was getting old, so I threw that in as well. 

1 duck carcass  with a little meat left on it. 
Lots of water
Onion flakes
1/2 tsp. oregano
2 bay leaves
1 tsp. peppercorns
Adobo seasoning
1 cup of pinto beans, soaked overnight
1 large onion, chopped
3 stalks of celery, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
2 cups of chopped romaine lettuce
1 cup of leftover marinara sauce (or 15 oz. can of chopped tomatoes)
1 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. caraway seeds
1/2 lb. smoked Polish sausage
1-1/2 cups of cooked wild rice
6 large lasagna noodles, broken up
Worcestershire sauce
Maggi seasoning

Preparation

First you need to make a stock. This will be your morning chore, after breakfast. Place the duck carcass in a large stock pot. Add about a half cup of onion flakes, two bay leaves, a heavy sprinkle of adobo seasoning and about a half teaspoon each, of peppercorns and oregano. Bring that to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and simmer gently for about two hours. Strain it into a large soup pot, and let the bones cool. 

Place the soup pot on the stove and start it simmering again. Add the rinsed beans, the chopped onion, celery and carrots. Chop and add the romaine lettuce, along with the caraway seeds. Pick through the bones from the stock, and pull all the meat off the bones. You’ll get about a cup or more meat, if you sift through it all. Dice and add the duck meat. Simmer partially covered.

When the soup has simmered for about an hour, add the leftover marinara sauce (or the canned diced tomatoes). Add the thyme and the wild rice. Chop and add the smoked sausage. Let this simmer for two more hours. By now it should start to get a little thicker. Taste and adjust the soup for salt and pepper. Splash on about a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, and then give it about a teaspoon of Maggi seasoning. Break up and add the lasagna noodles, and let this simmer for another half hour, stirring often. Taste and adjust one last time for seasoning, and you are ready to serve.


Serving


Last night, I just had a few bowls of this soup, along with a big tossed green salad, and sliced homemade cocktail rye. Any red wine will be good with this soup, or even beer for that matter.

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