After Thanksgiving dinner, the question becomes, what to do with the turkey carcass? My answer is soup!
Over the weekend, I went to work on the turkey carcass, first removing all the meat I could get off of it. Then I broke the carcass in half, put it in a stock pot, and made a big pot of turkey broth.
Later I strained the broth into a soup pot, and started making this thick porridge. After the soup cooked down a little, I added in mashed rutabaga and carrots, some peas, and barley. I let the soup cook down so that it was nice and thick.
Here’s how I made the soup.
Stock
Turkey carcass
Lots of water
4 bay leaves
Half cup of onion flakes
3 stalks of celery, broken
Half teaspoon of celery seed
Half teaspoon of garlic powder
Soup
Lots of turkey stock
4 stalks of celery, diced
1 large onion, diced
Quarter cup of onion flakes
1 bowl of turkey meat, cut from the carcass
1-1/2 cups of mashed rutabaga and carrots
Half cup of barley
Half cup of red lentils
1 cup of frozen peas
Teaspoon of oregano
Teaspoon of thyme
Adobo seasoning
Maggi Seasoning
Worcestershire sauce
1 cup of small pasta shells
Preparation
Now the secret to this soup is reducing the volume of liquid by long simmering, just about all day. Once you have the stock, in the soup pot, you won't be able to fit all the ingredients in the pot, so you cook the soup down, and add ingredients as it is reduced. You end up with a real thick porridge.
First make the stock. Pick all the meat off the carcass, and set that aside in the fridge. Break the carcass in half, set that in a large stock pot, and add water to completely cover the bones. Set that on the stove on high heat. Add the bay leaves, onion flakes, broken celery stalks, the celery seed and garlic powder. Throw in a spec of salt too. Bring that to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer, partially covered, for two hours. Strain the stock into a large soup pot.
Set the soup pot on the stove, bring the stock back to a simmer. My stock was almost to the top of the soup pot. I added the celery, onion, onion flakes, thyme, oregano, and let that simmer for a half hour, uncovered. That gave me a little more room in the pot, so I added the lentils and barley. About a half hour later, I added the turkey meat, and the frozen peas. About a half hour later, I added the rutabaga and carrots. Stir well to mix that in. Continue simmering for another hour, but now stir every fifteen minutes or so, to keep stuff from sticking.
Splash on several shakes of Maggi seasoning and Worcestershire sauce. Stir that in and taste. Start adding adobo seasoning (or plain salt) and adjust until the salt is right. Add the pasta shells, and simmer for a final half hour. By now the soup should be nice and thick. You are ready to serve.
Serving
Last night I had a large bowl of this porridge, along with a turkey sandwich made with homemade bread. My niece gave me an American micro-brewed Kolsch (a light German style beer), which went perfect with this.
