Turkey Lurkey Soup

 

Turkey soup starts with a delicious turkey dinner. A turkey dinner with all of the fixins'.  Everyone tells you they know the best way to cook a yummy and juicy turkey. I'm no different! The best way to produce a moist and delicious turkey is to brine it first. (Funny side note, the word brine autocorrected to bribe. That also might work! A bribe). Regardless, never make a turkey without brining first.  This is a rule. It is truly the secret to a juicy and tasty turkey. Turkey tastes way better if it has had a 24 hour salt bath, with all of the best poultry friendly herbs. 

 

I always use my cooler to brine my turkey. I add: 

2 cups of sea salt

1 tbsp of whole peppercorns

2-4 bay leaves

Fresh sprigs of thyme, parsley, sage and rosemary

2 cloves of garlic 

1/2 cup of brown sugar or honey

Fill the cooler halfway with above ingredients and cold water; dissolve the salt. Add the turkey and then top off with with more cold water. 

 

Wait 24 hours. When you're ready to cook your turkey, drain off the excess water. If you stuff your turkey; now would be the time. Stuff away!!! Give that turkey a delicious butter massage; whisper sweet nothings to the turkey, place more butter, sage and stuffing under the skin and fill the cavity with as much stuffing as you can manage. Sprinkle poultry seasoning, pepper, chopped parsley, thyme and rosemary all over the skin of the turkey. 

Heat your oven to 400F. Place your turkey inside the oven, uncovered for 20 minutes, to brown the skin. Reduce your heat to 325F and continue to roast, covered, for 15-20 minutes per pound. Baste every 30 minutes.  Make sure you're checking the temperature of your turkey regularly. When it reaches 165F, remove from the oven, leave covered with foil on the counter, to rest. 

Now for the soup!! This is a two day process. After you pick the carcass clean, place the bones (or as many of them that fit) into your slow cooker. Add anything that might add flavour; leftover gravy, stuffing, an onion, a full carrot, celery and bay leaves. Top off the slow cooker with water. Make a bone broth. To do this, turn you slow cooker onto its low setting. When the liquid begins to boil and before you go to sleep, after a high dose of tryptophan, turn your slow cooker down to warm. I leave it on all night and awake to the most delicious smelling broth, in the morning.  Strain your bones through a colander, placed inside a large bowl. Reserve your broth. 

 

Place your broth filled bowl in the fridge. As your soup cools, it will separate.  

 

Remove the layer of fat from the top of the broth. 

 

Discard this layer. 

  

Place your broth into a large stock pot and boil. Taste your broth, as it heats up and decide if it requires salt. Once your soup has begun boiling, turn it down to medium high heat. Add the harder vegetables. Your carrots, potatoes, even parsnips, if you desire. Leave these ingredients to cook for 15 -20 minutes.  At this point, add zucchini, I like to cut mine into ribbons, as I often forego noodles, this is a great substitute. Continue to cook for another 3 minutes. At this point, turn off your pot and add frozen peas. Remove from heat. The peas will cook within the soup broth and will remain firm. 

 

Your turkey soup is now ready for consumption. Enjoy!!  If you like noodles in your soup; cook them separately, and store them separately in the fridge. Noodles in your soup broth will swell and absorb much of the broth. Your bowl of soup will be much more desirable if you place your noodles in the bowl and pour hot soup over them.  Try it with a slice of homemade sourdough!  

http://melsbigideas.blogspot.ca/2017/01/making-sourdough-bread-practicing.html?m=0

 

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or comments, or you just liked this Big Idea, feel free to comment below. 

 

Cooking with Kids. Low Dairy Cream of Mushroom Soup

 

I love to have company in the kitchen. Today, I'm watching my nephew, for the afternoon. I have a busy week planned with my kids, so I felt that this was the perfect opportunity to get some food prep done for the week ahead.  What a helper my little nephew is!!  Only 3 years old and a total busy body!  Today we prepped Cream of Mushroom Soup for my lunches and baked potatoes for another family recipe. 

 

My nephew had no interest in consuming my soup but he was happy to help out. Let's face it, the kitchen is fun! Experimenting with cooking teaches kids so many valuable lessons. Cooking is a life skill; kids learn about different ingredients, health benefits, become more adventurous with food and they create quality memories with their parents, their grandparents, or in this case, their Aunt Mel. 

Years ago, I purchased this egg slicer from Pampered Chef. I don't think I have ever used it for eggs. Mushrooms, strawberries but never eggs. It's perfect for kid cooking. It slices soft fruits or veggies with a series of metal wires. My nephew loved quickly slicing mushrooms with his impressive physical strength. I roughly chopped the sliced mushrooms and prepped the shallot and garlic while he gabbed and prepped.  

I'm lactose intolerant. Butter has never been an issue for me, but milk and cream are absolutely unwelcome in my digestive tract. As a result, I have developed this "compromise of a recipe" so I can continue to enjoy one of my favourites....Cream of Mushroom Soup. 

Low Dairy Cream of Mushroom Soup

1 pack of Cremini Mushrooms, roughly chopped

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 Shallot, finely chopped

1/4 cup of butter

1/4 cup of flour 

2 cups of mushroom broth

1 cup of coconut milk 

1 tbsp of herbs de provence 

Salt and pepper to taste

Melt a 1/4 cup of butter over medium heat. Once melted; add mushrooms, shallot and garlic to the pan.  Add seasoning to the mushrooms. Sauté until the mushrooms are nicely browned. Once browned, add 1/4 cup of flour to the mix. A paste, or a roux will form. Add coconut milk a 1/2 cup at a time.  Evenly mixing the roux in with the liquid, after each addition. After the coconut milk has been added; do the same with the mushroom broth; 1/2 cup at a time. 

 

Does this look like a kid that isn't enjoying himself? He even tried the soup. Which he didn't like...then later told me it was kind of good. Regardless, we had a fun afternoon. My nephew and I made some memories and some soup. 

 

Now to clean the kitchen!  Kid help is fun, but even the floors needed to be washed down after the soup! Totally worth the chaos. We had a great afternoon. 

 

If you have any questions, concerns or you just liked this Big Idea, feel free to comment below.  Thanks for reading! 

Waste Not, Want Not: Making a Beautiful Chicken Broth

Look at what I just made...from GARBAGE!! I hate to waste food, which is why soups and broths are pretty much my favourite thing to cook. I never throw away a chicken carcass, especially one from a deliciously flavoured roasted chicken. Mmmmmm. I made up this bone broth last night after I carved our chicken chicken dinner. I quite literally threw the carcass (garbage) into my slowcooker with the drippings from the meat...I was in a rush, I had no time for gravy. Rush or not, I had time for a chicken broth. 

To the slow cooker, I added this bag of garbage...

I kid you not, garbage. I keep all of my veggie ends in a bag in the fridge. If you look closely you'll see, lots of carrot shrapnel, zucchini ends, bits of mushroom, broccoli, tomato stems and partial onions. I make soup a few times a week, so I've never worried about these vegetable bits going bad, I simply throw them back into the fridge instead of into the garbage. There is still so much nutrition in these veggies, they can't help it if they didn't make the dinner cut! They sure can be showcased in a delicious broth. 

After all of my garbage is loaded into my slow cooker, I top it up with water, I add garlic, ginger, a couple of seaweed sheets, about two table spooons of apple cider vinegar and an onion.   I can never resist a few bay leaves, a bit of sea salt and some delicious tarragon or some herbs de provence. I turn the slow cooker onto low and leave it happily cooking all night. When we awake, the house smells heavenly. I leave it cooking for the rest of the day or turn it warm. As I prepare dinner that evening, I strain off the broth. 

 

Now those veggies are actually garbage. If I'm making a soup right away, I'll pick some of the meat off of the carcass. If not, I toss it, most of the flavour has been absorbed into the broth. Tonight I'm tossing it! I'm on a cleanse, no chicken soup for me!!  My beautiful broth is going to cool at room temperature and find its way into the freezer. I'll use it later in recipes, soup, rice dishes, you name it! 

Can we just admire the colour of this beautiful broth? 

 

Thanks for reading!!  If you have any questions or you just liked this Big Idea, please feel free to comment below!!