Here's a good recipe you can start on Thanksgiving,
when you make the stock, and finish when you feel like
it.
What you'll need:
turkey soup stock,
refrigerated & fat-skimmed water, the amount
of which depends on how thick you make your soup stock 2
stalks of celery 1 carrot 1 potato 2 scallions a
half-dozen mushrooms the shreds of turkey meat
you always end up with after the big slabs are eaten salt
and pepper
Start by making the stock on Thanksgiving:
After you've gotten all the
meat you can off the turkey, get a large pot, break
the carcass up (breaking the large bones if possible),
and cover with 12-16 cups of water. Add in two stalks
of celery, a carrot, and an onion, all sliced up
so they'll give up their flavor to the broth. First
bring it to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer
it lightly for hours and hours, skimming every so
often. The longer you simmer it, the more concentrated
the stock will be. I boiled mine down so I got about
5 cups of nice thick stock. When you're done, strain
it through a fine mesh sieve so you end up with
just the liquid, and discard the turkey and vegetable
parts. Refrigerate it and it'll congeal like the
drippings did, and you'll be able to skim the
fat from the top.
And when it's time to make the stew:
Peel the carrot and cut it into thin coins. Cut the
celery into thin pieces. Peel and cut the potato into
bite-sized chunks. Gather up the shreds of turkey meat
that, if you're like me, you inevitably end up with
because you wanted to get as much as you could off the
bird before making stock. You should have at least a
cup of turkey. (You can cut up bigger pieces, of course,
if you somehow managed to avoid getting a ton of shredded
meat, or have used it up in turkey salad or something
else.)
Put the stock in a large pot. If you made it as thick
as I did, add in another 2-3 cups of water. If you made
it thinner, use less water. Turn the heat up to medium
and mix with a wire whisk. When it's more or less blended,
add the vegetables and meat, turn up the heat, and
simmer, stirring occasionally. Add in however much salt
and pepper (or any other seasoning you fancy) you like.
It's done when you can stick a fork all the way into
a piece of potato. (It's overdone of the potato is mushy!)
This keeps in the fridge for a few days, but I don't
recommend freezing it, as that does unflattering things
to the texture of the potato.
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