Day 1 - Creating The Bone Broth
This is putzy-time-intensive soup and certainly not what everyone would consider a fun way to spend several hours. However, anytime I make a turkey, on a holiday or other time in the year, I love making it! For this first, and probably most important step, take ingredients shown, 2 uncooked wings (and shoulder sections) and combine with other components shown in a 3qt. pot. Carrot chunks, celery, onion garlic, salt, pepper, giblets-heart, neck, gizzard and liver.
You don't have to start with those big wing-shoulder sections, but obviously you'll have a much meatier soup if you do. I did this year, since I was cooking one of 2 turkeys my 'Curling Family' won in a Turkey Bonspiel! It was an almost 20# bird, and my roasting pan is designed for a 17# turkey. So I did a couple amputations before roasting it.
Fill the pot with enough water to almost cover the turkey parts and pieces, and vegetables. Cover and bring to a simmer. Take the liver out and eat that after about 15 minutes, with a little salt, before it gets too tough. Continue to simmer the rest on low heat, for about an hour or a little longer. After the pot contents come to room temperature, transfer everything solid into a medium glass bowl. Set this broth aside for now.
After dinner, when the turkey's cooked, removed from the roasting pan, carved and leftovers are being put away. Put bones, skin, tough meat pieces back into the roasting pan. Bring this to a simmer, adding water as needed. Stir and scrape all the brownings up, with a wooden spoon. Let this simmer 20 minutes or so. Strain all the liquid from the roasting pan into a larger, 5qt. pot, straining a couple times if necessary using a progressively finer mesh strainer. Add in the other, smaller, pot of well strained broth to this.
Stir, then put this big pot of strained, greasy-future-broth, in a chilly place for several hours, or overnight. My deck worked just fine since it was in the mid-20°F range here last night. Whew. . .you still with me here? 😁
Day 2 - Magic - Creating SOUP!!
Next morning, carefully lift the fat layer off the top. By now, all that has contributed greatly to the broth's flavor. If you taste it, though, you'll see it's only nasty grease and calories. Just for fun, I weighed what ended up on this plate, to calculate the calories. It was 6oz., which would have been an additional, 1,400, gut-gurgling calories!! 😲
3 med. carrots
3 stalks celery
1 med. yellow onion
5 lg. cloves garlic
1t fresh ground garlic salt
2t lemon pepper
¾c wild rice or a blend
I love Kagayaki 6-Grain Rice.
It's a wonderful blend of black rice, purple barley, hull-less barley, rye berries, MG red rice, short grain brown rice sold in Asian Markets.
Chop-slice the vegetables and put them in the pot with the broth. Add seasoning and rice. Simmer for an hour or more ,until the rice is puffed up and almost tender. Next, pick through that original group of ingredients used to make the broth. Discard the bones and fat, keeping only the meat. You can heat and eat the carrot, celery and onion, or - if your dogs or cats like vegetables, mix ONLY the carrot and celery with their food. DON'T give them onion or garlic. In certain amounts, those are toxic to them!
Add turkey to the pot, bring to a simmer, stir, taste and decide what, if anything is needed. Too flavorful - add water, not enough flavor - add some leftover gravy or powdered chicken soup base, not enough liquid - add water. The flavor of mine was perfect! The broth-to-solids ratio was a little low, but I left it thick so as not to add water and soup base. This was just pure chicken flavor with only a little salt and pepper needed.
Heat, serve, savor your memories from this Thanksgiving and once again, take a little time to Give Thanks for all the Blessings in your life 💕 Happy Cooking to you! . . Lin
turkey heart
2 c turkey liquid that's had the fat scraped off
