Sunday, May 10, 2009

Turkey Leftover (Carcass) Soup

Ingredients
1 Meaty turkey carcass
8 cups water
1 tablespoon instant chicken bouillon granules
1 16 oz can tomatoes, cut up
1 cup sliced celery
½ cup sliced carrots
1 medium turnip, pared and diced (½ cup)
¼ cup snipped parsley
½ cup chopped onion
1 or 2 teaspoons salt
1 bay leaf
1 recipe Danish dumplings

Directions
In a large Dutch oven, combine turkey carcass (cutting as necessary to fit pan), water, and bouillon granules. Bring to boiling. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 1½ hours. Remove turkey carcass when cool enough to handle, remove meat from bones, and discard bones.
Add meat to broth along with undrained tomatoes, celery, carrots, turnip, onion, parsley, salt, and bay leaf. Bring to boiling. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 30 minutes or until vegetables are nearly tender. Remove bay leaf. Drop Danish dumpling batter by tablespoons into simmering broth. Cover and simmer 20 minutes. Makes 6 servings.
To make Danish dumplings: In a saucepan, combine ½ cup water and 4 tablespoons butter or margarine. Bring to boiling. Add ½ cup all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, and teaspoon salt all at once. Stir vigorously. Cook and stir until mixture forms a ball that doesn't separate. Remove from heat; cool slightly. Add 2 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition until mixture is smooth. Stir in 1 tablespoon snipped parsley. Makes 12 dumplings.
I find it best to stop after making the stock. After a big turkey dinner, that is about all I have the patience to do. The stock can be refrigerated, and the actual soup made a few days later. The nice thing about it is that you can more easily skim off the congealed fat. I treat the soup ingredients as just suggestions. I usually reverse the portions of celery and carrots, and just cut up a small to medium onion rather than measuring. I have made the dumplings only once, whereupon Jackie stated that she preferred noodles. So noodles it is. Precook the noodles or they will absorb all the stock. A tablespoon or so of dried parsley flakes works if you don't have fresh. When adding the leftover turkey meat, I just chop up a whole bunch and dump it in. You can't really add too much. Finally, since Jackie has had bad heartburn problems, I have dropped the tomatoes. I miss them, but the soup is still fine.

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