Turkey Noodle Soup

Made from Thanksgiving turkey leftovers, obviously.

Since I don't have a massive stock pot, I hacked my turkey carcass into a few bits so that it could fit in two smaller pots. I didn't have any carrots left over, so I just chopped up some leeks, an onion and some celery and put that in the pot with the bones, along with water to cover and bay leaves. I let it boil away for a LONG time. Then I drained the stock through a colander, and brought the stock to a boil again, skimming, and occasionally topping up with water when needed. It tasted lovely, but I wasn't ready for it, so I just left it on the stovetop.


So anyways, a lovely dear friend of ours stayed over with us on Friday after breaking up with his girlfriend. Frowny. So I did what I know best and fed the fellow. After one or nine pints on Friday night we headed back to the house and devoured the Tupperware container of leftovers with our fingers. Yum. The next morning there was just enough left for soup.

Pre-Friday photo. I am now quite surprised that we manage to eat so much of this with just our fingers.

I had about 3/4 cup of gravy still left from Thanksgiving, so I shoved that in with the stock. It was quite gelatinous, so it needed stirring through, but it added lovely flavour and texture to the soup. Then I chopped up the leftover turkey into comforting Campbell's-Chicken-Noodle-Soup-sized pieces. There were a few peas, some mashed potatoes and some cranberry sauce left as well, so it ALL went in with the stock. Mmm.

Then I made no0dles. I followed a recipe that I found online, stating 1 egg to 1 cup of flour. So I tried to do that, but I think I added too much flour as the one egg wasn't cutting it. So I added another egg, mixing it all up in a bowl with my fingers. When it started to gather, I dumped it out on the the worksurface to knead. The next step was challenging as I had recycled my wine-bottle rolling pin and had to improvise. I used a cunning mixture of a beer bottle and a jar of mayonnaise. I rolled the dough nice and thin, keeping both sides floured, and sliced and stacked and cut it into thinnish, 3 inch noodles. The noodles went into the soup, the top on the pot, and it boiled away for 10 minutes or so until the noodles were cooked.

OMG it was lovely!


What a surprise. I've never made homemade noodles before and it was well worth it. :)

THANKSGIVING!

OMG. What a lovely holiday.



Thanksgiving started a few days early, with the making of the cranberry sauce, the baking of the bread (for the bread stuffing) and the cooking of the pumpkin.

Cranberry sauce: lots of cranberry, zest and juice of a few satsumas, sugar, water. I like to not stir it too much, so that many of the berries stay whole and look like sparkling berry jewels. Pronounced, JEW-ELLES.

Bread: search Grandmother Bread, from a wonderful blog called Chickens In the Road. I used about 1/2 wholemeal flour and just made one loaf.

Pumpkin Pie: i kind of winged it with the crust, using 1/2 butter and 1/2 vegetable fat. For the inside, I followed the Cooks Illustrated recipe, but instead of using canned pumpkin and canned candied yams, I used a whole small pumpkin and one decent-sized sweet potato. I just baked them, then mashed them, then followed the recipe as stated.

WHICH LOOKS TASTIER?

Then I peeled 1000lbs of potatoes, and chopped up the veg for the stuffing. Those all got bagged and put in the fridge.



Turkey - Oh you tasty, well-performing turkey. I got it at Mark's and Spencer's, frozen. I defrosted it half on the counter, half in the fridge, and then brined it in the sink for about 3 hours. I'd have loved to brine it for longer, but even I didn't want to risk infecting 5 guests (well, 4 if you don't count the other resident of room-flat) with infamous poultry/kitchen disease.
At about noon the next day I took the turkey out of the fridge to try and bring it to room temperature-ISH. At about 3, I stuffed it (see next entry) rubbed butter over top and under the skin and then covered it in salt and pepper. I chopped up a few ribs of celery, carrots and onions and sprinkled them around the turkey, and shoved said turkey in the oven for 3 hours. For much of the time I made my turkey a little foil hat to wear to keep his skin from burning.



Stuffing. I sliced up my bread into cubes, and then dried it out in the oven. The cubes weren't rock hard, just a mix of totally crispy to crisp-chewy. Theses were mixed with the pre-chopped celery and onion, fresh parsley, dried sage (there must be enough Americans in Glasgow to have cleared out the Waitrose of the ever important Thanksgiving herb, fresh sage) and pepper (no salt as I knew the chicken stock was a bit salty). Then I mixed in two eggs and most of the egg whites leftover from the pumpkin pie, and some chicken stock. Leave it a bit so that the bread cubes can really soak up the liquid. Shove it in the turkey.



Gravy - I followed the recipe for Best Turkey Gravy from Cooks Illustrated, skipping the last step. My turkey didn't really have many sticky pan bits to cook up, so at the end I just mixed the thickened gravy, the set-aside gravy, the skimmed pan juices, a bit of white wine and about 1/2 of the minced, cooked gizzards over medium heat. It SURE WAS TASTY.



Salad - I made some. Dressed it with olive oil, red wine vinegar, maple syrup, salt and pepper.

Mashed Potatoes - I boiled them, mashed them, added cream and milk to them and whisked them.

Brussels Sprouts - cooked for a while in a high heat oven, tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper. Don't be afraid to let them get nice and brown.

Peas - I sort of followed a Cooks Illustrated recipe for Sauteed Peas with Shallot. Oil, shallot, then peas and a little white wine, cover. Add chopped parsley and a squeeze of a satsuma. Serve.

Well, folks, I think that was about it!

I had a lovely Thanksgiving, shared with friends, with my family in my heart.



Happy Holidays!

Making Boring Dinner - some lessons

Here's what I made for dinner the other night:



I do some art on Tuesday nights, and don't get home until about 8:30. But I still like to cooks something, so here's what got made.

All it is, really, is chicken breast sliced up, dusted with flour, garlic powder, chilli powder, salt and pepper, cooked in a frying pan.



Then I chopped up a leek, removed the chicken from the frying pan and cooked the leek. I boiled some water and put in some spaghetti, then chopped up some broccoli and got the salad ready. I put a smallish jar of nice pasta sauce in with the leeks and let it simmer. When the pasta was nearly done, I put the broccoli in with the pasta and put the lid on. After about 2 minutes, I took out the broccoli and put the spaghetti straight in with the sauce. That was the end of dinner.

Boring, but relatively well-rounded.

So lesson number one for me, I guess, is don't be afraid of the boring dinner. If its healthy, its really good enough.

Lesson number two is something I struggle with, and I image many other people do, too - I hate putting something boring on the table, but a lot of times, that's okay.

For example, I could have minced a shallot and some garlic, measure white wine and made some stock, dirtied another pan and made a somewhatmoretastier pan of braised broccoli. OR, I could do what I did, I just cooked it so it wasn't raw anymore, and put it on the table so it got eaten.

Broccoli, on the table, eaten, is better than veg not cooked because of time and effort needed to prepare them.

Live on the boring dinner and the effortless sides.

Cranberry Bread

These are the delicious leftovers from a loaf of cranberry bread, or, really, cranberry cake.
The recipe is from Cooks Illustrated, minus the nuts, using milk instead of buttermilk ('cause that's all I had) and baking it for about 300 more minutes than stated because it JUST WOULDN'T BAKE THROUGH.



But then it did, so I took it out eventually and ATE IT AND IT WAS DELICIOUS.

Note: does your butter ever start tasting a bit different? Definately not 'off,' but has a flavour that's not terribly enjoyable on toast? That's what had happened to some butter in my fridge, so its the butter I used in this bread. The odd flavour was masked by all the other delicious elements, so it was a handy use for said butter.

Breads

I'll shove up some photos when I've got some, but please, remember, do not be frightened of bread-making. There are so many quick and yeasted breads that are easy-peasy to make.
Here I will copy my two favourites.

Pan-grilled Flatbreads, Cooks Illustrated

Ingredients

1	package dry active yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1	cup water (warm -- 110 to 115 degrees) HALF BOILING, HALF COLD TAP WATER MAKES PERFECT 'WARM' WATER
1	tablespoon olive oil , plus extra for brushing
2	teaspoons granulated sugar
1/4	cup plain yogurt
1 1/2	teaspoons table salt , plus extra for sprinkling
1/2	cup whole wheat flour , sieved (before measuring) to remove coarse flakes of bran MEH- USE WHATEVER FLOUR YOU LIKE, IT REALLY DOESN'T MATTER
2	cups bread flour , plus additional as needed
2	tablespoons sesame seeds (optional)

Instructions

1. In either the workbowl of a food processor fitted with stainless steel blade or, if working by hand, a medium mixing bowl, sprinkle yeast over warm water. Add oil, sugar, and yogurt and pulse to mix, about four 1-second bursts, or, if working by hand, mix with wooden spoon until well combined. Add salt, sieved whole wheat flour, and 2 cups bread flour; process until smooth, about 15 seconds, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary, or, if working by hand, mix with wooden spoon until flour is incorporated, about 3 minutes. Process dough (adding more flour as necessary until dough just pulls completely away from sides of bowl) until soft and satiny, about 30 seconds, or, if working by hand, turn dough out of mixing bowl onto very lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth and elastic, 12 to 15 minutes. Squeeze dough gently with full hand; if dough is sticky, sprinkle with flour and knead just to combine. Place dough in medium bowl or straight-sided plastic container, cover with plastic wrap, and place in warm, draft-free spot until dough doubles in size, 30 to 45 minutes. (At this point, dough can be punched down, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerated up to 2 days.) I DO THIS BY HAND AND IT DOESN'T TAKE TOO LONG AT ALL
   

2. Turn dough onto lightly floured work surface and, if it is sticky, sprinkle very lightly with flour. Following illustrations 1 through 4 below, cut, shape, and roll dough. If using sesame seeds, brush tops of circles lightly with water, sprinkle each circle with 3/4 teaspoon seeds, and gently roll over with rolling pin once or twice so seeds adhere to dough. DON'T WORRY ABOUT BEING TOO SPECIFIC. SERIOUSLY, BREAD IS MORE FORGIVING THAN YOU THINK.
   

3. Five to 10 minutes before cooking flatbreads, heat large, heavy skillet (preferably cast iron) over medium-high heat until hot. Working one at a time, lift dough circles, gently stretch about one inch larger, and place on the skillet. Cook until small bubbles appear on surface of dough, about 30 seconds. With tongs, flip bread and cook until bottom is speckled and deep golden brown in spots, about 2 minutes. Flip bread over again; cook until bottom is speckled and deep golden brown in spots, 1 to 2 minutes longer. OOH, THIS PART IS FUN.
   

4. Transfer bread to wire rack and cool for about 5 minutes (brush bread lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt to taste, if desired). Wrap breads loosely in clean kitchen towel and serve warm. Or wrap breads tightly in foil and store at room temperature up to 2 days; reheat in 300-degree oven until warm, about 15 minutes. I TEND TO JUST EAT THEM NOW AND SKIP STEP 4 ENTIRELY.

Here's another recipe that makes everyday bread-making a reality.

Quick and Easy Cream Biscuits, Cooks Illustrated

Ingredients OFTEN I WILL HALF THIS RECIPE FOR BISCUITS JUST FOR DINNER

2	cups unbleached all-purpose flour , plus extra for the counter
2	teaspoons granulated sugar
2	teaspoons baking powder
1/2	teaspoon table salt
1 1/2	cups heavy cream IT WILL KEEP IN THE FRIDGE FOR AGES - I LOVE THIS

Instructions

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 450f degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. OR FOIL. WHATEVER.
   

2. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl. Stir in the cream with a wooden spoon until dough forms, about 30 seconds. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and gather into a ball. Knead the dough briefly until smooth, about 30 seconds.
   

3. Shape the dough into a 3/4-inch-thick circle. Following illustrations below, cut biscuits into rounds or wedges. Place rounds or wedges on parchment-lined baking sheet. (The baking sheet can be wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 2 hours.) Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. WEDGES ARE SUPER EASY.

Enjoy!

Toad in the Hole

I totally followed the recipe and it didn't work well... :(
I think I need more baking dishes. Ones that aren't glass.
This is why I don't like recipes.... too bad baking requires them.

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pork-recipes/toad-in-the-hole

The yorkshire-puddingness of it wasn't cooked all the way through but the outside was burnt. Plus there was mystery additional liquid - pork juice? Bleurgh. Luckily, it tasted fine.

Thai Green Curry

This is a tasty favourite of mine because its so rich and different tasting.

I mostly followed the recipe you can find here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/nigelslatersthaigree_80244

Here are the changes:
Remember the chicken pot pie? Remember how I baked the chicken breasts and wings and just used the meat? Well, I was lazy, so I put the baking tray with the skin, bones and wings in it back into the oven and forgot about it.

BUT THEN I USED IT THE NEXT DAY. HAHAHAHahahaha....

I just used them to make chicken stock. I put it all in a small pot with some left over leek bits, trimmed carrot ends and an onion and let it boil away until I needed it.



What else... OH, instead of using chicken breasts I just cooked the other half of the chicken. You know, the non-breast part. I just shoved it in my round glass baking dish with some salt and pepper and baked it until it look done. Then I took it out, cooled it off a bit, and pulled the meat from the bones.

this looks disgusting but man is it tasty.

I used coconut oil because it is so flavourful and Waitrose Thai green curry paste because it looked good.



I really just had to work at getting the flavours right, adding more sugar, fish sauce, soy suace and curry paste to the coconut milk and stock until the flavour was right.

I am not a millionaire - the chicken cost less than £6 and served six (in two separate meals) and all those gorgeous baby veg were REDUCED. genius.

Then I added the chicken, some frozen peas, and my delightful REDUCED veggies. What a joy.



I served it all over rice and served it to my happy friends and family. :)



OH! I FORGOT: look at this wonderful product! Frozen freshly-chopped cilantro in a resealable freezer bag. Booyah! Its so great.