The Wong Ohana

OK, so Thanksgiving is over. You’ve cleaned up your mess, said goodbye to your guests and put all your leftovers in the refrigerator swearing you won’t have to cook for a week!!

But now you’ve eaten all the turkey sandwiches, turkey burritos, turkey omelettes that you can get out of it, and you’re left with the decision of what to do with that huge turkey carcass that you have leftover. Hmmmmm - throwing it away just seems to be a waste, but what to do????

So I thought I’d give you an idea of what I do - - - Did you guess??? That’s right - - -
HOMEMADE TURKEY NOODLE SOUP

INGREDIENTS:

• Turkey Carcass, and any leftover turkey meat that you have (this recipe can also be used for making Chicken Noodle soup, just substitute Chicken for the Turkey where called for - a great after school special for a cold day!!)
• Carrots
• One large Onion
• Celery (if you like it)
• 2 large handfulls of greenbeans (you can also use canned or frozen)
• a couple (2-3) medium size Potatoes
• Garlic Salt
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Soy Sauce for flavor
• 1 bag flat Egg Noodles (If you want to get “fancy” or “cute” you can use Bow Tie Noodles, or something like that)

Now, grab 2 big pots. Yes, 2 pots! Because if your turkey is as big as mine was you’ll need both pots! Even if its not a huge bird, its nice to have the 2 seperate pots. You’ll see why when we’re done. Just take my word for it for now, and get those pots out from under the counter!

I like to remove as much meat from the Carcass as I can, cut it into bite size pieces and put it into one of the pots. Now fill that pot with water about 2/3 full and turn on a medium flame.

Now take apart and break up the remaining bones so they’ll fit, and throw them in the second pot and also fill this one about 2/3 full and add a flame.

You should use everything except the skin: Use the back bones, neck bones, drumsticks, and remaining carcass - so you’ll have virtually nothing left to throw in the trash - its all good, and will all cook down for a great soup!! So throw dem bones in the pot.

If you notice, at this stage, some “foaming sludge” forming and floating at the top - don’t be alarmed. This is just rendered fat from the meat, or any bits of skin that might have made its way into your pot. Just use a large spoon and gather up the main portion and throw it away. You can now mix your pot well, and the remainder will just re-absorb into your broth adding flavor. Any kind of boiled meat, whether meat or foul, will do this, its quite natural.

While your water is simmering, sprinkle enough garlic salt to cover the top of the water surface in both pots. Just keep shaking until you have a nice solid covering, you don’t need to measure (do I ever???). Add in a couple of shakes of Soy Sauce (depending on the size of your pots) - again you don’t need to be exact. This is just adding some flavoring to your broth.

You might also want to add some salt and pepper (to taste) at this point since turkey meat isn’t as “strong” a flavor as chicken which hardly needs any spices added at all. If, as its cooking you think you didn’t have enough meat on the bones to give you a strong enough flavor, you can add some bullion cubes, but I usually find that I have enough meat to flavor it just fine.

Remember to add equal amounts of your seasonings to both pots. If your turkey was still in its roasting pan, put the pan on the stove, add a little water from one of your pots, and put it over a low heat. Using a spoon, scrap these drippings into a nice liquid and pour in equal amounts into your soup pots. You will end up with a nice fresh bullion brewing in both of them.

Also, if you have any turkey gravy left over that you won’t be using elsewhere, toss that into the pots as well. It adds a nice touch to your soup flavoring you can’t get any other way. Nothing goes to waste after my Turkey (or Chicken) meals!! It all gets tossed into the soup pot!

The next thing to add is the onion, as this is not only used for nice bite size bits, but also for flavoring. I always make sure to add it in the beginning so it will simmer along with the rest of the broth. So cut up your onion. I like to cut it in half, and finely dice one half, and then cut into larger cubes the second half. Then divide it up and put in equal amounts into both pots.
So now we have a pot of water with our Turkey, spices, and onion simmering away. Now remember that your Turkey has already been cooked, so we don’t need to “cook” it per se - - - all you want to do at this point is get it tender enough to start falling off the bones. Probably about 30 min or so should be good. Then you can lift up some bones with a large spoon or ladeling fork and see how its coming. When the meat starts to soften up and be easily pulled from the bone, its time to start adding the veggies.

Now remember, they all cook at a different speed, so we’ll be adding them in a specific order. And we’ll be adding these only to the pot with the meat, not the pot with the bones. Although if you forget and throw some into the bone pot it won’t be “wrong”, so don’t fret - some usually end up in there somehow anyway. I just try to get the majority into the “soup pot” as I use the “bone pot” mostly for adding broth.
I always start with the carrots and potatoes as they take the longest. So dice them up into bite size pieces and throw them into the pot.

While these are simmering, we can begin to prepare the rest of the veggies. Take your Green beans, wash them, cut off the ends, and snap into pieces - then set them aside. Wash and cut up your celery, and put in the bowl with the green beans (they take approx. the same time to cook).

Now leave the soup to simmer for about 15 min or so. When you can put a fork easily into the carrots, its time to add the other veggies, so throw in the beans and celery.

OPTIONAL: At this time, if you have any other veggie leftover’s from your refrigerator, now is a good time to add it into your soup - corn, peas brocolli, cauliflower, etc. all make good additions and can be added in any quantity. Just cut em up to appropriate size and toss ‘em in.

Once all your ingredients have been added, open your bag of Flat Egg Noodles and throw them into the pot with the veggies. There is no need to pre-cook the noodles - after all why boil them in water, pour out the water, then add them to your soup??? Waste of good time, and you’ll find your noodles don’t have much flavor. By adding the dry noodles directly to your soup broth, they will absorb all the nice flavors you have brewing there as they cook. It also gives you a nice indication of when your soup is done. When your noodles are fully absorbed, fat and soft, ITS SOUP!!!

You’ll notice that while you’ve been adding in the ingredients your broth will have been simmering, and is now probably a little lower in the pot than when you started. That’s because some of it has boiled away, and some of it has been absorbed by the potatoes and noodles. When you are ready to add more broth, you can now take it from your “bone pot” and not dilute your soup flavor.

Now in my family, we love to “pick the bones”. So when I serve soup, I take a large ladel and spoon two ladel fulls into each bowl. Then I take some bones from the bone pot and lay it on top of the soup. This way everyone gets to have fun eating off the bone, and when they have finished the bone, they have a nice bowl of soup underneath to gobble down.

As you remove more soup from the pot, and bones from the bone pot, just keep ladeling the broth from the bone pot to refill up the soup pot, and it kind of becomes a kind of never-ending pot of soup without ever diluting down the flavor.

Once the bones are all gone, you’ll probably still have a full pot of soup, so a good hint here is GUESS WHAT???? Your remaining soup can be refrigerated for another day, or frozen if you are just plain tired of Turkey for awhile. Then next time you have a cold day and think “Boy a nice fresh bowl of soup would be just the thing”, you can go to the freezer and pull out your homemade Turkey Soup and in just the amount of time it takes to defrost, you’ll have a ready made meal that took no work at all!

HINT: My preferred method of storing soup is to use Freezer style Zip Lock Baggies. They lay flat, take up no room at all in either fridge, or freezer, and can be stacked easily. When you’re ready to use it, just run the baggie under warm water from the faucet until it is slippery around the edges, take it out and put it in a microwave safe dish, or a pot on the stove, and you have a meal in minutes.

I hope you enjoyed my recipe for homemade Turkey noodle soup. If you think about it, this recipe can be altered in any way with any kind of ingredients to make soup. Just switch out the Turkey for a meat of your choice, and add some veggies.

Soup is the easiest thing to make , but lots of people are afraid, or just don’t think about how to do it. Soup is also a great way to get rid of those pesky leftovers in the refrigerator that no-one want to eat. Don’t let them sit until they turn into a science experiment (you know what I mean) - throw them into a pot and make soup. You’ll have a fresh meal that smells great, and everyone will love it and never realize they are eating those same leftovers they passed up on all week long!!

Filed under: Cooking on December 1st, 2006