If you’re planning on cooking a turkey this holiday season, an excellent use of the leftover meat and bones is turkey soup. Rather than disposing of the turkey carcass when the holiday meal is over, it’s really easy to simmer the bones in a big pot with some veggies to make delicious turkey stock, which will serve as the base for this hearty soup. We’ve posted instructions on how to make turkey stock before, and although it takes time to cook, it is well worth the (minimal) effort. Simply place the turkey carcass and other bones in a large stock pot full of water, then simmer on the stove (or cook in the oven at 200 degrees) for about 6 hours. Add 2 bay leaves, an onion, 2-3 ribs of celery, 2-3 carrots (roughly chop the veggies into big pieces) and about a teaspoon of cracked peppercorns to the pot and simmer on low for about 2 hours. Drain the stock through a fine mesh strainer and discard all the bones and veggies. Refrigerate the stock until you’re ready to use it (you can also portion out some of the stock to freeze for later use), or use it right away for the soup. If you don’t have the time or inclination to make homemade turkey stock (but we highly recommend you do!), then you can use its lesser, not-as-flavorful cousin, chicken stock. The other ingredients for this soup are simple: olive oil, onion, carrots, celery, bay leaves, barley, leftover turkey meat, fish sauce (or soy sauce) and parsley for garnish. Despite its simplicity, this soup is rustic and filling with dominant turkey flavor and interesting texture from the barley.
Category: Main Courses
Tilapia with Citrus Bagna Cauda
We try not to let the hustle and bustle of the holiday season prevent us from making an effort to cook at least a few healthy meals at home (although apparently we’re perfectly fine with it preventing us from writing blog posts — sorry!) A home-cooked meal provides a sense of normalcy and comfort amidst all the decorating, shopping, wrapping, mailing, baking, etc. etc. of this time of year. But it doesn’t have to be anything elaborate. “Tilapia with Citrus Bagna Cauda” is a fancy name for a pretty simple fish dish. “Bagna cauda” actually refers to a warm dip that is similar to fondue. In this recipe, Giada De Laurentis gave the dip a citrus twist and turned it into a sauce for tilapia. Genius. And easy enough for a busy weeknight, with simple ingredients of butter, olive oil, orange juice, orange and lemon zest, anchovy fillets, garlic, basil and tilapia.
Cilantro-Chipotle Tilapia
After all the turkey and trimmings from Thanksgiving, how about something light, healthy and simple to prepare? This fish dish is all that, plus it has a nice smoky spice from the chipotle. The recipe only calls for a few ingredients: tilapia fillets, cilantro, canned chipotles in adobo, ground cumin, vegetable oil and salt & pepper. The instructions could not be much easier — puree the ingredients for the sauce, spread the sauce over the fish, then broil the fish for less than 10 minutes.
Slow-Cooker Smothered Pork Chops
A little behind-the-scenes info about Foodie Lawyer — we process our photos in Picasa, creating a web album for each post. When uploading the photos for this recipe, Dan accidentally named the folder “Mothered Pork Chops.” Turns out to be a pretty good description of this dish, which tastes like your mom lovingly cooked it all day long. But it’s actually the slow-cooker that does all the work. All you (or your mom) have to do is cook a little bacon, brown some onions along with garlic, brown sugar and thyme, de-glaze with with chicken broth, then add those and the remaining ingredients (more brown sugar, bay leaves and pork chops) to the slow-cooker. The end result is succulent, fork-tender pork smothered (or mothered) with a rich and delicious carmelized onion/bacon gravy. The folks at America’s Test Kitchen come through for us yet again with this excellent recipe from their book “Slow Cooker Revolution.”
Pork & Mushroom Skewers
Skewering meat and grilling it lends a fun, caveman quality to preparing dinner. Or maybe that’s just us. Anyway, we enjoy kebabs (or kabobs, if you prefer) and especially appreciate the versatility of this grilling technique in terms of proteins (including beef and pork) and veggie combinations, as well as marinades and sauces. This recipe from one of our favorite grilling books, “Weber’s Real Grilling,” uses both a marinade and a sauce, but is still quick and easy enough for a weeknight. The bright, fresh flavor of the basil sauce goes well with the grilled pork and mushrooms tossed in an olive oil marinade seasoned with thyme and celery salt.
Shrimp and Peppers
Shrimp can be a very healthy protein easily prepared on a weeknight. We cook shrimp at least a couple times per month and almost always keep a bag of raw frozen shrimp in our freezer. We have lots of favorite ways to prepare shrimp — from pasta dishes, to salads, to simple grilled shrimp — but also appreciate finding new recipes incorporating this versatile protein. We found a shrimp recipe on Epicurious.com and adapted it according to some of the reviewers’ suggestions. (One of the many things we like about the Epicurious site is being able to consult the reviews of people who have cooked each recipe and take the time to share their experience — good or bad.) Reviewers can also rate recipes on Epicurious, and we agree with the ones who gave this dish high marks. The plump roasted shrimp pairs nicely with the spicy sauteed peppers and the whole thing takes less than 30 minutes to prepare.
Sunday Bolognese
This is one of those posts where I should have made sure I had some leftovers to eat, because by the time I finish editing the photos and writing the post and recipe, I know I will be craving this dish in a major way. It’s seriously that good. By far the best bolognese we’ve ever had — in a restaurant or otherwise — if we do say so ourselves (and we do.) There isn’t enough hyperbole in our collective vocabulary to adequately describe how much we love this dish. Although this is not a quick recipe (which is why we call it “Sunday” bolognese), the extra time and multiple steps are well worth the resulting complex layers of flavor. Make some this weekend — you won’t be disappointed!
Grilled Chicken Bulgogi-Style with Scallion Salad
We found this recipe in a magazine we picked up a few years ago called “Sizzle with America’s Top Chefs,” which features recipes from chefs including Mario Batali, Emeril Lagasse, Paula Deen and Wolfgang Puck, among others. The magazine also has a section with recipes from The Culinary Institute of America. This chicken dish is one of The CIA’s creations. We enjoyed it, although it tasted very similar to our Korean Chicken, which involves less ingredients and steps. So we prefer our recipe during a busy week, but The CIA’s version is a good alternative when we want the extra layer of grill flavor. We’ll make the scallion salad recipe again for sure — the spicy, sesame flavors combined with the onion-y scallions to provide a nice kick to the chicken that would also work well in other Asian dishes. Continue reading “Grilled Chicken Bulgogi-Style with Scallion Salad”
Steamed Crab Legs
We’ve been to seafood-boil types of events before — my brother has an awesome crawfish boil almost every spring — but had never previously attempted this cooking technique at home. When we discovered king crab legs on super sale at our local grocery store, we decided to give it a shot. The resulting steamed crab meat was perfectly cooked with a hint of spice and unmistakable Old Bay seasoning, evocative of a day at the beach and seafood fresh from the ocean.
Turkey Meatloaf
I’ve never been much of a fan of meat in loaf form — it’s a texture thing. But Dan knows me and my palate quirks well and created a meatloaf that I actually really like. He took the standard turkey meatloaf ingredients — ground turkey, milk, bread crumbs, egg and ketchup — and added cheese and Rotel tomatoes to turn bland and boring turkey meatloaf into something much more appetizing and special. The little pockets of melted cheese break up the texture and the Rotel adds a little spice and Tex-Mex flavor. This is not your typical turkey meatloaf, but it still has the comfort food aspect and is as easy to prepare as the more basic variety.