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: Recipes
Tomato Rice Pilaf
We love a good rice dish — from a simple rice side, to an herbed-up version, to a Louisiana staple. It’s not always easy to find interesting ways to dress up plain rice, but Ina Garten came through for us yet again. This recipe is in her book “Barefoot In Paris,” but as the Barefoot Contessa herself says, the dish is “probably as close to Italian cuisine in flavoring as it is to French…” Rather than Italian or French food, this side dish actually reminded us of Spanish paella. Regardless of its origins, this rice is flavor country, with richness from the saffron, chicken broth and Parmesan, as well as fresh notes from the tomatoes and parsley.
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.
Jalapeno Poppers
Tis the season! Tis a lot of seasons actually: football, holiday, holiday party and — at least around here — jalapeno. We planted jalapeno plants in our garden a little late this year, so only recently harvested the ripened jalapenos. (Just in the knick of time too, before we lost them to our first frost.) We got a pretty decent crop and wanted to do something a little different with them. Continuing our football season theme of trying to make various “bar foods” at home (see, e.g., wings and tater skins), we decided to try jalapeno poppers. We found this recipe on the site allrecipes.com and made a few changes to attempt to make it a teeny bit more healthy. The jalapeno poppers turned out great and were easy to prepare. They took some time start-to-finish, but according to reviewers of the original recipe, they can be assembled in advance (and frozen even), then cooked just prior to serving. We think it’s the filling ingredients that make these poppers so good: cream cheese, cheddar cheese and bacon. We added some chopped up homemade pickled jalapenos for an extra kick (we used this recipe for amazing pickled jalapenos — not too spicy and not too pickly — just right.) If you have access to good-sized jalapenos (little ones would be tricky to work with), we highly recommend these for any upcoming holiday (or football-watching) gatherings.
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.
Roasted Cauliflower with Brown Butter
It’s not too late to try a new side dish for your Thanksgiving meal this year, especially one as easy as this cauliflower. I’m usually not a big fan of cooked cauliflower, but I am a fan of butter and things roasted in butter, which is the key to this side dish. We’re also fans of Michael Ruhlman and found this recipe in his new cookbook, “Ruhlman’s Twenty,” which contains 20 fundamental techniques and 100 recipes. The cauliflower recipe is in the section on roasting, and as Ruhlman states, this cooking method creates “caramel-nutty flavors that are beautifully enhanced by the flavor of the browned butter.” Couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
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.
Creamy Cheddar Grits
How about some grits to go with our shrimp? Putting shrimp and grits together was the genius idea of fishermen in South Carolina’s Low Country who ate this combination as a breakfast dish. (Anybody else channel Paula Deen’s southern accent when reading/writing the word “grits” and turn it into a 3-syllable word? No? Just me then.) In case you’re not familiar with them, grits are finely ground hominy (which is basically processed corn) that have a mild flavor and creamy texture when cooked. We’ve only made grits a couple of times, so we decided to consult the Barefoot Contessa for a tried and true recipe in her cookbook “Back to Basics.” (We always have good luck with Ina Garten’s recipes, and figured that using a Paula Deen grits recipe would have been too obvious and likely more unhealthy, involving a lot more butter. And syllables.) Ina’s addition of sharp cheddar cheese and green onions takes simple savory grits to a whole new level. We’ll definitely make these again, y’all.
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.