Skip to main content

Turkey Broth

Turkey Broth

Turkey? No, I'm not mixing up my religious festivals. Yesterday (31st March) was Easter Sunday and the spouse marked the occasion by cooking turkey and ham. There was lots left over. I used some of it by making sandwiches for unexpected visitors. Today I made the turkey broth from a recipe by Roopa Gulati. This soup was my 153rd from The Soup Book. It's been about three months since I made a soup from the book that kick-started this blog. I missed it! I missed the clear lay-out and the listing of the ingredients.

The ingredients are simple enough: leek, celery, carrots, parsnip and turnip. Of course, turnip is never as simple as it should be. I couldn't find any so I used an additional parsnip (even though I don't like them) and threw in a few mushrooms. All the vegetables had to be finely diced, as did the cooked turkey meat. I defrosted some home-made chicken stock and brought it to the boil with a good dollop of dry white wine (the cheapest I could lay my hands on). The next task was to simmer the vegetables in the stock, after which I added the turkey, some cream and a sprinkling of dried parsley (I couldn't find fresh parsley on this bank holiday Monday).

Our guests arrived and so I dished up for the six of us: the two offspring, a friend ("Ellen") who was celebrating a milestone birthday, her two offspring and myself. (The spouse is away at present) I have to say it was surprisingly tasty. Ellen was very enthusiastic and my older offspring had a second bowlful. That could have been the effect of the preprandial run. I could barely taste the parsnip. The three teenagers were too busy deprecating the concerns of their elders to express any opinion of the soup! Never mind.

Would I make this soup again? Yes, and I wouldn't worry about trying to find white turnips.

Bee is for Browsing

I was browsing our bookshelves, looking for something referring to bees that might be of interest in this blog. I came across a book entitled Collected Poems by James Stephens which has been in the spouse's possession since 1967! It was awarded to him "for excellence in speech and drama" when he was a little boy.

Book II is entitled A Honeycomb and a quick scan of the poems indicates that love is the theme. The opening poem is To the Queen of the Bees. What a find! Below are the first and sixth stanzas.

Bee! tell me, whence do you come?
Ten fields away, twenty perhaps,
Have heard your hum.  
And ask your queen, when you get home,
To send my queen the present of
A honeycomb. 
I think that's all for now.

Minnie

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lovage Soup

Lovage Soup   Today I made lovage soup, the second recipe by Sophie Grigson in The Soup Book that I have used in the last four days. She introduces the recipe with these remarks: "If you don't grow this old-fashioned herb yourself, ask around among your gardening friends or head down to the nearest garden centre to see if they sell it. " As I mentioned in my last blog entry (18th May), lovage now features among the herbs in my front garden. As the spouse left the camera at home, I took some photographs. Parsley, sorrel and lovage in Minnie's garden. Rosemary, parsley and lovage in Minnie's garden.  I had hoped to add chervil to my collection of herbs - there's a recipe for vegetable and chervil soup in The Soup Book - but "Young Stephen" wasn't able to source any for me. At least he tried. Just while I'm mentioning Stephen, I have to reveal that the spouse and the older offspring claim that he has been mention...
1 comment
Read more

Miso Soup with Tuna

Miso Soup with Tuna This weekend I made a soup from the soup and shellfish section of The Soup Book , mainly because I'm aware this is the section through which I have made least progress. Leafing through the fish soup recipes, miso soup with tuna was the first one I came across that I hadn't made (the last fish soup was the creamy scallop bisque in December 2012). I read through the ingredients listed by Carolyn Humphries : what is wakame ? where do I get it and dried shitake mushrooms and miso paste? Apart from those three items, it was easy enough to obtain a carrot, spring onions, ginger, fresh tuna and chives. The spouse made a detour from the usual shopping route to his f avourite fishmonger's shop  then went into town for dried wakame. So, at about 5.30pm yesterday evening, I set about making the soup. I made up chicken stock from a cube and left the shitake mushrooms and wakame soaking in cold water while I prepared the vegetables and diced the tuna. Next, I ...
1 comment
Read more

North Sea Fish Soup

Shaun Hill is the author of today's soup, North Sea fish soup, and he advises that as the seafood must be "just cooked", dense fish should be cut into small pieces or added earlier. It was a simple soup to make as there was no frying or whizzing. The only panicked moment or ten that I experienced was when I couldn't find the cod loins the spouse had bought. I am terrible when it comes to finding things and can usually rely on the spouse to find whatever it is I'm looking for. It's the main reason I married him. But even he was almost as useless as I was. I could remember riffing on the topic of cod loins earlier in the day. The older offspring had asked: "Why cod loins? Do cod have loins? Do they walk?" Fair point. I remembered asking was it a spelling mistake? Had the packager meant to write "cod lions", and so it continued.All very silly. North Sea fish soup: final addition of the tomato and parsley Ready to eat The ingredient...
Post a Comment
Read more