Leftover Turkey Stew

This was meant to be based on a recipe I found here. However, there were several hitches along the way. First of all, I actually had a lot more turkey left over than I had thought. Additionally, the turkey is smoked, making it taste more like ham, so the sage seemed like a bad idea. I was similarly unconvinced on the curry powder so I left that out as well.

As I realized this Aaron suggested rosemary as a replacement. It seemed like a good idea, but we were out. Even so this recipe is easy (if time intensive) and very tasty.

Ingredients:

5 cups	small chunks of leftover turkey
5 cups	cubed potatoes
2 cups	chopped carrots
1 cup	chopped celery
2 cups	chopped onion
4 cloves	minced garlic
3 cups	chicken broth
2 cups	vegetable broth
	salt and pepper
	olive oil

Procedure:
Fry the garlic and onions in olive oil until they begin to soften, then add the turkey, potatoes, carrots, celery, and broth. Hold at a boil, testing occasionally to see if the potatoes are done all the way through (if the pieces are as large as mine, this could take half an hour or more). Season to taste with salt and pepper.



I realized during cooking that I had cut my potatoes too large. Not only did they take forever to cook, but they were too big to fit on a spoon with anything else. After the cooking was just about done I hit the whole stew with a potato masher a few times. This broke up the largest potato pieces and also thickened the broth with potato starch (which is something I like).

Almost all of the turkey we had left over was dark meat, which was great. Well, it was a pain to get it off of the bones, but the flavor is much stronger.



Don't be shy about the salt and pepper -- particularly the pepper. This makes something like eight pounds of food so it needs no small amount of seasoning to make an impact.



My guess is that this recipe is pretty robust to changes. If you swap a cup of potatoes for a cup of carrots, it'll be fine. More turkey would be fine, though much less would be a problem. Potatoes, carrots, and celery are all pretty neutral. You'd need a replacement source of defining taste.

Relatedly, I'll say again: if working with smoked turkey or ham, I suggest adding 1 tsp rosemary. If working with ordinary turkey, use 1 tsp sage.

New Year's Eve Appetizer Bonanza!

Sick Man Soup

No, it's not a soup made out of sick people. Feeling a little under the weather? Grandma Charles will fix you up in no time.

Ingredients:

3 cups	broth (I used vegetable but I think chicken would be best)
1 cup	dry rice
2	large carrots, chopped

Procedure:
Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and boil for about 20 minutes. The rice should be done and the carrots should be soft but it will still be pretty goopy. Season to taste with salt and black pepper.

Obviously this isn't a polished recipe... but it's very easy to make when you're feeling lousy and you're out of instant chicken noodle soup. For particularly sensitive stomachs, I recommend using half broth and half water. For slightly more robust digestive tracts, peas or small pieces of chicken could be added.

Enjoy with water with a hint of lemon juice.

Chicken Tangine

This is another recipe from Mom (she found it in Healthy Cook by Kate Sherwood in Nutrition Action Healthletter, Sept 2010). I was in a rush so I didn't change it all (well, I used 3 carrots instead of 2, but mine were kinda shrimpy). There were some things I did think about changing, but I'm glad I tried it out as written first.

Ingreduents:

2 lbs	chicken breast, cut into large cubes
3	carrots, chopped
2	zucchini, chopped
1	small onion, chopped
1 tsp	turmeric
1 tsp	ground cumin
1 tsp	paprika
0.25 tsp	ground cayenne pepper
0.25 tsp	cinnamon
6 cups	broth (I used vegetable bullion)
1 can	diced tomatoes
	olive oil

Procedure:
Cook the chicken in some olive oil until it's done on the outside. Add spices and stir for a minute or two. Add all other ingredients. Simmer for about half an hour. Serve with a lot of bread, the crustier the better. Serves 6-8, depending on how much you like bread.

This recipe is great. It's very easy and has a lot of flavor to it. There's a good amount of kick in the broth which does not diminish when reheated days later. The one thing I didn't like is that it's too... soupy. The vegetables seem lonely since there's just so much broth.

I think next time I'll try adding some chickpeas. Alternatively, some brown rice could go in. I would add it dry and then let it soak up the broth instead of making it with water. I thought about potatoes but I think they would gum up the broth. Pasta was another option as well -- probably little spirals -- but that seems weird.


Yeah, I'm not sure. I kinda forgot to take a picture until after we packed up the leftovers.

Pumpkin Spice Cookies

This was the recipe I chose for the Cookie Swap that Sarah and I hosted this weekend. It's based somewhat on a bread recipe from my Mom. I fudged some numbers to make them more cookie-ish from online recipes and threw in a few extra things myself. They were great. We got full fast so I didn't try, but I would anticipate them being excellent with vanilla ice cream or cream cheese frosting.

Ingredients:

1 cup	dark brown sugar
1 cup	white sugar
2 sticks	softened butter
3 cups	whole wheat all purpose flour
2 tsp	baking soda
1/2 tsp	salt
1 can	pumpkin puree
2	eggs
5 tsp	orange marmalade
1 tsp	vanilla extract
1 tsp	cinnamon
1/2 tsp	ginger
1/4 tsp	nutmeg
1/4 tsp	ground cloves
1/4 tsp	allspice
1 cup	mini dark chocolate chips (regular works too, I guess)
1 cup	dried cranberries

Procedure:
Mix all ingredients. Cook in a hot oven until done.





Really there's not much more to it than that. I guess there's an order in which you're supposed to combine things; I'll tell you what I did, which worked out, but I suspect the exact order isn't that important. However, if you're doing all your stirring by hand like I am, this will make your life easier.

Preheat your oven to 350.

Soften the butter and mix it into a paste with the sugars. If you put them all in the same bowl before realizing that the butter is hard, leave it on top of the oven to melt. If you put sugar in the microwave for too long, bad things will happen to it.

Mix the flour, salt, and baking soda.

Mix the pumpkin, eggs, vanilla, marmalade, and spices.

Combine the butter mixture with the pumpkin mixture. Mix well to make sure you don't end up with lumps of spice. Gradually add the flour mixture. It will be a pretty wet batter but not soupy enough to settle after you mix it -- it will hold peaks. Mix in the chips and cranberries.

Put heaping tablespoons onto a buttered pan and bake until they bounce back when poked, about 20 minutes.

This recipe is huge. My cookies got incrementally larger as I went on making them since I realized I didn't want to do three rounds in the oven. They ended up about biscuit sized by the end. If you prefer smaller cookies, go for it, but don't cook them for as long.

They are very bready, no surprise, but really tasty. They are soft and moist without being overwhelmingly sweet. I think I liked them more than most. They weren't as popular as the chocolate overload cookies. That was predictable, though. A lot of people are bonkers for chocolate. I prefer these.

Moroccan Chicken

Hello again, readers. Things have been very busy lately. I'm back now, though, and hope to resume updating semi-regularly.

This recipe is based on the internet. Just punch "chickpeas turmeric chicken" into Google and loads of hits come up. They're all pretty consistent and I stayed pretty faithful to them, with slight changes as always. The inspiration for this dish came from Anna's Halloween concoction. I don't remember precisely what was in it other than chicken, chickpeas, and turmeric so that's what I went from.

Ingredients:

1 lb	chicken, diced
1 can	chickpeas, drained
2	large carrots, sliced
3 stalks	celery, sliced
2	small onions, chopped
1 can	tomatoes
1.5 cups	broth
4 cloves	garlic, minced
1	green pepper, chopped
0.5	turmeric
0.5	paprika
0.75 tsp	cumin
0.25 tsp	cinnamon
0.5 tsp	oregano
2 tsp	salt
0.5 tsp	ginger

Procedure:

This is a very easy recipe. Fry the chicken, onion, garlic, and carrots until the vegetables begin to soften. Add the rest of the ingredients. Cook until it's a stewy consistency. Serve over couscous or brown rice; serves five.

One thing I did omit was spiciness. This recipe would have appreciated come cayenne pepper (which most recipes used). I made the substitution of a green bell pepper for zucchini. I really think this was a good call; not only are zucchini creepy, but I don't think it would have blended well with the rest of the goop.

I only used one can of chickpeas; some recipes used even less. However, they're really what makes the dish exciting. I would recommend using a can and a half, and cutting the carrots smaller, to really emphasize their place in the dish. The celery was fine, but I guess celery is always just fine. I wasn't excited to have it in there, but it didn't detract from the dish. It played a very inconspicuous part.

Wild Rice and Fruit Salad

This is a cold salad that they had at St Olaf, and which I always enjoyed. Between my memory and some online references this is what I pieced together.

Ingredients:

1.5 cups	uncooked wild rice
1 cup	sweetened dried cranberries
1/2 cup	slivered almonds
2	small apples, diced
1/2 cup	basalmic vinaigrette dressing
1/4 cup	olive oil
2 tbs	orange marmalade
1 tbs	honey

Procedure:
Prepare the rice as directed. Throw the almonds in a frying pan for a few minutes to toast them. Throw a cit of lemon juice on the apples if you like, as they may otherwise get brown from sitting around as you wait for the rice.

Mix the vinaigrette, olive oil, honey, and marmalade. The best way I found to do this was to start with the marmalade then slowly add the liquids. If you throw a lump of marmalade into a cup of liquid you'll have a hard time breaking it up.

Add the cranberries to the rice as it cools, then stir in the almonds, dressing, and apples. Serve cold.

This was a bit too much fluid; maybe decrease by a few tablespoons the amount of salad dressing.

The apples should probably have been granny smith, but all I had around were some small, soft, sweet ones. The softness was more a problem than anything, causing them to sustain damage during the mixing. Otherwise this was very tasty. It's probably really healthy too.

I took a picture of this, but I don't think I'll share it. As you may imagine, it doesn't look like anything. But I promise, it's worthwhile.