Hi guys! I apologize - I forgot I’d committed to this evening when my son invited me out to the farm for dinner. So the stoup’s not done yet, and I am late getting this posted! Ah well :-) We can still get through the basics. I’ll post some pretty “finished stoup” pics in tomorrow’s PWB diary.
So… Stoup. What is turkey stoup? As you may have already guessed, by definition it’s actually soup, but soup so thick and full of yummy stuff like beans and rice and veggies that it really is almost stew! (Technically, the divider between the two is how much liquid is used in cooking.)
Here’s my turkey:
I lucked out and got this behemoth at Aldi on their “PLEASE make them go away!” clearance day. 22 pounds of monster bird, $7.
A good start!
After two days of repeated cold-water baths in my friend George’s bathtub, monster bird was defrosted and ready for the next step. A slow overnight roast.
For this, I like to quarter up a couple of onions, throw in a good shake of sage (and fresh rosemary sprigs if I can get my hands on some), put a pint of water in the base of the pan as a starter, then seal everything up good and tight with tinfoil and roast it overnight at 200 degrees. After a bit of browning in the morning, here it is:
Pour off the cooked juices into a container to chill, and once relatively cool, stick it in the fridge. Then break apart your turkey, stripping the meat off the bones, and put the bones, scraps, and cooked onion and spices into a big stock pot. Cover with water and bring to a simmer. After 3-4 hours, drain off the turkey stock and refrigerate.
Now, while lots of turkey is lovely, I like making stoup with multiple protein sources. Beans. Rice. Corn. Get them all in a stoup and even without meat, you are going to have serious, significant, and most importantly complete proteins.
On the other hand, I don’t like farting all the time :-) So the next step is to prepare fartless beans.
FARTLESS BEANS
Step one: soak your beans for at least twelve hours. You can use any kind of bean you want, or a mix. I like mixes :-)
By the end of your twelve hours, there should be little bubbles covering the surface of your bean water.
You know what those little bubbles are, right? They’re pre-empted farts!
Drain your beans, then put them back in the pot with fresh water, no lid. Bring them to a boil for ten minutes. And hoo-boy!! Just watch them incipient farts bubble up and float away on the steam.
They smell much better when they haven’t gone through a human body, but you can still tell they’re escaping baby farts! If you’ve ever been near a bean-canning factory, you’ll recognize the scent.
Okay, after ten minutes, take your beans off the heat. Drain and rinse them again using cold water — we don’t want them cooking more just yet!
I used to cook my rice in the stoup — it’s a great way of soaking up extra moisture, but it’s also the ingredient which is most likely to stick to the bottom of the pan, and hence cause burning. Now, I’ve made and eaten a lot of darn good stoups with a little char on them, but heck, why not avoid it if possible? So I cook up two or three (dry) cups of rice, going a little light on the liquid so my rice won’t get too mushy, and set it aside.
My boiled stock with fat hardened on top
Okay, now it’s time to get your rendered stock and your turkey juices from baking out of the fridge. On both of them, the fat will have risen to the surface and hardened.
Using a slotted spoon or spatula, skim off the hardened fat. If you’re a real gourmand, you can save it for another project :-)
Once you’ve skimmed off the fat, put the stock and cooled (jellied) turkey juices into your big stock pot. Cut up your onions and your garlic (how much garlic? Up to you ;p For me the correct answer is “However much garlic is in the house!”)
Onion and garlic prep I did out in Wheeliehouse so as not to stink up George’s kitchen too bad. Very honestly, my “kitchen” doesn’t usually look like that!!! I shoved everything in the bedroom to make it pretty ;p
So, add the chopped onions, most of the sauteed garlic (I like to sautee it — it brings out the flavor better), and the beans to your turkey juice. This is also when I add the majority of my spices — EXCEPT salt! Trust me, never add salt
stock with spices
to a stoup until just before the end. Very often, you’ll find you don’t need any, or just a pinch.
Bring you stock, beans, and onions to a simmer and let it do its thing for half an hour while you cut up your veggies.
What veggies? Any veggies you want! I usually use carrots, celery, frozen corn, and a few pounds of frozen spinach. Keep your veggies in separate bowls — you’ll want to add them in order, from longest cook time to shortest.
After the beans/onion/broth have simmered a half-hour, start adding your vegetables. Nothing you add should take more than 30 minutes to cook.
Five minutes before your last veggie is due to be “done”, stir in your rice. Let everything warm nicely but NOT simmer, then taste it. Add any final spices you feel it needs, then add your turkey meat. Stir everything up together (if it’s a proper stoup, your arm will be getting tired!!), let it come to just a simmer, then take it off the stove.
Your stoup is done!!
Mine, sadly, isn’t yet — but I had a wonderful dinner with my son, so hey! Here are a few more pictures from the process:
Chop your onions — I just use a two pound bag.
Minced garlic
Saute with a bit of butter
Turkey “jelly” with the fat removed
Sorry for getting this up late!!!
