Turducken!

Roast duck plus turkey and chicken stock makes for an awesome soup.

1 roasted duck carcass, with lots of meat on the bones
1 qt. chicken stock
1 qt. turkey stock
1 c. wild rice, soaked in cold water for 30 minutes
1 really big leek
1 medium onion
3 stalks of celery
1 package "gourmet mushroom mix" from Whole Foods
marsala or sherry wine

Simmer the duck with the stock. Fry the chopped leek, onion, mushrooms and celery in oil or duck fat. Remove the meat from the bones, add the vegetables, rice and wine, and simmer until the rice is done.

Mmm. If there is any left, I'll can it tomorrow.

Mushrooms and Marsala

My mom made this soup the other day, and we liked it so much we took a picture of it.
(By "it" I mean the recipe. Who writes things down anymore?)

I took the day off of work today, sort of a "personal regeneration" kind of day, and I'm spending it making a double batch of this soup to put up. Variations from the recipe: using chicken broth instead of beef broth, and not putting in the cream (see "Dairy is Taboo") - we can add the cream when we heat up the soup.

Soaking the mushrooms - because I had to take a child to day care, they soaked longer than 30 minutes. Not a problem.
Chopping the shallots and garlic gave me an excuse to use the ulu. Why I need an excuse to use the ulu, I do not know.
Straining the mushroom liquid took a long time. That was unexpected. I finally had to force the liquid through the filter because I was getting impatient.
Everything simmered on the stove, as I do not have a slow cooker large enough for a double batch of anything. I think, by the time everything got going, it simmered for 2 hours. I decided not to let the mushrooms get really tender because I was just going to can the soup anyway, so the time in the pressure canner would likely make the mushrooms softer. I ended up with 12 pints and a little bit for lunch. I'll be giving some of this away shortly (see "Helping Hand").

(10 lbs, 75 minutes in the canner.)