While The Canner Was Out

Seriously huge kohlrabi

When I dig the pressure canner out from the basement, I usually try to make a few things with it before I put it away again. I made beans yesterday and today I made turkey stock. Six pints were processed in the canner successfully. A seventh pint didn't seal so I used it for dinner, which was:

Broccoli cheddar soup except it wasn't broccoli - it was kohlrabi. The farm share provided us with a kohlrabi that was as large as my head - no kidding! So I chopped up half of it and cooked it with some onion, turkey stock, milk, salt and pepper, and then puréed it with my immersion blender. After that, I melted two cups of cheddar cheese into the soup, and served it with the bread from the farm share - a small boule. One of us had the soup in the boule, the other had the soup with the bread that I pulled out from the boule. 

Now, what to do with the other half of a giant kohlrabi?

It's Hard to Describe

Just look at that lamination!

It's not like I haven't been cooking. I have. I made pies. I made puff pastry apple tarts for Thanksgiving. I cooked an entire Thanksgiving meal for six. I have been making bread and we even had friends over for dinner last week. I knit things, gifts for family and friends. 

It's just that I haven't felt like writing about it. When the pandemic first started, I had all sorts of energy. I made cakes, experimented with Japanese baking, hiked, sewed, and worked. That energy is gone, replaced with the ennui of the day to day grind. There is little joy at work, just angry and anxious families who take their frustration out on the staff. It's no wonder it's hard to find people to hire. 

There's no exotic travel to look forward to. I miss my old life. This one feels too small.

So here I am, making turkey stock and canning it. For Thanksgiving I roasted a turkey breast and then cooked some turkey legs in a slow cooker. The bones got made into stock a few days ago and today I canned nine pints. That's about as exciting as it gets. 

North American Soup?

The other day, this recipe for Sopa de Lima showed up in my inbox. It sounded very tasty and I wanted to make it. I'd had some wild game and turkey bones in my freezer for a while that needed to go if I was going to have more room for other meats and vegetables. After all, if we're going to be socially isolated for a while, I need to have provisions. Obviously I don't have chachalacas, but I do have one full chukar breast and one full Canada goose breast. So I set to work early this morning.

First, I used the turkey bones to make stock, and set aside 1 quart and the meat from the bones for the soup. The rest of the stock is being chilled so I can remove the fat before canning it. Maybe tomorrow....

Next, I put the goose and chukar breasts in a pot with the stock and the rest of the soup base ingredients and cooked them until I was sure the goose was cooked through. I will point out that goose isn't exactly a white meat, but in the end it worked out okay, if a little darker than the photos. I did have to pick out a little bit of birdshot out of the goose while I was shredding it.

Finally, I put all the soup ingredients together, skipping the habañero but using a poblano pepper. With the cilantro and tortilla chips, it was popular all around. Even the youngerchild had a full bowl, minus the goose which was "too gamey."

Why North American? Well, Mexican recipe, American turkey, and Canadian Goose, of course!

A Week of Feasting

After last Sunday's mini-Thanksgiving, we've continued to eat our way through the week. Monday we had a fondue night, with tiny potatoes, broccoli florets and bread and two different types of cheese fondue. Tuesday we went out for Thai food and Wednesday we had some leftovers to clear the fridge for the meals to come. On actual Thanksgiving I was working and our site director sent an entire traditional Thanksgiving meal which was good because it got busy and it was nice to have food ready to eat when we had a few moments.

Last night we went out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant, Red 8, in the new casino in Boston. We did not go into the casino part because not everyone in our party was over 21 but the whole place was quite the spectacle. After a whole lot of very good Chinese food we went to another restaurant, Sinatra, for dessert, most of which consisted of little pastries on a "gold record" made out of dark chocolate! It was Frank Sinatra themed, after all.

Tonight we finally had our family Thanksgiving, with my parents, while also celebrating my father's birthday. I made the pumpkin pie a few days ago but last night started the candied cranberries for a garnish. This recipe for pumpkin pie really is terrific. Yesterday morning I made the apple pie, this time cooking the apples first before baking them in the pie. I am really pleased with how this turned out. Also, I used honeycrisp apples instead of Cortlands and I think I like that better. I also made a quick cranberry-pomegranate sauce by making cranberry sauce and tossing in the seeds from half a pomegranate at the last minute.

Mom made the sweet potatoes again and, again, I overbroiled the marshmallows but this time I got them out before they entirely burned. Whoops. My husband got the turkey brining on Thursday while I was at work which was so helpful, and I made the stuffing yesterday. So today, between raking leaves and running to the store for last minute things, we got everything cooked and on the table by 4 pm.

So, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and, Happy Birthday, Dad!

Many Tasks, One Canner

Last weekend, I cleaned out the freezer and made a whole lot of stock. I had bones from various turkeys, chickens, and even a goose. This was, however, the first time I roasted the bones before making the stock and it really did improve the flavor, so that will definitely be something I do again. For each type of stock I: blanched the bones in boiling water for 20 minutes and the roasted them at 450˚F for 30 minutes. Then I boiled them with salt, pepper, bay, and onion skins. There wasn't a lot of fat when I did them this way, maybe because the fat cooks off with the roasting? Not sure. Regardless I set the stocks aside to cool in the fridge so I could skim off any fat that was there. The only one that really needed that was the goose stock.

Since I had about a gallon of the goose stock, I used that plus turkey and chicken meat to make a "turducken" soup, I guess it would be "turgoosen" this time. This did not get canned; some is in the freezer and some is for eating now. I basically followed this recipe, including the farro and wild rice, but the meats and stocks were different, as I already mentioned.

Today I brought out the rest of the turkey and chicken stocks, reheated them, and they're now in the pressure canner together. Ultimately, this made 4 pints of chicken stock and 8 pints of turkey stock. That ought to be enough for the year? Maybe?

Time to Be Thankful

This has been a particularly blog-unfriendly year, between not having a lot of time and not having a lot of interest in canning or baking. I know, that seems weird. It's not like I'm not baking, it's just that it's fairly routine stuff, like cookies or cornbread or the regular batches of white bread I make with Legion whenever we run out. That's still happening, but it doesn't seem all that blog-worthy anymore. I haven't even started a gift stash this year.

But it is Thanksgiving, and it's time to stop and rest briefly and have a feast. To reflect on the things that have made this year good and overlook the bad.

This year there will be nine of us, and I just brined the turkey. We are having our feast on Friday as I'm working tomorrow, giving me an extra day to bake and prepare. Yesterday I made the squash by roasting my last three farm share butternuts and mixing the baked squash with butter, salt, and pepper. Nothing too fancy. Mom will bring the sweet potatoes we love, our friends are bringing rolls and Brussels sprouts, and maybe a dessert.

For the turkey, I mixed 1 cup of Kosher salt for each gallon of water, and put the turkey in that with some bay leaves, peppercorns, sage, celery salt and rosemary.

The next thing I did was make two pumpkin pies, using my favorite recipe. Fortunately, I had condensed milk in the house and didn't need to run out and get some.  I also had 3 cups of pumpkin  purée in the freezer; that may be the last of it. The crust got a little toasty because they were a little too close to the edges of the oven but nothing too bad. I baked the leaves and acorns separately for about 20 minutes so they wouldn't burn. One will go to work with me tomorrow and the other is for my feast.

Tomorrow after work I will make an apple pie and also the stuffing, then on the day of I can roast the turkey, make the mashed potatoes, and put on all the finishing touches!

Gooduckey Soup

Finally, I had all the ingredients amassed to make this soup! Usually it's turducken but this year we also had a goose, so I could play around a bit. Yesterday I made the turkey stock - two gallons of stock. Don't judge.

Here's the ingredients for this year's batch of poultry wonderfulness:

2 leeks, sliced

6 ribs celery, chopped

1 package each of portabella and shitake mushrooms, sliced

12 ounces oyster mushrooms, sliced

4 cups turkey meat

2 cups each duck meat and goose meat

1 cup wild rice

1/2 cup farro

4 quarts turkey stock

2 quarts duck stock

2 quarts goose stock

salt, pepper and tarragon to taste

Once the vegetables are sautéed, the meat and stock were added to the pot. This was brought to a boil and then simmered for at least 30 minutes. After that, the rice and farro were added and continued to simmer until done, about another 30 minutes. Super easy, as long as you have everything ready to go.

Now I have 14 pints of soup in the canner, and at least 3 more quarts in various containers in the fridge and the freezer. I can use the non-canned stuff for lunches at work over the next week and gradually start to dip into the canned ones later. 

Once these are done, I will can the rest of the turkey stock. Eight Nine(!) pints worth. 

Year of the Rooster

Today is the Chinese New Year and a friend of ours was hosting a celebratory dinner/housewarming party. I wanted to make something at least remotely traditional and didn't have a lot of time. A quick Google search yielded various cookies and then I found a recipe for Chinese peanut candy. I've seen this stuff in Chinatown, little batons wrapped in plastic, always factory-made. I'd never even thought about making it from scratch. But it was so easy! The peanuts are roasted and then mixed with salt and five spice powder, then put on a baking sheet with sesame seeds and red pepper flakes. Then the sugar is cooked with water and a little vinegar for 16 minutes and poured over the top. When the sugar is poured, the candy is sprinkled with more sesame seeds and, after a few minutes, cut into pieces.

A few notes to self: the amount of the sugar wasn't enough, so while I doubled the recipe I should have tripled the sugar portion AND maybe use a little less of the red pepper flakes. It has a kick.

Another gift I brought for my friend was paté, made from a combination of chicken, duck and turkey livers. I'd saved a bunch of livers from all our various roast birds and ended up with 18 ounces of liver. That, when cooked with the shallots, garlic and duck fat, made two 12-oz loaves of paté. I made the paté a few days ago, using this recipe, and had frozen some of my share for later meals. I think my friend may do the same. Twelve ounces is a LOT of paté.

The other project for today was making turkey stock. I now have all the stocks I need to make Gooduckey soup, which I think I'll do tomorrow. I have a ton of turkey meat, some duck and some goose meat to go with all the stocks. I just want to pick up some more exotic mushrooms and then I'll have everything I need. I didn't can the turkey stock yet; I'll take what I need for the soup and then can the rest.

*TINK*

That's the sound I hate to hear when I have the pressure canner going. It means something has gone awry!

For New Year's Day, we were coming back from skiing and a friend had purchased a goose with a plan that she would cook it at our house after we got back. THAT plan went off without a hitch. She found a terrific recipe for roast goose, complete with a gravy that was just OK until the last ingredient was added - minced goose liver. Then the gravy was phenomenal. And I'm not usually a gravy fan! (I'll admit, I had eyes on that liver so I could add it to the paté I'm making soon but, I agree, the gravy needed it more.) We saved all the bones to make stock and I set aside some chopped up meat in the freezer to make a different soup variation...Turgoosuck. Well, maybe the name still needs a little work.

Last week I took the bones out of the freezer and made stock. Four quarts of stock, to be exact. And I set them aside until I had time to can them. See, to make the soup, I need turkey, duck and goose stocks, and I can only really make one at a time. But I've been busy, so I haven't had the time I needed to can them. Until today. And only because the youngerchild is sick and wasn't in school and so isn't doing the usual afternoon activities. So. I took the stock, which was cold, skimmed off the fat and poured it into four quart jars. Which were also cold. I put cold water in the pressure canner, left the top off, and heated everything up together. This seemed to be going fine. Then I put the lid on, and continued to heat everything up until it started to vent steam. After it had vented steam for five minutes, I heard it.

TINK.

Sadly, I know what that means! I turned off the burner, undid the canner and, sure enough, one of the jars had snapped at the bottom. The TINK was from the jar pieces hitting each other in the canner. I had to take everything out, rinse out the canner, and put in new water. Which, now that the jars of stock were hot, had to be heated up before I could put the jars back in. Once everything seemed to be the same temperature, I put the jars (three of them) back in and am trying again.

So much for trying to be clever.

Also, I'm making duck stock today, and will can this as well. Then, all I'll need is time to make the turkey stock and then I can devote an afternoon to making soup. Turgoosuck soup. Durkeese? Gooduckey?

The Finished Product

Here's our table from last night's feast!

The turkey, brined for two days, was perfect. There was stuffing. Mashed red potatoes. Creamed (well, sort of) broccoli, mashed squash. Pumpkin bread made by my sister-in-law and sent with my in-laws. The sweet potato casserole was made by my Mom, although we did the marshmallows on top here at the last minute. I got a little distracted and so they had a smokey je ne sais quois which, heh, augmented their flavor. Really, they were only burnt a little!

Plus, cranberry sauce, gravy, pickled beets and eggs, pumpkin pie, apple pie, and two different kinds of macarons brought from Zurich and London by a friend who joined us for dinner.

I am thankful for all the love and joy in my life and that I have time to sit back and savor it once in a while. Happy Thanksgiving!

Another Full Day

After spending a large part of the day at the Museum of Fine Arts to see the Dutch Painting Exhibition (Rembrandt,Vermeer and contemporaries) we got home around 4 pm or so. At that point, I made the turducken soup. Here's this year's recipe:

2 quarts each duck, turkey and chicken stocks

3 leeks, sliced

2 ribs celery, diced

1 cup diced carrots

12 oz. each oyster, portabella and shitake mushrooms

duck and turkey meat

1 package wild rice

salt, pepper and thyme

While this simmered, I canned 14 pints of duck stock and 3 pints of turkey stock. Since I can only fit 14 jars in my canner, that took roughly two hours as I had to do two batches. Now I have 11 pints of turducken soup in the canner which will take about another two hours all by itself. We ate more of the soup for dinner and I have about 3 quarts left in the fridge for this week. It's already 9:30 pm; the kids don't have school tomorrow but I do. At least I got a chance to study while the stock was getting canned.

Many Projects, One Day

In the past 24 hours I have made the following:

1. Granola, using this recipe:

Granola, toasting

3 cups (240g) rolled oats

1 cup (50g) shredded coconut

1 cup (100g) pecans

1/4 cup (25g) toasted wheat germ

2 tablespoons (30g) coconut oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup maple syrup)

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 large egg white 

Preheat oven to 300. Line baking pan (half sheet) with parchment. Combine all ingredients except for egg white in large bowl, mix until thoroughly combined. Beat egg white until frothy, stir into mixture. Spread onto baking sheet evenly. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes. Cool in pan, then break into desired cluster size. [I will point out that I did not get chunks that could be broken up. Also, I added a little dried fruit.]

2. Turkey stock.

3. Duck stock.

Both stocks are in the fridge; tomorrow I will skim off the fat, make turducken soup, and can the rest of the stock as well as the soup.

4. Cheese bread. This is a recipe from school but, I'm sad to say, I think I overproofed the rolls because they ended up too big and flat. I really tried to keep track of that and I even found a way to add steam to the proofing process by putting a pan of water in the oven. It was likely still too hot in there.

5. Yogurt. Well, set it up, anyway. It'll be ready in the morning.

6. Donuts for breakfast, which we drizzled with leftover chocolate ganache and sprinkles.

7. Beef ribs for dinner, with the cheese bread. 

I am worn out, but it's a good kind of tired.

Timeline

8:00 am: Get out of bed. Make coffee. Discover we are out of our favorite coffee, the one we have shipped to us 10 pounds at a time. Order coffee. Get the turkey and the stuffing out of the fridge, find the turkey roasting pan.

9:00 am: The brined turkey is now stuffed and will go in the oven at 10. The pumpkin pie is returning to room temperature and is hanging out next to the apple pie (made last night), waiting for their photo op. The rest of the stuffing is in a baking dish. A very large papaya has been cut. The papaya has nothing to do with our Thanksgiving feast, I just felt like buying it. I'll have some for breakfast shortly.

10:00 am: The turkey is in the oven. The pumpkin bread has joined its flashier brethren on the table. Potatoes have been peeled and are waiting in a pot of water until close to dinner. Turns out, neither of my children like papaya. We have a lot left. The dining room has been cleared of all the books, papers, magazines, and random projects that have accumulated there over the last few weeks. The stand mixer's bowl and whisk are now in the freezer for when I need to make whipped cream for the pumpkin pie.

10:30 am: Remember that there is a parsnip to go in with the potatoes. Peel, chop and add. Waiting for the dishwasher to finish so I can get a pot to cook the broccoli in. Usually the creamed broccoli is made days in advance but this year it seemed OK to wait until the day of the party.

11:30 am: Creamed broccoli is made and resting on the stove, over the back burner so it gets the heat from the oven to keep it warm. Dishwasher emptied. Tablecloth on table, centerpiece centered. I've been told by my Mom not to set the table until she gets here because she has something for it. Holding pattern for now, I guess, but I will get the nice china out and ready.  Off to take a shower.

12:30 pm: The china and silverware are out of storage. The foil is off the turkey and the house smells wonderful.

1:30 pm: Made the canapés. Honey goat cheese and cream cheese blended together and then piped onto crackers, topped with bacon jam. Lesson learned - the disposable pastry piping bags are Not Reliable. Cheese squirted all over the place so the canapés are not as pretty as visualized. Parents have arrived. New leaf runners are on the table and the table is being set. Potatoes are boiling. Sweet potatoes have arrived and need to stay warm.

2:30 pm: The turkey is out of the oven. I repeat, the turkey is out of the oven! Potatoes mashed. Extra stuffing now in the oven to bake while the turkey rests.

3:00 pm: Time to eat! The turkey is carved, the sides are ready, the pies are now warming in the oven. Here is the gloriousness that is our feast:

3:30 pm: We are completely stuffed.

4:00 pm: PIE! The whipped cream is made and everyone gets some apple pie and a few people even have room for a slice of pumpkin.

4:30 pm: My parents head home and we start in on the dishes. The dishwasher is on it's third load for today and we're still not done. Time to relax. Happy Thanksgiving!

Turkey Chili

Since the younger child will eat all things poultry, even if they contain "flavor," I decided to make chili with ground turkey rather than beef.

3 pounds ground turkey

2 onions, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup green peppers, diced

1 pint tomato sauce

1 quart plum tomatoes, drained and chopped

4 cans kidney beans, drained

1/4 cup chili powder

Simmer for several hours. I decided not to add jalapeños or any extra spice and I am pleased to report that, except for the beans, the younger child did eat it. However, the bread boule was the larger portion of dinner.  We topped the chili with shredded cheese, sour cream, and some chives/field garlic from the yard.

There was enough left over to can 2 quarts of chili and leave some in the fridge for meals this week. The chili was canned in the pressure canner for 90 minutes at 10 pounds.

Turducken, Revisited

It's becoming something of an annual tradition, even if I don't manage to make a batch of this soup at exactly the same time.  First, I need turkey stock, which I make after Thanksgiving.  Then I need some ducks, of which we've had a lot recently.  And some chicken stock and meat, which I tend to have year round.

Yesterday, after making a batch of yogurt, I started the process to make duck stock.  I roasted the bones from 3 ducks at 350 for a little over an hour, and then simmered them with 7-8 quarts of water (I lost count), some vegetable scraps, salt, pepper, and bay.  I set aside what I thought was 4 pints of stock for canning, but turned out to be 3, and then made soup with the rest:

3 quarts (roughly) duck stock

1 quart chicken stock

2 quarts turkey stock

diced chicken meat

diced duck meat (from 2 ducks)

2 cups chopped leeks

3 carrots, diced

5 ribs celery, diced

1 box (about 2/3 cup) wild rice

1/2 cup farro

24 ounces of gourmet mushrooms

salt to taste

As usual, the vegetables were sauteed prior to adding the stock and the meat.  The whole thing simmered for the better part of a day, although I turned it off for a few hours while I was out of the house.  We ate some for dinner last night and the rest was set aside to can today.  First I canned the 3 pints of stock, at 10 pounds of pressure for 20 minutes, and now I'm canning 6 quarts of soup, at 10 pounds of pressure for 90 minutes.  

Spring is finally here, with slightly warmer weather.  Most of the snow is gone, at least in the areas that get a lot of sun.  I'll be keeping an eye out for spring greens, as they should be showing up soon.  I can't wait!

Quick Batch of Turkey Stock

After dinner on Thanksgiving, I separated all the meat off the turkey bones before I put the bones away.  If I don't do that right away, it's so much harder to make stock when I want to.   Yesterday I took the bones and simmered them with celery, carrots, and some onion skins, plus salt, pepper and bay.  The stock was then put in the fridge until this morning so I could skim off the fat before canning.  Ultimately I had 10 pints of stock that I pressure canned for 20 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure.  Now, the next time we have ducks, I can make turducken soup again!

Also this morning, I started a batch of yogurt.  When I get home from work around 3 am I will get that in the fridge as well.

In 6 days my extended family will be having our Thanksgiving/Birthday/Christmas celebration so, later in the week, I will make 3 pies.  Here's the plan:  Apple, Pecan, and Chocolate Sweet Potato with Bourbon whipped cream.  I will also make maple candied bacon sprinkles to put on the latter 2 pies when they are ready to be served.  Maybe that's too many flavors, but at least it'll be an optional topping...

Snow, Snow, and More Snow

Another week, another snowstorm, and another snow day!  It seems, with work and everything else, that I haven't had time to cook much of anything lately.  Certainly I haven't been canning.  Today I'd planned on making a big batch of kale and sausage soup for dinner but, with the kids getting out of school early and already about 6 inches of snow on the ground, it seemed like a better option for lunch.  We'll have pancakes for dinner, always a treat!

This is probably the best batch of this I've made.

Kale and Sausage Soup

1 onion, diced

2 ribs celery, diced

2 carrots, diced

6 sweet Italian sausages, removed from casings

1 quart turkey stock

1 quart chicken stock

2 quarts water

1 large can of cannellini beans (1 pound, 13 oz) - undrained

kale

1/2 cup orzo

salt, pepper, bay and winter savory to taste

Saute the onion, celery and carrots in some olive oil.  Add the sausage and brown.  Add the liquids, beans, and spices and simmer for 30-40 minutes.  Add the kale and the orzo, simmer for 15 minutes.  Serve over slices of Italian bread.

My thoughts are with all of you in the South suffering with all that ice.  Stay safe!

Cleanup

While my husband and our friend cleaned all the snow off the driveway, sidewalk, and steps (without the snow blower, mind you, as one of the belts keeps slipping off), I canned more of the Turducken soup.  I put up 5 pints this time.  I think, in total, that batch of soup was 3 and a half gallons!  The rest is still in the fridge for lunch or dinner or something.

We got about a foot of snow, much better than some of the towns around here, and it's very light and fluffy so easy to shovel.  It's sunny out now and everything is so beautiful.

Welcome Back, Turducken Soup!

Nothing like a blizzard to get you in the soup-making mood!

I'd been planning this soup for a while, as I always do after Thanksgiving as it's the only time I roast a turkey.  However, with all the ducks we've been roasting (we're up to 3 so far) I decided to do the soup a little differently this year.  All the bones from 3 ducks, 1 turkey and 1 chicken went into my lobster pot with 4 gallons of water, 2 bay leaves, salt and pepper, to make stock.  The bones were then strained out and chopped turkey, chicken and duck meat added, plus all the additional meat I got off the bones.

Ultimately, I ended up with a tremendous amount of soup, so I'm canning 7 quarts right now.  Five of us ate some for dinner, and there is still plenty in the fridge.  Maybe I'll can some pints tomorrow.  This is enough for today!

Turducken Soup

Turducken stock (see above)

chopped turkey, duck and chicken meat

3 large leeks

6 carrots

2 ribs celery (more if you have it, I ran out)

2 packages mixed gourmet mushrooms (baby bellas, shiitake, and oyster)

2 cups wild rice

salt and pepper to taste

winter savory to taste

thyme to taste

Saute the leeks, carrots and celery in a little duck fat.  Toss into the stock with the meat, mushrooms, rice and spices.  Simmer away!

Best wishes to everyone for a safe, healthy, happy and prosperous 2014!

It Smells Like Thanksgiving

Today was a day in which we found ourselves, unexpectedly, with nothing to do.  Of course, for me that means do stuff I've been putting off.  Like the laundry.  And making turkey stock from the leftover Thanksgiving turkey.  It's been hiding in the freezer since then so I brought it out and made 10 pints of stock.  I boiled the bones with vegetable scraps, 2 bay leaves, some peppercorns and kosher salt and the pints were in the pressure canner for 20 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure.  There are 4 or 5 pints left with which I will make soup for dinner tonight, right now it's just stock and the meat I separated from the bones and put back into the pot.  Later I'll fry up some parsnips, celery, carrots, and onion and make the soup.  Ideally with barley or rice or something.  I'm hoping that the turnips I saved from the farm share are still OK to add; they had frozen in the drawer in the fridge and then I let them thaw on a higher shelf.  I'll cut one up and see how it is.