There are so many options for using up leftover turkey after the holidays and one of them is making a turkey soup. However, other options include Turkey Tetrazzini, the turkey, peas, and carrots laden spaghetti casserole with a thick Velouté based sauce all topped with a breadcrumb crust and baked in the oven. On the other hand, how about the popular turkey sandwiches with cranberry or stuffing between thick slices of crusty bread. Moreover, the list goes on….Turkey Pot Pie, Turkey Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich (TLT), Turkey Wraps, Turkey Posole, Turkey and Dumplings, Turkey Empanadas or Turkey Panini.

I have typically made a turkey soup once the turkey sandwich cravings subside, or about two to three days after the big holiday meal. That is just what happened again this time around with the remaining turkey meat and carcass of bones. First, the major portion of the attached meat was cut or picked from the bones and reserved, and then the bones were broken down a bit to make them more compact and tossed into a large stockpot. The bones are then covered with cool filtered water to about 2 inches above the top level of the bones, thus the initial step with making a turkey stock. All great soups and sauces for that matter must start with a flavorful fresh made stock.

Stocks, Soups and Sauces…oh my!

Stocks are one of those curious concoctions that most novice cooks fear and loathe, with a certain mystery surrounding its preparation methods and techniques. In our early apprenticeship days, fellow novice cooks and I were challenged to making a good stock. The litmus test that you had extracted all of the goodness and flavor was determined by how the stock looked the next day, so lessons on patience added to the fascination, more on that later. Another captivation about stocks was that some of them took as long as eight to twelve hours to eke out all of the flavor from the bones, especially in the case of making beef stock. Whether it is beef, chicken, veal, turkey, fish, shrimp, lamb, ham, or vegetable stocks, each one of them has a particular traditional method of preparation, and then there are variations that can be applied to the central scheme. As a sub-division, there can be either brown or blond stocks, with the darker stocks being attributed to roasting the bones and vegetables prior to making the stock. Typically, the vegetables consist of a mirepoix of onions, carrots, and celery. Therefore, how do you know if your stock meets muster with maximizing the flavor extracting potential of the bones and ingredients with which you have simmered for hours on end? Clearness and gelatin!

A few tips to making a good stock include only simmering the liquid and never allowing it to boil, also make sure that the foam and scum that forms at the top is skimmed off periodically, never cover the stockpot when making a stock, and finally, never stir the stock. Boiling or stirring the stock will make it cloudy by distributing all the impurities back into the liquid. Covering the stock will allow moisture buildup on the lid to fall back into the stock, this stirring around, and you want the stock to reduce a bit too, thus concentrating the flavors. Especially if you are making a clear consommé, cloudy stock is a major faux pas. A perfect stock is achieved when all the pure goodness is extracted from the impurities, with the result of a rich flavorful liquid essence. Once a stock has cooled the extracted gelatin will congeal and take the shape of a somewhat solid jelly-like form, this is the result of pulling out the gelatinous portion of the bones and surrounding tissues. It also means that the correct amount of water was added to cover the bones; too much water will result in a thin flavored stock and the gelatin jelly-like structure will be lost. Whole chapters and in fact books have been written on the subject of stocks, and culinary classes typically will include an entire class on Stocks, Soups and Sauces, as I mentioned before, you cannot have a great sauce or soup without a great stock. Stocks are quite literally, the essence of flavor.

Back to the turkey stock preparation, once the bones were covered with water I set the stockpot on the burner and set the flame to a medium-high. Once the liquid came to a simmer, I reduced the heat to a low flame setting. The stock simmered uncovered for about 6 hours, skimming the foam and scum periodically and adjusting the flame if it was simmering too much. A low slow simmer is all your want, just to ensure that there is a nice little bubbling of liquid is all you need. After the 6 hours I chilled the stock by placing the stockpot into an ice bath set up in the kitchen sink, this allows for a quick cooling so that the stock can be put into the refrigerator to chill overnight. I kept the bones in the stockpot at this point; however straining the stock at this point is a typical step. I wanted to let the bones continue to add flavor to the stock as it chilled. The next day I removed any fat that had settled to the top of the congealed stock and then reheated it, and then I strained the stock to remove the bones and any other impurities. Typically, stocks are strained with a fine chinois (also known as a China Cap) or strainer with a lining of cheesecloth or filter paper. Straining of stocks is much easier when they are hot, cold stocks do not strain very well.

This recipe was based on an original turkey that weighted 19.85 pounds; your mileage might vary with the amount of bones and turkey meat left over, so use this recipe as a guideline when considering how big your turkey is when making a similar soup. In addition, the brown rice and peas were leftovers from the holiday meal, which is one of the other benefits of making this soup.

I have seen recipes for this popular dip that espouse anywhere between five and nine layers that includes every ingredient as a special layer of the dip. The greater the number of layers defined in the dip does not necessarily mean it is a better dip, in fact, a sprinkling of green onions is considered a complete layer in some dip recipes. I like to think of green onions as a garnish and not a layer, but they are included with some other ingredients like tomatoes and black olives, but that is just me!

This was a perfect starter for last night’s pre-game festivities in anticipation of the Saints vs. Patriots game for Monday Night Football last night on ESPN. Who Dat! Geaux Saints to continuing their perfect season and improving their record to 11 wins and 0 losses. We are so proud of our home team and happy for the City of New Orleans. The NFL announced that the iconic British rock band The Who will be performing during the 2010 Super bowl half-time show, so my prediction says that Roger Daltrey will be singing “Who Dat…who dat….who…who?” during the show, in-between the show that Drew Brees and the Saints will be putting on February 07, 2010.

Now, back to the dip! This version of taco dip includes Frito Lay brand bean dip, mayonnaise, sour cream, taco or Southwest seasoning (I used my own Finger Lickin’ Rub spice), guacamole, shredded Mexican four-cheese mix, diced tomatoes, sliced black olives, and fresh chopped chives. Therefore, if all the ingredients were considered a separate layer then you could call this a twelve-layer dip, but I will keep the numbers out on this one. What I would call physical layers in this dip is actually much less than that and more like half that amount. Enough on the layer debate, lets get to the recipe now.

I hope to make a repeat performance of this dip on February 7, 2010 before the Saints take on the…..errr….. Colts….maybe!

Southern Argentina including the Lake District of Bariloche and Calafate Patagonia

In this installment, our Bon Vivant traveler Mike Addison finally has the camera virus issue resolved and included a host of photos to share. Mike shares some of his foodie finds along the way as he ventures his way through southern Argentina with some mountain biking in Bariloche, and then hiking adventures through the Perito Moreno glacier. Along with some good beer, tender steaks, and rich dark hot chocolate, Mike also finds time to enjoy the tastes of South America too.

From: Michael Addison
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 10:23 PM
Subject: Southern Argentina – Bariloche (Lake District) and Calafate (Patagonia)

Hello Everyone,

Sorry this file is so large, but I have some photos to share with you. I lucked out with these, as they are the only pics that were not lost from the virus. I was able to upload them and send to a fellow traveler before the virus hit. So actually, this is a forwarded note, without the text.

So, last Sunday (October 25, 2009) I caught a flight from BA to Bariloche, about a 2-hour flight southwest towards Chile. I chose Bariloche because it is renowned for its beautiful lakes and mountains (my fellow travelers also “highly” recommended it). I arrived around 6:30pm local time and waited for the bus shuttle that I was told would pick up at 7 pm. Nada…no bus for a half hour. One woman and her kids were getting exasperated as they were also waiting. We started talking (Habliendo espanol es facil ahora! 🙂 and she told me she would call a friend who has a private cab service. She offered a ride to me…Si Senora! Like I mentioned in my previous email, the Argentine people have been very nice. Her name was Roxanne (after she told me I wanted to scream, ¨ROOOOOOOOXANN´! like the Police song…kind of glad I didn’t, might have been walking to town :). Her friend gave me drive up curb service to my hostel (can’t beat that). Roxanne gave me a kiss (love this custom) and I got settled.

I checked out the second floor of the hostel–totally dedicated as a bar and dining hall…not bad for a hostel. I popped in and immediately saw my friend Cyril (Swiss guy) who had been at the same hostel in BA. He was with some absolutely fun, off the hook guys from the Netherlands, Israel, and Ireland—all laughing and having beers. I joined them and we all just gelled so quickly. Then I found out we were all in the same room. I’m not sure I’ve laughed so hard in 3 days as I did with these guys. After dinner, we went to a local bar…I’ve attached a pic—left to right; Omer, Enri (he was hammered, if you can’t tell), Marten–so freakin´funny, Jeremy—good dude from S. Africa, and Cyril, the Swiss guy. That night we had a blast and decided to get together two days later for a mountain biking ride through the lakes and mountains.

So, Monday I had open, and Jeremy told me he had met some German and English travelers who were going to do a major trek (5 hours one way) with an overnight stay up in the snowy peaks. That sounded awesome, so I joined them and we all left Monday morning. The group shots show us just before we ascended the mountain, then one where we are finally approaching the top (you can see the cabin and outhouse), and then another group shot when we had finally made it. It got quite cold that night, with some snow and ice pelting the windows. However, we were fairly cozy–as you can see in the dinner pics–and really enjoyed the experience. Its one thing to look out a window and view snow covered peaks in the distance; it is quite another when you look out the window and you are “on” the peaks. I felt so badass 🙂

I did not want to miss biking with my boys the following day. Since we were to meet back in town at 11 am for the ride, I started trekking back down the mountain at 6 am the following morning. The final pics are from that morning…one of the orange sunrise hitting the face of a nearby peak, adjacent to where we had trekked. Man I’m glad I stopped at REI outfitters in Houston before I left–they set me up with the right gear…otherwise I would not have been able to do the trek. I made great time down the mountain, but I could not find a bus back to town, so I approached a guy and negotiated a ride for half the cost of a cab! He told me my Spanish was great. He “had” to be drunk.

So, Tuesday was a beautiful, sunny day as we all went on the mountain bike ride at 11:30am The circuit we rode was about 25 miles, with some challenging uphill grades, but that made it fun too. After we returned to the city center of Bariloche, we all chowed on the free dinner the hostel provided each night (a freakin´ deal). Then we downed the beers. Needless to say, we all slept well that night.

Wednesday was a rainy and gray day, but that allowed us to check out the city. So, we did some window-shopping and I booked a flight at an agency for Calafate the next day. Oh yeah, I stopped for a cup of hot chocolate at a local cafe. I was told Bariloche was “the” place for chocolate…and man, this cup was the best Í have ever tasted. Thick, sweet, hot, and pure chocolate flavor. That night we all went out for an Argentine steak dinner. We found a superb place that served meat like those in the nicest chophouses in the U.S. but not as pricey. I requested a half order…glad I did, because I got not one but two delicious, thick tenderloins (a “half” order!). We also had bottles of Malbec wine at the table. Good people, food, wine = a very good evening.

Thursday another fellow traveler–Yarif from Israel–and I grabbed our flight to Calafate. It is another 2-hour flight, directly south of Bariloche. It’s in the world famous Patagonia region of Argentina. Mountains, steppe, glaciers, lakes, rivers, wildlife, etc. It’s another world. Yarif and I did some hiking up to the base of an amazing peak called Fitz Roy (like nothing I have ever seen before). We—along with another fellow traveler, Diane from Colombia—went to Glacier National Park and trekked over the Perito Moreno glacier http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIfHurcBn9g. We were fitted with ice shoes (serious spikes for traction). We were given a quick lesson on how to stomp into the ice in order to gain a decent foothold. This experience is up there with my first parachuting and hang gliding experience—it was that cool.

Time to hit the sack…getting up at 5:30am to cross the border into Chile to see/trek Torres del Paine peak. Then Thursday flying to Ushuaia, the southernmost tip of S. America (they call it El Fin del Mundo).
Buenos Noches,

Mike

Join Mike on his next installment of the Bon Vivant Travels when he reports from Ushuaia, Buenos Aires (again), Iguazu Falls, and Mendoza, Argentina.

An item on the Columns Hotel dinner specials menu insert, this boneless breast of chicken broiled and topped with the garlic herb cheese served on a bed of steamed spinach and sold for $10.95 a plate back in the mid 1980’s. Still a wonderful dish today and easy to prepare in various options and the chicken breast can be sautéed, grilled, or broiled. We recreated this dish again for our Sunday dinner meal, and is still a classic today. If you cannot find or do not want to pay for the pricey Boursin Cheese, you can make a great substitute version of your own with simply combining cream cheese with minced garlic, chopped chives and fresh herbs such as parsley, thyme and basil, and a little garlic salt and pepper.

Boursin cheese considered a Gournay Cheese because it is named after the small town in France where Francois Boursin grew up. Boursin created the original cheese in 1957 as “Boursin Garlic & Fine Herbs” inspired by a long-standing traditional dish” fromage frais (fresh cheese) served in a bowl with fine herbs, allowing each person to create their own personally seasoned cheese.

A quick recipe for making your own Boursin style cheese is included along with a simple steamed spinach recipe too. In this preparation, the chicken breast is coated with a touch of olive oil and seasoned on both sides with some Finger Lickin Rub spice mix, a little celery salt, and oregano.

Then we sautéed the chicken breasts in a hot pan on both sides until just about done, still another and more traditional sauté version is provided in more detail with the link to Chicken Breast Sauté. Then the chicken breasts are topped with a spread of the Boursin cheese.

The sautéed chicken topped with the Boursin Cheese is then set under the broiler to brown and melt the cheese nicely.

The steamed spinach is drained and plated then a chicken breast placed on top, and Monique made a batch of her Baked Tomatoes for another side, which we enjoyed as shown in the image at the top of this post.

Note: Click on images for a larger view.

Boursin Cheese

Steamed Spinach