For the broth:

• 1 turkey carcass with some meat still attached, quartered
• 2-3 quarts water
• Vegetable trimmings (carrot and potato peels, celery bottoms and leaves, onion ends and peels, etc.) or:
  • 1 onion chopped roughly
  • 2 celery stalks, broken in half or thirds
  • 2 carrots, chopped roughly
• 4-5 whole black peppercorns
• salt to taste

Add the turkey carcass, trimming (or vegetables), peppercorns and salt to the pot of water. You may also add any fat or gelatinous material to the pot and bring it to a boil. Boil for 1-2 hours until you have a rich, flavorful broth. Drain the broth through a fine-meshed strainer or a colander lined with cheesecloth or, if nothing else, just a colander. Pick all the meat from the bones and save them for the next part of the recipe. Make sure to let the bones cool first, though.

For the soup:

• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2-3 carrots, chopped
• 2-3 ribs of celery, chopped
• 1/4 c flour
• 2-3 medium potatoes, chopped
• 1 can of diced tomatoes, drained (or 1-2 medium tomatoes, diced)
• 1 can corn, drained (or 1 c fresh or frozen)
• 1 can peas, drained (or 1 c fresh or frozen)
• turkey broth (see above)
• 1 pint heavy cream
• 1 c milk
• turkey meat, picked from the bones, chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh or 1/2 tbsp dried rosemary
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

In the same pan you made the broth in, melt the butter. When the foaming subsides, add the onions, celery and carrots, and saute them until translucent. Add the flour and continue to saute until the flour turns brown, about 1 minute. Add the rest of the vegetables and broth and simmer until the potatoes are tender. Add the remaining ingredients and let it simmer a few minutes until it is thick.

1. Cucumbers with Cream and Mint
2. Vermouth Seared Scallops topped with Salsa Verde
3. Squid and Leeks in Red Wine

The first item, Cucumbers with Cream and Mint I copied out of The Art of Simple Food. This was actually the last item I chose for dinner. Sometimes I work my menu backwards, choosing the main course first.

Cucumbers w/ Cream & Mint

• 2 cucumbers
• 3 or 4 sprigs of mint
• 1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 juiced lemon
• splash or two of olive oil
• sprinkling of sea salt
• dash of cumin

I am just estimating the ingredients I used for the Cucumbers with Cream and Mint. Slice the cucumbers into 1/8″ slices and sprinkle with sea salt. In a separate container mix the cream, olive oil, mint, lemon juice (this reacts with the milk and gives it some body after stirring vigorously), and cumin. All that needs to be done once the sauce is ready is toss in a bowl. I can tell you that the cumin added quite an interesting and delicious dimension to this dish.

• 2 lbs squid
• 2 lbs leeks
• 2 or 3 sprigs of dried thyme
• 3 or 4 pinches of dried oregano
• 2 bay leaves
• 8 cloves of garlic (I was lazy and used minced garlic)
• 2 healthy pours of red wine
• several small pulls of water
• healthy dash of cayenne
• splash of lemon juice
• parsley for garnishment

Five pounds of food

I cribbed this recipe from the Amateur Gourmet’s Squid & Leeks in Red Wine who in turn cribbed it from Richard Olney’s Simple French Food. I had been wanting to try squid for a while and I was impressed. If you know how to clean your own squid, you can pick it up for ninety-nine cents per pound.

Clean your leeks, there will be dirt in them. I like to cut them in half to separate the green and the white then I cut each of those halves in half lengthwise and then in half crosswise once more. I clean them after cutting lengthwise to allow the water better access to rinsing the insides. While you are playing with the leeks you will want to warm the oil. All of it. After the leeks are rinsed and ready, give them a good turn in the oil and some salt for a few minutes, five or so will do.

While the leeks are softening we want to slice the squid into 1/4″ slices. I kept the little squiggly parts, I wasn’t afraid to eat them. The next step is somewhat of a juggling act but juggling in the kitchen is one of my favorite passtimes. Place the leeks somewhere safe and start cooking the squid. This may take a while because we are going to cook them until all the water has evaporated. This is where I diverged from the previous two incarnations of this recipe. I didn’t have any flour and I did not salt the squid while cooking.

At this point I added the oregano and thyme. After a couple quick stirs I added the garlic and let things sit just long enough for the garlic to start sweating. Here I started pouring in the wine, just a little bit at a time allowing the liquid to come to a simmer before adding more. In between pours of wine I splashed some water in with the ingredients and dropped a couple of bay leaves into the mixture. I was feeling adventurous this night and I felt that a lot of cayenne was in order. I am so glad that I used a generous amount of cayenne here. During the meal it didn’t quite overpower the other flavors and left quite a warm after taste that was somehow pleasantly mellow.

Wait until the liquid is simmering, I took heed from the Amateur Gourmet and used a very low heat, then add the leeks back into the pot. Adam cooked his for an hour and a half longer, my cook time after this point was probably just shy of an hour. This made over four pounds of food and everyone got seconds. At the very end of the cook time I added a splash of lemon juice. Since I didn’t have any croutons I reduced the rest of the liquid to a yummy syrupy sauce that I drizzled over the squid and leeks, then topped with parsley.

• 1/4 cup vermouth
• 1 lb scallops
• olive oil
• sea salt

The scallops are pretty simple. It’s the Salsa Verde that took more effort but I will have to post that recipe tomorrow.

Heat the oil until you can hold your hand over the pan for no more than a few seconds. You only need enough to just barely cover the bottom of the pan. Salt the scallops lightly just before placing them in the pan. 1 lb of scallops fit into my frying pan just fine. Let them sear on one side for six or seven minutes, this will pretty much cook them all the way through. Flip the scallops over, at this time there should not be any liquid left in the pan. The direct heat will add just a bit of color to the other side so quickly pour the vermouth into the pan. After a few moments  most of the vermouth should be gone and you can pull them off the heat.

Top the scallops with some Salsa Verde and enjoy. I will post the recipe for that soon.

keld's lentil soup

Christmas eve I had some friends over and took this opportunity to make some lentil soup that I had heard about from The Amatuer Gourmet. This recipe was perfect because I had exactly two cups of lentils left that I probably wasn’t going to get around to cooking later.

I also had some steaks that I pulled out of the freezer two days prior to this so I figured I may as well dice that up and throw it into the soup as well.

I will have to warn you. I do not measure ingredients and I will not be able to provide exact measurements. These recipes that I share are just suggestions.

First thing I did was start boiling some lentils. I’m one of those people who doesn’t use a timer. I probably should. Hell, I could even look at the clock once in a while. However, I prefer to cook until it’s done. I don’t know how to explain this concept but maybe I will talk about it more in the future.

While the lentils were boiling, I diced up five slices of bread. These I tossed in just enough olive oil to cover them slightly. Before tossing them in the oil, I whipped up the oil with some crushed garlic I had. Croutons would be perfect on top of the soup. Baked them at 350 until they were done.

Before the lentils were finished, I took about three tablespoons of butter and started sauteeing half of a large white onion. This was a very large onion. I sliced it into bite size pieces about 1/4 of an inch by 1/2 of an inch. Once the onions started cooking I placed two steaks, 6oz each, into the same pan. The plan here is just to brown them enough on each side so that we can dice it into smaller pieces while leaving the onions on the heat to become tranceluscent.

Unfortunately, the steak I had available was low quality. Even if it is not low quality steak, I highly recommend that you heavily salt and pepper the steak about one hour before use. I did not have time for this so I just fried in butter. After slicing the steak into cubes, I threw the chunks into the butter and onions.

I have dried herbs so I used them at this point. If they were fresh, I would add them at the end of cooking. Here, to the onions and steak I added some cayenne pepper, crushed red pepper, generous helping of curry (which I added more later during the soup cooking part) and a bunch of cumin seeds.

The lentils were done cooking at this point so I drained them and set them aside. After a few more minutes I dumped a 28oz can of crushed tomatoes into a pot along with the onions, spices and steak. This is when I added two capfuls of vermouth into the soup. Yum.

After a couple more minutes I used the empty can to pour the same amount of water into the mixture. Next, I poured in the lentils. We are almost done. While this was coming to a simmer, I rinsed and destemmed some fresh chard. After slicing this into long strips, I placed the chard on top of the soup and salted it a bit.

Just a few more minutes of simmering and I pulled the soup off the heat. Top with croutons and if you have a dollop of sour cream or yogurt available, that would make this dish divine.

Total preparation time was only about thirty minutes. This was a quick meal and my guests were impressed with how quickly the meal was prepared. I must warn you that this made a lot of food. We could have served about 8-10 people.

For dessert we had dark chocolate from IKEA with dried cranberries.