The tale of the turkey, philosophical musing included.

I recently acquired a giant pan of roasted turkey, as well as two pairs of roasted turkey wings. The how of this acquisition is not important, but rest assured that I came by it honestly. It does open up some interesting questions though, which I'll address later. The generosity of this gift was replaced quickly with concern over how I was going to use it all up. Some frantic searching through several cookbooks and a trip to Winn-Dixie allowed me to set a plan in motion however. What I decided to do is make turkey broth (using a modified chicken broth recipe) and use the rest of the turkey (of which I have at least 3-4 lbs) to make hot dish. Several hot dishes at it turns out.

Before I get to the recipes, I want to take a moment to talk about my food philosophy. It may seem pretentious to refer to it that way, but that's really what it amounts to. And I also want to note that I am still in the process of forming my food philosophy, and I welcome discussion! Anyway, my philosophy as it applies to my day of turkey-related cooking is as follows: in general, I try to eat a mostly vegetarian diet. In fact, since I have been here (going on 5 weeks now!) I have only eaten meat about once a week, and I have never had any in the house. This wasn't necessarily intentional at first, I was just trying to keep my food costs low, and meat seemed like an easy expense to cut out. I have not formally become vegetarian yet, although I don't think I will ever eat red meat again. I prefer to think of myself as a flexitarian. This is one of those terms that is very popular right now among food philosophers, but it describes me quite well I think. I preferentially opt for less meat, but I also won't cut it out entirely. I don't think there is anything wrong with a purist approach to meat-consumption, but I do think that you run into grey areas in situations such as the one which resulted in me having a fridge full of turkey. The aforementioned turkey was left-over from a fund-raiser's buffet and was going to be thrown out if someone didn't claim it. Of the behaviors which could be deemed "wrong," one being meat-consumption and the other being food waste, I tend to think that food waste is far worse. To be fair, I did pass up the tray of pork chops (someone else took it home). Because while I am still on the fence about meat-production--especially concerning the amount of resources used--I think it is a far greater misuse of resources to throw away perfectly good meat just because it is in excess.

So there, I am off my soap-box now. I just wanted to clarify that I was being resourceful and trying to avoid food going to waste :)

Now to the recipes!

Here is the recipe I used for the turkey broth:

3lbs chicken backs & necks (I used 4 giant turkey wings)

3 qt cold water (I used 5 c water because my crock-pot is pretty small)

4 ribs celery, chopped coarsely

6 carrots, unpeeled, sliced thick

2 onions, peeled and quartered

8 peppercorns (I didn't have any of these so I went without)

...I also added 3 parsnips which I had in the fridge, I prepared them the same way as the carrots.

1) Rinse chicken. Place in crock-pot. Add water and veggies.

2) Cover. Cook on high 4-6 hrs.

3) Remove chicken and veggies from broth.

4) When broth has cooled slightly, place in refrigerator to cool completely. Remove fat and any foam when chilled.

5) The stock is ready for soup! Freeze it in 1-cup containers.

6) Use the cooked chicken and vegetables for soup or stews.

I actually ended up using most of the turkey broth right away to make turkey tetrazzini! Here is that recipe:

1 (16 oz.) package uncooked spaghetti

1/2 c. butter

1/2 c. all-purpose flour

3 c. chicken broth

2 c. milk

1 2/3 c. grated Parmesan cheese

4 c. chopped, roasted turkey

...I also added 1 (16 oz.) bag of frozen peas.

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a clear glass baking dish.

2. Bring large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add spaghetti, cook for 8-10 minutes or until al dente. Drain and place in baking dish.

3. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in flour. Mix in chicken broth and milk. Cook and stir until the mixture comes to a boil. Stir in about 1 1/3 c. Parmesan cheese, and remove from heat.

4. Mix chicken broth mixture, frozen peas, and turkey with spaghetti. (It helps if you actually mix this all in a separate bowl and then pour it into the pan) Top with remaining cheese. Bake 1hr, until surface is lightly browned.

One final note: It may have been the addition of the peas, but I ended up having about 1.5 times as much tetrazzini as I anticipated, and actually had to get a second baking dish to put it in. Also, I have about 2lbs of turkey left...so I think it's safe to say that I will be eating turkey tetrazzini until my birthday. Woooo :)