Soupercharger !

Crimbo is now history,  so is the new year , now time to collect all the set aside fresh /frozen bones /carcasses and a few veg to make some stock for soups & gravy's to last us through towards the end of 2015
 

We have used one frozen carrier bag of beef bones , the frame off our seven pound Christmas day turkey , three 3 inch dia., skinned  strong onions  cut in half , eight sticks of celery cut in 3 inch lengths, 3/4 pound of carrots unpeeled broken into 2 " lengths and a spoonful of last years ( 2014) minced ,olive oiled  frozen garlic scapes that I vac packed &  heat sealed on 1 July 2014 .

 I added 10 pints of water and 15 grams of shop purchased veg stock making salt. (It's a polish mix  with  dried fine cut all sorts of veg in it.

 Using our 22 & 1/2 quart all American pressure canner as a pressure cooker it's been cooked under pressure for 40 min at 15 psi. It smells good .. that good our dog didn't want to leave the kitchen door area ( he not allowed in )

 I'm leaving it over night to cool , tomorrow morning I'll strain the liquid  and take off any flesh , turn the flesh into potted paste and pressure can the paste in tiny Weck jars , can the stock in 1/2 pint & 1 pint jars .



One of our ( Please excuse the pun ) stock soups

We had a fantastic creamy carrot & coriander soup that our Munchkin made yesterday using 1/2 pint chicken stock ( Oct 2014 )  & 3/4 pint beef stock ( 2 Jan 2014 ) 450 gram ( 1 pound ) of peeled carrots  cut into 1" lengths , 4 oz of peeled fine chopped onion light browned in a fry pan

Put together in a big four pint pan they were boiled then simmered for 25 min .
taken off the heat & liquidized for 20 seconds .

Make & add about 1/2 ounce of fresh green coriander finely chopped
Added 250 gram of single cream,  whisk it in .
Bring back to simmer for two min giving one or two gentle whisks , leave to stand 2 min then served up with home made golden brown croutons .
Add salt & pepper to your own dish ,according to your personal tastes. 

Enjoy

I love getting every last smidgeon of nutrients from bones and carcases.  Just before Christmas I was given two large turkey carcases, the remains of a banquet that my friend helped at and not one person wanted them.  So she kindly thought of me.
I was so happy.
First of all, I sliced all the meat that remained, there was pounds of it, then I broke the remains to fit in my largest saucepan, simmered for an hour then scraped off all the remaining meat and made about ten meals for my dog. Then simmered it all again in my crock-pot for hours with onions, carrots, celery,  etc  until I got a rich bone broth
that I packaged so that I could make soup any time I like.
If I had to buy cooked turkey meat, dog food, and broth, I reckoned I got the value of $30 plus out of it. The turkey soup I made with some of the meat, the stock etc was heavenly. I made about ten portions that I froze for eminent use. 
I now have three people who let me have the remains of turkey, chicken, and beef bones, so I save them in the freezer until I am in a soup-making mood, usually on a cold, winter day.