We're 6 days out from Thanksgiving, and I'm still inundated with leftovers.
INUNDATED, I TELL YOU.
The great news about that is that I've been able to be less than creative with lunches this week. It's been fun, in a lazy way.
One of the best things about Thanksgiving, I think, is that you can save the carcass of the turkey, bawl it to smithereens, and have delicious homemade turkey stock to make, soup, casseroles, or whatever my little heart desires.
I can also freeze said stock for 14 years if I don't feel like using it right now.
It's so easy! You can of course customize the stock any way you want, but you could use NO veggies and just turkey and it would still taste delicious.
Here's how I roll:
You know I save all the little ends of everything I cook veggie-wise in my freezer, so I dump a handful (1 - 2) cups of veggie bits into a pot with 2 or 3 turkey bones. Then, I fill the pot ⅔ with water, cover it, and bring it to a boil. When the water boils, I reduce the heat to medium and let the stock gently boil, covered, for an hour or so until the bits of turkey have fallen off the bone and the veggies are cooked to DEATH.
Then, we have ourselves stock!
For one 14 lb turkey I used 4 pots to make stock - all the bones wouldn't fit into one pot and it would have been very strong stock if they had. You could easily use two turkey leg bones and be done with it!
If you use the whole carcass of the turkey, don't toss the stuffing! Anything that cooked in the turkey while it was roasting has tons of flavor, so use that in the stock too!
If you don't save veggie bits and would like to add some of your own, cut 1 carrot, one onion, and 2 stalks of celery into large chunks and toss them in the water with the turkey bones.
As for salt, I like to sprinkle in about ½ teaspoon of salt while the stock is boiling, then add more when I cook with it later. That doesn't make a very salty stock at all, but it gives you more control later on.
When the stock has cooled slightly, position a strainer over a large bowl, and carefully dump the stock through the strainer.
I separate the stock into small containers and label them since it looks just like chicken stock, then keep it in the freezer until I'm ready to use it.
How do you make turkey stock? You bought the dang bird...may as well use it all, right? Enjoy this - it's REALLY delicious.
Your kidding right, you can't keep stock for 14 years???
I haven't tested it yet, but I'll keep you posted.
Kidding. Obviously frozen things that stay frozen are perfectly healthy to eat no matter how long they've been frozen. Taste-wise...that's up to you. I try to keep things no longer than a year, but I NEVER throw anything away, so I have to keep tabs on what I'm hoarding!