Soupe de Dindon à la Turque

Soupe de Dindon à la Turque
Turkish 'Tortellini' Turkey Soup


Leftover turkey is a thing that is good,
eaten the day after roasting, as it should,
twixt slices of bread or cold on a platter;
reheating oft renders it an evil matter.
So what then to do with this heap of old meat,
which fares so ill when touched by dry heat?
It lingered for days and ‘twas time it be gone,
and this was our method, I’ll tell you anon...


I find most roasted meats easily take on an unpleasant flavour when subjected to secondary cooking and especially if subjected to a second application of dry heat. Turkey is especially liable to this problem, in my opinion. Sandwiches of cold slices of roasted turkey are, of course, quite tasty and served cold on a platter or in a sandwich with hot gravy, the meat can be thus indirectly warmed up with no deleterious effect. But even so, a day or two post-roasting, I find any abiding leftovers less than thrilling, unless, that is, one has made a nice rich stock and can use the meat heated quickly and briefly in that stock.

For poetic reasons, I thought it might do well to make some turkey soup with some of the pasta I have on hand that was produced in Turkey. The other day, I had these two products available in the Bibliotheca Maccaronaria:



The spätzle are only sort of spätzle, though quite good in their own right, and the same can be said for the Turkish tortellini pictured above. In fact, assuming – as I think a reasonable person should – that one of the essential properties of Italian tortellini is that they are filled with one sort of stuffing or another, these Turkish fellows are imposters. But again, quite tasty imposters they are. In fact, I really love them, finding their size and shape and texture really beautifully suited to a couple of styles of preparation.

For our Soupe de Dindon à la Turque or Turkish 'Tortellini' Turkey Soup, I made a soffritto of carrot, celery, garlic and leek as well as a couple of Spanish chorizos (estilo riojano).



Here the soup, made with the beautifully rich and delicious stock that Amata cooked up with the carcass, simmers with the ‘tortellini’ and chunks of turkey already added, the latter allowed to cook for only a brief time.



In the upper right portion of the bowl, you can perhaps see the deep colour of the stock. The soup was served with queso Mahón for grating at table. It was an exceedingly tasty soup.



And now we bid adieu to Thanksgiving’s old flesh,
and dream of a goose eaten beside the new crèche.

Antonius

Looks awesome!

I cleaned out my fridge making soup...
My soffritto had the last of the smoked Polish sausage...


My beat up immune system, combined with end of semester stress has me feeling a bit run down. In addition, Barry has a cold and just about no voice so I chopped up a jalapeño and some dried chiles I brought back from the San Fransico market for medicinal purposes.



Added the turkey and some corn, and opted for gnocchi instead of noodles...



Tasty and tangy; it had a serious kick! Served with pound and a half loaf from D'Amato's slathered with butter, sun dried tomatoes, garlic and smoked mozzarella cheese.

Quite the cure-all!