The Thanksgiving Leftover Family tree

[Don Cuevas]

There's always a lot of food at Thanksgiving and that means there are a lot of leftovers.

What to do with them, besides just heat and eat?

Our leftovers have a family tree that goes 'way back.

I'm too tired to tell about the Chicken Gumbo and its antecedents.

But I can easily tell about the Soupe Soubise, which first came into the story as a big crock pot of Creamed Baby Onions. I had at least a quart leftover, and although I like them, I wouldn't want them at every meal.

So this morning, I repurposed the onions into a sort of Soupe Soubise. A few carrots and some celery were diced fine, then set to cook in simmering broth (Knorr-Suiza Caldo de Pollo).

Then the creamed onions were added, some evaporated milk, some more freshly grated nutmeg.

Four eggs were separated, the yolks beaten with some of the hot liquid, then whisked in. The soup grew thicker.

Seasonings were added, such as freshly grated nutmeg.

Here's the very rich result.


The butter sautéed almonds were an afterthought.

We can discuss the Leftover Cycle of chicken at our next meeting.

[htmb]

Ok, this is too funny, but I like your style, don. The soup looks delicious, and now I'm wondering what I can possibly do with my last bit of leftovers. Tonight I combined the new potatoes and carrots from the pot roast with some acre peas brought by a guest on Saturday. The results were delicious, but there certainly wasn't anything clever about it at all.

[Don Cuevas]

The Chicken Gumbo Thanksgiving Leftovers Family Tree goes something like this:

In the beginning, there were 3 kilos of chicken leg and thigh pieces and a lot of vegetables such as carrots, onions, celery, garlic plus herbs and seasonings.

From this marriage they begat Chicken Stock. First all was roasted to brown, then simmered about 30 minutes.

From the Chicken Stock, the offspring were tender morsels of leg and thigh meat and simmered yet still al dente vegetables. These were saved.

Later, another stock was made from roasted vegetables and shiitake mushrooms, in order to augment the earlier stock.
From that, too, came not only a golden stock but a lot of still useable vegetables.

All were saved for further uses.

Sometime during or after the Thanksgiving dinner preparation, I decided to make Chicken Gumbo from the leftovers.
{The following recipe, if it is that, may well be met with scorn from the Louisianians on APIAS. Tough.}

I did make a roux, a light brown one, adding chopped celery, green pepper and more onion and garlic. Then some of the chicken stock plus a can of diced tomatoes. Various Voodoo herbs and spices, as well as Pimentón Picante. Okra was not available, so (Oh, I can hear Bixa groaning or seething...), so I cut up some nopal pads into strips and added them. Really, very good, a little baboso (slimy) but they held their texture through various heatings.

Then, in a further slap in the face to proper Gumbo Tradition, I sprinkled on some Gumbo File powder at the finish.

Later, after the Memorable Thanksgiving Dinner, I had some roasted chicken-Vegetable gravy left, so I threw it into the pot. Yes; and some Roasted Vegetable Stock.

And that closed the loop. A damn good Gumbo, in our estimation.

(Again, transiting International Boundaries, I made a pot of Jasmine Rice to go with the gumbo. As it was the day when our cleaning ladies, mother and teen daughter work in our house, I gave them some gumbo and rice as they were about to leave. Sra Salud, the mamá, said, "O; ¿arroz blanco?" (They rarely eat plain white rice.)

"Sí." I replied.(Es un arroz de un amor especial. Oh, I mean de un aroma especial."

All of us were laughing.

[Deleted]

;D

The soup looks positively gorgeous and is something I would love to make.
NO OKRA!!!!
Actually, my husband doesn't always incorporate okra in all his gumbos either, I don't think it's a cardianl rule.....

[bixaorellana]

Coming late to this plate, but had to comment on this:

Nov 26, 2012 9:58:16 GMT Don Cuevas said:

Okra was not available, so (Oh, I can hear Bixa groaning or seething...), so I cut up some nopal pads into strips and added them.

Al contrario, mi querido Cuevas, as I've done the same thing myself. However, just as I do with okra for gumbo, I fried the strips in olive oil first, then added them to the gumbo late in the cooking process.

[Deleted]

When I was little, this must be about the time that the last of the turkey fragments came out of the freezer for 'turkey à la king.'