Niamh Shields burst onto the blogging scene in 2007 and has since snapped up countless accolades for her food writing by The Times, The Telegraph and The Stylist, to name a few. Niamh is passionate about cooking, and when she's not travelling the world collecting culinary tips, she's at home concocting new and interesting meals for friends and family, including her foody fledgling niece. Here, Niamh shares all her know-how for delicious and easy home-cooking.
Leftovers are not just for Christmas
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As a kid I was always sad at Christmas when the turkey was all gone and I was eternally jealous of my cousins who always seemed to have more leftover than we did. I would watch it and hope that someone would offer as you could never ask. I coveted the leftover turkey sandwich with simple sprinkling of salt.
Not such a problem for me this year, there is plenty of leftover turkey. Leftover everything in fact, we will be eating all of it for a while. We cooked a turkey for Irish Women’s Christmas last Friday and today I had a wonderful lunch of leftover turkey soup with dumplings.
But anyone who’s hosted a Sunday roast knows that leftovers are much more than a yearly challenge on Boxing Day and the days following it. The winter months are littered with the carcasses of adandoned, but perfectly usable and potentially delicious, meat.
I am not going to give you the recipe for the dumplings today because they are not perfect yet (I will be back with that recipe soon!), but I will give you the recipe for a beautiful homemade soup, with homemade stock, all from your leftovers. It works perfectly well with chicken too.
Homemade stock is so simple and so frugal. It tastes so much better than any stock cube, powder or even shop bought ‘homemade’ stock. It tastes better because it is fresh and vibrant, and it that makes it really delicious.
Homemade stock
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 2 hours
Ingredients
Turkey or chicken leftover carcass
3 carrots
2 sticks celery
2 onions
3 garlic cloves
2 bay leaves
5 black peppercorns
Method
Well, it’s simple. All you do is take all of the leftover meat from the carcass and leave it to one side. There will be a lot more meat than you think (don’t forget to take the meat from underneath too). Chop the carcass into chunks so that it fits in your biggest pot.
Add the coarsely chopped carrots, 2 stalks of celery, 2 coarsely chopped onions, a few garlic cloves (skin on is fine), a couple of bay leaves and some whole black peppercorns if you have them. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and leave to simmer for a couple of hours. As long as you have really as it will taste better the longer you boil it.
Strain and leave to the side for your soup. Yes, throw away all of the veg etc as their lovely flavour has left their vegetable carcasses and is now in your stock. Don’t worry if it turns into jelly, this is normal and is down to the gelatine in the bones. In fact this is where gelatine comes from! Check the ingredients next time and you will see it usually says pork or beef gelatine.
Homemade turkey or chicken soup
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Feeds at least four but depends on the size of your carcass and leftover meat
Ingredients
3 carrots, peeled and chopped into fine dice
2 leeks, outer leaf and bottom removed, halved lengthways and sliced finely
2 celery stalks, bottoms removed and finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 bay leaf
homemade stock as above
leftover meat from the carcass, shredded
light oil for frying
Method
- Sauté the carrots, celery and leek in the oil over a medium heat for about 5 minutes, until starting to soften. Add the garlic for one minute.
- Add the stock and the bay leaf and bring to the boil.
- Add the shredded meat and reduce the heat.
- Simmer for 30 minutes and your soup is ready to serve.
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