Leftovers Week: Laundry Room Turkey Coconut Curry Soup

Luckily for my family there was a culinary student chef in the room when it came time to carve the Christmas turkey. And there I was, carving a turkey with tongs in my great aunt’s laundry room amid detergent and dryer sheets. The turkey, which had been cooking for what looked like days, sat in a roaster placed on top of the washing machine. The turkey cooked for so long in fact, that the meat just fell off of the carcass. Yes, this happened. Bless my great aunt who does all of this on her own and refuses anyone’s help. Even a chef’s. Ah, the stubborn Czech.

After the Christmas turkey had been “carved,” green bean casserole consumed, and stomachs bulged over belts, the leftovers were put in doggie bags for us to take home.  What to do with this uber-cooked turkey? Well, soup of course.

Laundry Room Turkey Coconut Curry Soup

5 carrots
4 stalks of celery
2 sweet white onions
2 stalks lemongrass
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp peppercorns
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 red onion, small diced
1 c trumpet mushrooms, sliced
1 c rice cooking wine
3 green onions
2 baby bok choy
1 4 oz can of yellow curry paste
2 15 oz cans coconut milk
handful of thin rice noodles
fresh chives for garnish

1) Make vegetable stock using chopped mirepoix: 4 carrots, 4 celery stalks, 2 white onions, lemongrass, garlic, and peppercorns. Put onions in first and sweat with 1/2 cup rice cooking wine. Fill the stock pot with remaining vegetables and water to the top. Simmer for about 3 hours. You should end up with about 6 cups of vegetable stock.
>>>More on veggie stock

2) Strain stock and put liquid back into stock pot. Add coconut milk and curry paste. Add turkey.

3) Saute mushrooms in oil. Deglaze with 1/4 cup rice wine.

4) Saute small diced red onion in oil. Deglaze with 1/2 cup rice wine.

5) Chop green onions and chiffonade baby bok choy.

6) Add all vegetables to the soup. (You can also add the remaining carrot if you wish). Keep on medium low simmer.

7) Cook rice noodles in separate pot and rinse with water. Add to soup.

Finish with chives or fresh cilantro and sriracha if you’d like some extra zing. I did not include salt, but PLEASE season your food (valuable lesson #1)!! Season and taste along the way and finish with any necessary seasoning at the end. And if you’re faced with a laundry room turkey of your own, tongs do the trick quite well.