So Stocked

You can give thanks the day after Thanksgiving, too. Thanks for the gigantic 40-quart stock pot that Josiah uses for his beer making, because it was the only thing to fit our 20-pound turkey carcass, simmered into stock with a huge bundle of celery and leeks, onion and carrots.

The first thing I made was, of course, last week's off-the-cuff invention: American Leek Soup (riffed from French Onion, bien sur). Caramelized leeks with sherry sauteed into a heady turkey stock, then dashed with crisped-up but still verdant Brussels sprouts leaves before the coup de grace, a pumpernickel crouton smothered with blue cheese. I'm a genius, no?

And after that, I made a smashing Italian soup with my freezer full of meatballs, fresh spinach, caramelized grape tomato jam, jalapeno, basil and tubettini pasta covered in Asiago. Felt like home sweet home.

Walk the Wok

Sarah's wok recently took a walk over to my place for a bit of Saveur-inspired velveted chicken. Let's say it again: velveted chicken. Salut, succulence! Now I know the secret to the tenderest, most velvety (ya!) chicken possible in a stir-fry.

I will also admit that the sight of so much celery made me cringe a bit, anticipating excess watery, well... celery flavor. But the fresh, crisp texture remained intact and that aromatic green essence infused the dish just enough; combined with julienned leeks and ginger, the whole thing was entirely too easy to be so outrageously delectable, especially when it was paired with a warm, heady coconut-milk-saturated turmeric rice.

Oh! And to help clean out a bit of the fridge, leftover asparagus spears were chopped up and stuffed into wonton wrappers for some first-course dumps... obviously.