Spicy and Good Turkey/Hominy Stew

This is either a soup or a stew, depending on if you're drawing the broth off the top of digging deeper to the meaty goodies. I'm mostly writing this down to remember for myself in the future, quantities are not exact, but this is a pretty yummy approach to post-thanksgiving turkey soup.

• 1 turkey carcass with some meat still on the bones
• 3 bay leaves
• salt 
• 1 onion

Boil the carcass for a long time. Like, all day.
The not so fun part: separating all the bones from the goodies. I usually just fish my hands in my big*ss stew pot and put them in a colander in a bowl. when i think i've got them all out i try and strain what's remaining if i have another big bowl, but i don't really so i just hope i got all the gross out. I heat my tap really hot and pour some water over the bones in the colander to wash off the good gelatin into the bowl and add that back into the stew pot.  On this occasion i stored 4 big tupperwares of stock in the freezer (wish i had a presser canner) for later use and an alternative to having to buy ready made stock.

• pot full of delicious turkey stock and meat
• 4  big scallions
• 1 poblano
• 2 carrots
• 1 parsnip
• 2 cans hominy, white and golden
• 2 jalapenos
• 1 habanero
• cumin, chilly powder, and pepper
• lots of salt
• turmeric root
• 5 cloves garlic
• one regular onion
• celery stick
• splash of white wine or mirin
  

Many other things would be delicious in this. Chop all the veg about the same size. The peppers minus the poblano were from my garden, the rest was leftover from the root veg i used for Christmas dinner. I skimmed the fat off the top of the stock while still cold from chilling overnight in the fridge then heated to a rolling boil, turned down to simmer and added half the carrots, the hot peppers, garlic, onions, celery, wine and turmeric.  Simmer for half an hour and add the rest of the ingredients. Simmer until the carrots are soft to your liking and the poblano chunks are cooked but not totally destroyed.

Soup is not rocket science. I used to be intimidated by soup. So many ingredients! it must be hard, right? Nope. Just add stuff that you like together and it should turn out pretty well. The main rules are to start with good stock, add the things that take longer to cook, like carrots and potatoes and celery first. Corn and peas go in at the very last second. Peppers somewhere in the middle depending if you just want their heat or if you want them to maintain form. Peruse some soup recipes. Cook them, then fiddle with them and add new things. You'll get the hang of it. Nothing better than home made soup, there is.