Primal in Euskadi!!!! Not a recipe, but fun!

Sorry it's been awhile since I last wrote, but I have been in the Basque Country for several weeks. Dan had some business there so I went with him. Eating in Euskadi was a fun and interesting experience. There were a lot of primal options. They are big on eating a big piece of meat for their main course. Typically a hunk of steak, pork, lamb or fish. When we stayed Getaria, which is right on the coast, we ate a lot of fish. Hake is a popular fish in the Basque Country along with tuna. For sides big salads with white asparagus, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and tuna seemed to the favored choice. The only type of asparagus I saw while there was white, I never saw any green asparagus.

Pintxos (pronounced pinchos), served in practically every bar in the Basque Country, were also a tasty treat. Many of the pintxos tend to be served on bread, however, you could definitely find some that were not. Some of my favorite breadless varieties were roasted mushroom caps, artichoke hearts wrapped in bacon and marinated and baked artichoke hearts, yummy--I love artichoke hearts! Don't get me wrong they have plenty of pastas and they love their bread, but I found it quite easy to eat primal while vacationing in the Basque Country.

Leftover Turkey Soup - Primal Eating After Thanksgiving Indulgence

Sorry it's been soooooo long, it's been a busy few weeks with Thanksgiving and all. I didn't post any Thanksgiving recipes because my father is the Thanksgiving King and he loves to prepare a big traditional Thanksgiving with lots of booze and cigars. So, needless to say, I kinda leave primal eating at the door for this holiday. However, this year my Aunt insisted I take a turkey carcass home with and make some soup. With my new found love for cooking, I decided I would go ahead, take the bird and try to make my first ever turkey soup. I have never made turkey soup before, or any soup that involves a carcass before -- most of my soup experience has been of the vegetarian persuasion. I'm glad that I stepped away from vegetarian soup for a day and tried cooking turkey soup.

Serves 6 or more

Ingredients:

Stock:
Turkey carcass
Water - enough to cover the carcass by an inch
1 onion roughly chopped
5 carrots chopped
Thyme - to taste
Bay leaves - to taste
Salt and Pepper - to taste

Soup:
All of the stock + turkey meat
1 Onion - chopped
3 Cloves garlic - peeled whole
3 finger potatoes - chopped (optional)
5 Carrots - chopped
4 +/- Sprigs of fresh thyme - chopped
4 +/-Sprigs of fresh sage - chopped
Fresh parsley - a handful, chopped
10 shitaki mushrooms - quartered
1 baby bok choy - bottoms removed and chopped, tops chopped as well
Salt and pepper

Stock:
First I made stock, by breaking up the carcass and covering it, by an inch, with cold water. I added the onion, the carrots, some thyme, bay leaves and salt and pepper to add flavor to the stock. I brought everything to a boil and then immediately turned it down to a simmer. I then let it simmer for four hours.

Once the stock was done simmering I removed if from the heat and strained it. I removed all the bones from the meat and returned the meat to the stock. I threw out the flavor veggies since they would be too mushy for the soup.

Soup:
Add onions, garlic, potatoes, carrots, thyme and sage to the pre-made stock. I cookeda the veggies at a simmer until the veggies were tender. Salt and pepper to taste. It took about thirty minutes for the veggies to tenderize. After about 10 minutes of simmering I added the shitaki mushrooms. Then when there was about ten minutes left of cooking I added the bok choy bottoms and when there was about five minutes left I added the bok choy tops. Serve warm

This made quite a bit of soup, I froze some for later. Mom, Dan and I all really enjoyed it, It was pretty easy to make too. However, having the turkey cooked for me helped quite a bit. Thanks pop!

Next time I would probably add only the bok choy bottoms, not the tops. The tops were good when eaten right after cooking, but after freezing, they got wilty an just don't look good in the soup.