Easter (okay, Income Tax season) has kept me away from this blog for the last ten days. Which doesn’t mean I wasn’t cooking, just that my family enjoyed a run of everything-goes-cooking for the past week. Since Monsieur bought a turkey and not a ham for Easter — this African boy hasn’t got his Québécois instincts honed, shall we say —, I had to show a hint of invention to use up the leftovers. ENTER this soupy stew that also allowed me to empty a few back drawers.
In the spirit of all cooking by the seat of your pants, the important thing here is to clean your own fridge, whatever the contents. No turkey leftovers around but maybe some roasted chicken looking for its destiny? Substitute, by golly, substitute. You don’t cook with salted herbs? No problem, just add one or two celery stalks and an old carrot at the same time as the onion and garlic (in other words, good old mirepoix, salted herbs being my shortcut of choice when missing some key produce). What, celeriac hanging around, are you kidding me? Nope, whoever said my refrigerator contents are normal??? Then give an old fennel bulb, some sweet potato or a couple of young turnips their chance to shine. You can even skip them, why not.
Finally, I had a lonely apple in the fruit drawer, but a few orange or lemon zests, even a half-cup of apple cider, would sing and zing quite nicely, thank you.
Ready to go?
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