Vermont Turkeys in the Pot

The first weekend of March my friends, Amanda and Kelly, and I threw a Jam Cruise reunion party. Our amazing friends came from Atlanta, Philly, Rochester, Boston and Northern Vermont. These, our new best friends forever, are friends that we made in January on Jam Cruise (the funkiest vacation and music festival ever!). Just like Jam Cruise, this weekend was jam packed with dancing, laughing, crying (because we were laughing so hard), and eating. Our first meal was at The Perfect Wife, a large and civilized (I use that term loosely) sit down (again- loose) dinner for thirteen. This was followed by some dancing in the tavern to the incredibly groovy sounds of Otis Grove. It was a big night out for us and dinner the next night was a "sit around the woodstove and relax" type of meal. Hello Vermont raised turkey.

For the last few months my friend, Tom Biggs, has been bringing me two turkeys every couple of weeks, his Thankgiving culinary overstock, if you will. I use the breast meat for our Turkey Schnitzel and have made soups, pastas, and stews with the legs. When I found out that we needed dinner for our Saturday night of the weekend, I became very excited to make Turkey Pot Pie. It is very simple to make and so delicious and hearty. Here's what I did:

After I had taken the breast meat out of the carcass for the schnitzel, I pulled the legs and the wings off of it. I put the carcass and the legs and wings, minus as much fat and skin as I could pull off of it, in a pot with roughly chopped celery, onions, and carrots, a couple of bay leaves, a few peppercorns, and some fresh thyme sprigs. I covered it with cold water and simmered this for about two and a half hours. (There's another amazing smell for your home.) I then strained the stock, saving the broth and pulling all of the meat from the bones of the turkey. For the body of the pot pie I diced carrots, celery, and onions and sweat them in a large, heavy bottomed pot.* Once the veggies became soft (in about 15 minutes) I added some stock, the pulled turkey meat and frozen corn and peas. I brought this to a boil and thickened it with a roux.** Once I achieved the velvety thickness that I wanted, I seasoned the pot pie with fresh chopped sage and salt and pepper. You could finish it with a dash of heavy cream, top it with mashed potatoes and bake it or serve it as is with a nice loaf of fresh bread and the best tossed salad ever.*** That's what we did. That Saturday evening supper warmed our bellies and our hearts. Cooking with love will do that every time.

* Sweating is a term that means to saute slowly, covered, so that you get no color on the veggies and the steamed essence of them falls back into the pot.
** A 1:1 combination of butter and flour cooked together over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Count on a stick of butter and a 1/2 cup of flour per quart of liquid. Make sure that the roux is not piping hot when adding it to the boiling stock, slowly while whisking. Once the stock has come back up to a boil, you can assume that it won't get any thicker. Don't boil anything thickened with a roux for more than a couple of minutes .
*** Look for Amanda's salad in a future blog post!