Turkey Broth with Egg and Lemon Liaison

Broth

1. This time we made turkey broth from a whole thigh that had never been frozen. It is good-quality fresh meat, sold chilled in vacuum packs. We will cook the broth from a whole piece of poultry.

2. Prepare the thigh: wash it and remove the skin. By the way, the skin is very tough, like an ostrich’s, and can only be removed with a knife. While you are at it, trim off any visible fat.

   

3. Put the turkey, vegetables and spices into a large pot with a lid. Peel the carrot and celery and cut them into large pieces, peel the onion and score it crosswise, and peel the garlic. So the spices and garlic don’t float around in the broth, I advise using a sachet bag or a piece of clean cotton cloth. Put the garlic into the bag, along with 2-3 bay leaves, 1-2 dried chili pods, 5-6 black peppercorns and 2-3 allspice berries, 1 tsp coriander seeds and, if you like, a pinch of dried savory. Tie the bag and drop it into the pot with the meat and vegetables.

   

4. Cook the broth: pour 3.5-4 l of clean cold water into the pot and bring to a boil over high heat. A little foam may form as it starts to boil, and it is best to skim it off with a spoon. Reduce the heat to the minimum at which it still simmers gently, cover the pot with a lid and cook the broth for 1.5 hours, which is how long a turkey thigh weighing 1–1.2 kg needs. After 40-45 mins you can take out the bag of spices, but if you forget, it’s not a problem.

   

5. Take the cooked turkey, onion and all the roots out of the broth, strain the broth and put it back on the heat. Remove all the meat from the thigh and pull it into fibers. By the way, the thigh has large bones and tough tendons that look like “spokes”. The pieces of meat can be left fairly large, although people often advise shredding it finely.

   

Soup

1. Return the meat and carrot to the broth. If you don’t want vegetables in your turkey broth, don’t add them. We peeled the boiled carrot and cut it into slices. Season the broth with salt and pepper to taste, bring to a boil and cook for 3-4 mins over low heat, uncovered.

   

3. Cook the vermicelli in the broth. Small soup pasta such as fillini or anelli works very well. If you don’t have small pasta, you can break thin spaghetti, or better still capellini, into pieces 3-4 cm long. Add the vermicelli to the boiling broth, stir and cook until done. Every kind of pasta has its own cooking time, so go by the package.

   

4. While the pasta cooks, make the liaison from eggs, lemon and soured milk. It is quick and easy. In a tall glass, mix 2 eggs, 4-5 tbsp natural soured milk and the juice of a quarter of a lemon. By the way, you can use more lemon juice, for example from half a lemon, and the soup will be even tastier. But see for yourself and go by your taste. Mix the liaison thoroughly until completely smooth. It is convenient to do this with an immersion blender with a whisk attachment.

   

5. Pour the liaison into the soup. When the vermicelli is cooked, turn the heat down to the minimum or, if your pot holds heat well, switch it off altogether. Stirring the broth constantly, pour the mixture into the soup in a thin stream. The acid in the milk and lemon keeps the eggs from curdling, and the liaison blends with the broth into a perfectly smooth, slightly thick liquid. After that, stop heating: the soup must not be boiled once the liaison is in.

   

Serving

1. Ladle the hot broth into bowls, adding carrot and pieces of meat, and sprinkle with parsley. Pick all the leaves off the parsley sprigs and chop them very finely. I’ll admit I added a little more lemon juice to my soup, because I like it. Serve the broth hot.

   

   If you like, you can make the soup with chicken using this recipe; it turns out great with chicken breast. Instead of lemon you can add lime juice, which has a stronger aroma, or pomegranate juice or white wine vinegar, as they do in the Caucasus. Serve the broth with soft white bread. And by the way, a glass of white wine would not go amiss.