Pho Gobble

One of the biggest quandaries of Thanksgiving is what to do with the turkey carcass. You could keep picking away at the scraps of meat until the bones are clean. My preferred way of dealing with the carcass is to make turkey carcass soup. In past years, the soup has been standard turkey noodle; however, this year I made pho. Chicken pho is pho ga, so turkey pho should logically be named pho gobble.

Here’s the recipe of sorts: Start by putting the turkey carcass, preferably with some meat still on the bones, into a large pot. You may have to do some butchering to get the carcass to fit. Add water just to cover the carcass, then set it on the stove over medium heat to boil. While the water’s heating, peel two medium yellow onions and halve about a 2-inch piece of ginger lengthwise. Place the onions and ginger on a foil-lined pan and broil until the edges get charred, then add them to the pot. You can also add a stick of lemongrass. Add fish sauce or soy sauce to taste. Once the water comes to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 90 minutes. The meat attached to the bones should come off easily. Remove the carcass, onions, and ginger from the pot and pick off any more meat, discarding the skin and fat. Keep simmering the broth while you prepare the rest of the soup fixings.

Unlike most chicken or turkey noodle soups, the noodles are cooked separately. Use rice vermicelli. These noodles cook in about 5 minutes. Drain the noodles and rinse several times before adding to the soup. Rice noodles give off a lot of starch and can stick together in a gluey mass unless you rinse them. Prepare a plate with assorted herbs and lime wedges to garnish the soup. Cilantro and basil are good choices. You can also add mint. If you live near a Vietnamese grocery, try rau ram (Vietnamese coriander) or red shiso. You can also add bean sprouts, but I don’t use enough of them after the soup’s finished. Shredded cabbage in small amounts can also be added. In our house, sriracha is a must.

The final product came out very well. We ran an aliquot of it down to our friends who were in town from Michigan who had brought a nasty case of the flu to Seattle. They were most appreciative.