Pableaux’s Turkey Bone Gumbo & Hugo's Turkey Pozole Verde

My sister Elisabeth’s first Christmas, Kingsport, TN. 1969. My great grandmother Dee Dee (real name Sara Roberts, I’m named after her) on the left next to my Nonnie and Grandaddy Volberg.

Me in a festive straightjacket, apparently. Looks like the ultimate “I can’t put my arms down” from the Christmas Story. I think my expression reflects that.

This is a Thanksgiving photo, not Christmas, so it’s cheating. BUT, I wanted to include it because it shows both my Reed great grandmother and my Greene great grandmother. (Story to continue in next photo.)

Dad recently found the real estate listing for my great grandma Greene’s home (where my grandmother grew up) in Rochester, 916 South Ave. We always heard about “916”, as it was called. My grandmother had a habit of putting masking tape on the bottom of collectibles documenting their provenance. So, there were a lot of dishes and the like labeled with “916”. Until last week I had only seen a photo of the outside of this house. With the wonders of the internet, we are now able to see it in all of its 2021 glory. And, well, WOW! Check out this bathroom!!! This is certainly not an original feature. My grandmother would die! I belong to a hilarious Facebook group called “Bathrooms with Threatening Auras”, so I shared this photo. It received hundreds of likes and some entertaining comments, one calling it the “sexiest accessible toilet” they’d ever seen! The Reed siblings also had a funny email thread about this listing. I’m afraid the rest of the house didn’t fare much better. As one aunt said, it looks like a bordello.

Me at my Reed grandparents house one Christmas. I received a stuffed animal dog that had a radio in its belly. I was thrilled!

Traditional Christmas dinner at the Reed family house in Kingsport, Tennessee. Check me out in the all plaid suit! I look like a used car salesman. (Mom on the far left with a perm.)

Christmas at Carolina Meadows with Mom and Dad and my sister’s family. Unsure of year. Maybe 2016?

Greetings from West Texas! Yesterday I channeled ole Dale Reed and worked in the kitchen all day making Pozole Verde and listening to Simon and Garfunkel Live in Central Park. It felt good. It felt festive. My husband and mother-in-law were rolling in from Austin around dinner time and I wanted to have something hot and delicious ready for them. I’ll share the pozole recipe below. It’s kind of a cheat because it’s not a Mom recipe, although I think it would have become one if she’d had the chance. It’s from the lovely Interior Mexican restaurant Hugo’s in Houston and I make it every year with leftover smoked turkey. I kind of put the cart before the horse this year because I’m not serving the turkey until tomorrow but I carved off some beautiful slices to save so I could use the scraggly bits for soup. I also am sharing a recipe for turkey gumbo which was one of Mom’s recipes. It’s from her friend, the inimitable author, photographer and chef, Pableaux Johnson.

It takes a lot of effort to get out of town, especially for the holidays. I saw a meme recently that really hit home. It read, “Not a creature was stirring, except for Mom who was busting her ass to make it happen”. Ha ha. Going out of town means finding people to deal with stuff. I cooked up a calendar with the complexity of an SAT math problem divvying up days and responsibilities with various neighbors. X will get the mail on Day 1 and Day 2, while Y will get the mail AND feed the fish on Days blah blah blah. I remember helping out neighbors and friends like this when I was a child. I was once VERY EXCITED to take care of someone’s fish, having never had a fish. It arrived at our house in that stereotypical fish bowl, the kind I think that no one actually uses anymore because it’s kind of a tragic existence for that fish. But what was even more tragic was that we, being piscatorial newbies, decided to change the water and, yup, killed the fish. I don’t know if the water was too hot or cold, or if we didn’t put the drops in, but it made for a real awkward conversation when the fish owner came home.

A more fun responsibility (and one that I’m probably better suited for, if I’m honest) was the time that I got to babysit one of Dad’s grad student’s TVs! The student was worried that it would get stolen over the holidays. (I’m not sure where he lived in Chapel Hill that this was a problem?! But, whatever, my gain.) It was a huge 70s TV. We lugged it up the stairs and put it on the window seat in my bedroom. I set up my bean bag chair in front and watched a lot of the Jetsons. I remember thinking to myself, “Now, this is the life!”. Sadly, the grad student came back from break and I went back to sharing the family TV downstairs. But, for a moment, just one moment, I was living large! Once back with the family, I was basically stuck watching whatever Dad wanted to watch. We had cable for a hot minute but Dad cancelled it when he found himself watching Frisbee Dog Championships in the middle of the night. We would occasionally get free weekends of cable and my family would hole up around the TV and binge whatever random stuff they fed to us. One weekend it was My Fair Lady (Good) followed up by Mad Max (Bad. I still remember that guy having to cut his foot off to escape.) But it was free!

Growing up we had very strong Christmas traditions. We would drive to Kingsport, Tennessee where my parents grew up, winding through the mountains in whatever car we were driving at the time, with my Dad smoking (hello, 1970s) and me and my sister miserable in the backseat. I’m entertaining “Nausea in Appalachia” as the title of my memoir. One time our old Volvo gave us carbon monoxide poisoning. That was fun. We were very sleepy. Fortunately, we figured it out before anyone died, but sheesh! These trips were way before any of our cars had a cassette or cd player, so we were stuck listening to the radio. Dad would usually put in on the country station, so we’d hear Johnny Cash’s version of “Little Drummer Boy” or “Frosty the Snowman” by Porter Wagoner. If, for some reason, we were on a different station and “Carol of the Bells” came on, Mom would make us change it because she thought that song was tacky. (And she was right.) At some point, Mom bought a portable radio that had a cassette player in it. She would keep it with her in the passenger seat. This improved our music selection for a bit until it was stolen from the car one night in Washington DC. I remember Mom being really upset by that. She had hidden it underneath her knitting so she thought that someone must have been watching us to know that it was in there. That is disconcerting. You know what else is disconcerting? Getting your Christmas presents stolen OUT OF YOUR HOUSE, which happened to my Dad’s neighbors one year when he was growing up! Yes! For real! I’m going to need more details from him but I distinctly remember my Grandma Reed telling me that happened. Bah humbug.

Anyway, I’m wishing you and yours a crime-free Merry Christmas if that is what you celebrate. We’re going to eat… and then eat some more. And maybe drink a little. (wink wink) Now that I am mature and do not have to leave the dinner table to watch the Donnie & Marie Christmas special, I have high hopes for at least one classy meal with my people. Here are the goods:

PABLEAUX’S TURKEY BONE GUMBO

Turkey Bone Gumbo is an early-holiday favorite for cooks and families throughout South Louisiana. It’s a stock-first, roux-last affair preparation — so it’s not exactly a quick affair, but more than worth it when you’ve got some puttering around the house to do. (Which makes it PERFECT for the hazy, zombiefied days after the annual PilgrimFest).

This works well with your standard leftover bird carcass and is so much better than standard turkey soup, you can’t even IMAGINE.

Turkey Bone Gumbo

3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup flour
2 cups chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped bell peppers
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 pound smoked sausage, such as andouille or kielbasa, chopped
3 quarts turkey broth (below)
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 tablespoons chopped green onion

Combine the oil and flour in a heavy-bottomed cast iron pot or enameled cast iron Dutch oven, over medium-low heat. Stirring slowly and consistently for 20 to 25 minutes, make a dark brown roux, the color of chocolate.

Season the onions, bell peppers, and celery with the salt and cayenne. Add this to the roux and stir until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the sausage and cook, stirring often for 5-7 minutes.

Add the broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered for 45 minutes. Add the reserved turkey meat and cook for 30 minutes. Add the parsley and green onions.
(Note: I did this differently. I threw away the turkey I’d used to make the broth and put in a half-pound or so of new smoked turkey meat after adding the broth. Then cooked for an hour and fifteen minutes or so. I think this intensified the flavor.)

Serve in soup bowls over steamed white rice.
Serves 8

Roasted Turkey Broth

1 turkey carcass (bones, giblets and leftover skin from roasted Thanksgiving turkey)
3 ribs celery, cut into 4-inch pieces
2 medium onions, peeled and quartered
4 quarts water, or enough to cover carcass
2 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon black peppercorns
4 bay leaves

Place the carcass in a large stockpot. Add the celery, onions, water, salt, peppercorns, and bay leaves.

Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium, and simmer, uncovered, for 2-4 hours (the longer the better), then remove from the heat. Skim any fat that has risen to the surface.

Strain through a large colander. Reserve any meat that has fallen off the bones and pick off any meat that may still remain on the carcass. Use immediately or freeze in quart-sized containers.

Makes about 2-3 quarts (or enough for 1 gumbo)

HUGO’S TURKEY POZOLE VERDE
Serves 6

4 cups hominy, cooked (procedure to right)
1/4 cup slaked lime (calcium hydroxide)
3-1/4 quarts (13 cups) turkey stock (or chicken stock), divided
4 cups leftover turkey (cubed or shredded)
2 cups tomatillos, chopped
2 cups poblano peppers, seeded and chopped
1 cup white onion, chopped
6 garlic cloves, roasted
1 serrano pepper, roasted
3 whole cloves
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
1 cup roasted pumpkin seeds

Colorant
1/2 - 3/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves, chopped
4 epazote leaves
3 hoja santa leaves, chopped
Salt to taste

Garnish
Diced onion
Sliced radishes
Cubed avocados
Lime halves
Tostadas

Procedure to cook hominy:
Soak 3 cups of dry hominy in water over night. (Once cooked, it will be 4 cups in volume.)
Before cooking, drain the hominy and place in stockpot with fresh water, approximately 6 inches above hominy, add the slaked lime and mix well. Bring to a gentle boil, and cook for approximately 90 minutes or until soft. Once ready rinse with cold water until water comes out clear. While rinsing, remove the small hard kernel at the top of each piece of hominy. Optional: you can use canned hominy.

NOTE: I used canned hominy which is easier and then you don’t need the slaked lime.

Procedure for the Pozole:
In a small stock pot, bring turkey stock (reserve 1 cup for next steps) to a gentle boil. Add the cleaned hominy. In a blender, place 1/2 cup turkey stock, tomatillos, onion, garlic, serrano, cloves, peppercorns, cumin and roasted pumpkin seeds and blend well. Add to pozole pot and stir to incorporate, and bring to a gentle boil for 10 minutes. Stir in turkey.
In blender, place 1/2 cup stock, cilantro, parsley, epazote and hoja santa and puree. Add to pozole and mix well. Season to taste and simmer for 5 minutes to meld flavors.

NOTE: I can never find the epazote and hoja santa so I just leave it out. It’s still delicious.

To serve:
Garnish with onion, radish, avocado and fresh lime juice, and serve with tostadas on the side. Enjoy hot.

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