Creole turtle soup

1. The turtle meat is washed under running water, and then placed in a saucepan. Fill with water. Immediately add bay leaves and salt. We send the pan to the fire, bring the broth to a boil.

2. When the broth boils, remove the foam. Cook on low heat for two hours. The broth should not boil violently, otherwise it will become cloudy.

3. We extract the meat from the broth. Let it cool down. Then we separate it from the bone and cut it. If the meat was boneless, then just chop it.

4. Filter the broth in which the turtle meat was cooked, pour it into a saucepan. We send it to a low fire. The broth should be warmed up to a warm state.

5. Put the butter in a saucepan with a thick bottom, send it to the fire. Pour the flour into the melted butter, mix.

6. Cook until golden, about 10-15 minutes. Bulgarian pepper is cleaned from seeds and partitions, washed, cut into cubes. Celery is cleaned, also cut finely. Peel the onion from the husk, cut into cubes.

7. We put the vegetables in the flour mass, mix. Simmer for 5 minutes. Garlic is cleaned, passed through a press. Add the garlic to the pan.

8. After about a minute, add the turtle meat. It turns out like a thick sauce.

9. Tomatoes are washed, crushed with a blender in puree. We put the tomato mass in a saucepan. Add Worcestershire sauce, cayenne pepper and paprika at once. Mix it up.

10. With the help of warm broth, we bring the soup to the desired consistency. It can be made thick or more liquid.

11. In parallel with the soup, we boil hard-boiled eggs in a small saucepan. Let them cool down, then peel off the shell and cut into small cubes.

12. Pour the sherry into the soup, add chopped parsley. Spread the eggs, pour lemon juice. We keep it on fire for a minute or two, so that all the ingredients make friends with each other and the flavors unite.

13. We adjust the taste with the help of black pepper. We arrange them in portions and serve them on the table.

Bon appetit!