Christmas Leftovers

[DB]

Hi folks, hope you didn't eat yourselves to death over the Christmas period.

 

In the UK, it's usual to have a big bird for Christmas. Typically, this is a turkey, so the North Americans may feel some resonance here, but obviously from Thanksgiving.

 

If you don't have to fed the entire extended family for three days, a full sized turkey is quite a challenge for leftovers. There are only so many turkey sandwiches and curries that you should have to put up with.

 

So I made a double shortcrust pie, a variant on a theme from "Perfect Pies" by the Hairy Bikers - you may have seen them on BBC America.

 

It is a 12" or so turkey, leek, mushroom and chorizo pie, and it's great. I sliced the chorizo into elongated disks and laid them on top of the filled pie, then put the shortcrust lid on. This replaces the more traditional ham, but adds a hint of extra flavour that I think has worked really well.

 

No, I didn't have a full turkey for Christmas dinner, I bought a small crown, which uncooked weighed about 1800g. There's about half of it left now, so there will be turkey curry and sandwiches in my near future, unless you guys have something better to suggest!

[Rick]

Mix the turkey with thick, egg noodles? Turkey stew?

[bojan]

Turkey meat can make for a great patte, and when you prepare it right it can keep pretty long.

Edited December 28, 2019 by bojan

[Nobu]

Turkey chili, with the help of a food processor to chop down the meat, makes for a good week of eating afterward.

[Leo Niehorster]

In the US, we had turkey sandwiches for one day after while watching football.

The rest of the bird was sliced and frozen. So you could have turkey sandwiches or anything else "turkey" until Halloween.

 

On the other hand, we used to have pheasant in Holland, and here in Germany there is a tendency to eat goose for Christmas.

 

--

Leo

[Harold Jones]

Turkey and noodles is always good. But the last several years I have made these https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/turkey_enchiladas/

[Nobu]

Those enchiladas look delicious and worth trying--may have to revisit this on the next high turkey feast day.

[Harold Jones]

They are especially good when the leftovers are from a smoked turkey.

[Harold Jones]

BTW for those not of Sam chili powder in most US recipes refers to a spice blend that is more than ground chilis. This works as well and is probably cheaper than buying some sad import online. Use whatever ground chili powder you want in place of the paprika.

 

1/8 cup sweet paprika

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika (optional)

1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 1/2 teaspoons onion powder

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon ground cumin

[bojan]

Well, fits here, my grandmother's recipe for "Paprenjak" (black pepper cookie), but real, peasant version, not that commercial almost gingerbread shit.

First, you need a lot of dried out bread. Bread has to be naturally, not oven dried. Oh, and don't use shelf-stable bread, they are shit. I use white bread, but originally black was probably more common historically. One month old is about best. Take about 1kg of dried bread and make breadcrumbs (store bought breadcrumbs are crap and should not be used). Add some sugar (not a lot, it will be naturally sweet), honey (not too much, you are not making honey biscuits...) . Some baking soda also goes in. Spices are cinnamon, clove and ginger. If you don't have one of those - no worry, it is a "leftovers" thing and you use what you have, through at least one is needed. Don't go overboard with cinnamon or it will overpower all other tastes. Then add finely ground black pepper - about 1.5-2 large spoons if you like it spicy, about one if you prefer it somewhat milder. Add some (about 100-200g) of roughly ground (preferably crushed with mortar and pestle) walnuts and about same amount of raisins. Other dried fruit (apples, plums, pears etc) can be substituted, but don't put too much in it - this is a poor people's thing, not some fancy dish. Some of those might need to be cut or crushed to small pieces. Mix everything and then add milk, thing is to make it just wet enough for it to be able to stay together. Usually it takes about 0.6-0.8l of milk.

Now put baking paper into some dish large enough (deeper one, there should be at least 4-5 cm of mass in it) and put all this mass into it. Bake at 150-170deg C. When upper crust forms cover with aluminium foil, switch oven to lower heater only and bake more - about same time it took for crust to form, but that is just a rough guide. When done take out of oven, turn over, remove baking paper and cover with few cloths and leave until morning. It keeps incredibly well, even 4-5 days after baking it is still fresh... but it rarely lasts that much.

Enjoy.

[Rick]

Sounds like your grandmother would be a good person to sit with, listen to, and to drink tea with, and hear her comments on history as she experienced it. Oh, and eat a bunch of cookies with

[bojan]

She would have required beer with that tea also

As a consequence of growing up during WW2 she knew every damn edible thing that could be made out of most unlikely sources and how to make wonders with very few ingredients.. Ofc, she realized that most of those were "emergency only", and her comment when arugula madness hit in early 2000s was legendary "But that is what you eat when there are no more nettles...".

[Nobu]

"Arugula madness" lol.

Love the word "some" for a bunch of the ingredients. 

[Ivanhoe]

 

Is "Arugula Madness" the 21st century equivalent of "Reefer Madness"?

[Harold Jones]

On 1/8/2021 at 6:10 AM, bojan said:

She would have required beer with that tea also

As a consequence of growing up during WW2 she knew every damn edible thing that could be made out of most unlikely sources and how to make wonders with very few ingredients.. Ofc, she realized that most of those were "emergency only", and her comment when arugula madness hit in early 2000s was legendary "But that is what you eat when there are no more nettles...".

There's a local vine like weed called bindweed, it is notorious for wrapping around and around just about anything that stands still long enough to be wrapped.  I found a recipe for pickled bind weed, the author's final comment was something like, yeah you can eat this but there's reason we stopped doing it after the war.

[DB]

On 1/21/2021 at 10:54 PM, Harold Jones said:

There's a local vine like weed called bindweed, it is notorious for wrapping around and around just about anything that stands still long enough to be wrapped.  I found a recipe for pickled bind weed, the author's final comment was something like, yeah you can eat this but there's reason we stopped doing it after the war.

Sounds like a perfect opportunity for an enterprising entrepreneur. Just get the pitch right and you'll sell millions to the same people who think quinoa and kale are good things.