Christmas Leftovers

[Julie-Ann]

Do you have any great recipes or ideas on how to use up the Christmas leftovers? DH cooked this Jamie Oliver's salad for lunch today - it uses up the leftover turkey. Very yummy. A bit fiddly but worth the effort.

Asian-inspired Turkey Salad and Pancakes.

ingredients

• 2 large handfuls of brown turkey meat (we used left over turkey breast)
• 1 large handful of cashew nuts
• 1 handful of dried cranberries
• 2 teaspoons ground five-spice (we used 1 & 1/2 tspns and it was very tasty)
• a bunch of fresh mint, leaves picked
• a bunch of fresh coriander, leaves picked
• 4 large handfuls of mixed salad leaves such as chicory, rocket, spinach, watercress
• 1 tablespoon runny honey
• 1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped (we skipped this)

for the dressing
• juice of 1 clementine (we skipped this and it was yummy)
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 pomegranate, halved
• ½ red onion, peeled and coarsely grated
• extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely grated. (we used grated ginger from the jar)
Method:

This brilliant little salad is one for all of those people who say they only like white meat. I promise, if you like crispy duck - and most people I know do - then you’ll love this because, actually, I think this crispy turkey meat is even better! The flavours are incredible and I guarantee this salad will smack everyone in the chops and wake them up after Christmas. The dressing will make quite a lot, but will keep for a few days and is also gorgeous over fish or other salads.

Shred the brown turkey meat into thin strips using your fingers and put it into a dry pan on a medium heat. Add the cashew nuts, dried cranberries and five-spice. Give it all a good stir, then let it toast away while you get on with your salad. Give the pan a shake every now and then to make sure nothing catches.

Add the mint and most of your coriander leaves to a bowl with your mixed salad leaves. Make your dressing in a separate bowl by mixing the juice from your clementine and lime. Squeeze the juice from one of your pomegranate halves through your hands to catch any seeds, then discard them. Stir in your grated onion. I tend to use 3 parts oil to 1 part acid when I’m making dressings, so look at what you’ve got in the bowl so far, then pour in 3 times as much extra virgin olive oil. Add the soy sauce and sesame oil. Squeeze in all the juice from your grated ginger, then throw away the pulp.

Give this lovely dressing a really good stir, and have a taste. If you want more salt, add a splash more soy. If you want more acid, add another squeeze of lime juice. Drizzle over enough dressing to coat the salad leaves, then use your hands to toss and dress them.

Add the honey to the pan with the turkey meat and stir through until coated. Turn the heat up to full whack for the last few seconds to really crisp up the meat mixture. At this point, make sure your guests are all at the table and ready to eat so you can serve the salad as soon as the hot meat hits the salad leaves. Toss half of your pan-fried ingredients through the salad leaves and transfer to a serving platter.

Spoon the remaining nuts, cranberries and crispy meat over the top of the salad and add another drizzle of dressing. Hold the remaining pomegranate half over the salad and knock it on the back with a spoon so the seeds pop onto the salad. Garnish with a nice sprinkling of fresh red chilli, any remaining coriander leaves and serve right away.

Love to hear what you do with the leftovers.

[Cherylle]

That sounds super yummy.
My favorite recipe for this category uses baby spinach, celery, snow peas plunged into hot water briefly, spring onions, mango, cranberries and slivered almonds. Use leftover turkey and the dressing is 2/3 cup mayo, 1 tblsp mango chutney, 1 tsp curry powder, 1 tblsp water.
Yummy.

[Julie-Ann]

That sounds super easy and yummy Cherylle. I will have to pass that one on to the chef.
This tonight's dinner.
Jamie Oliver's Leftover Turkey and Leek Pie.

ingredients

• 2 rashers smoked streaky bacon, the best quality you can afford, roughly chopped
• ½ bunch of fresh thyme, leaves picked
• olive oil
• 1 tbspn of butter
• 2kg leeks, washed, trimmed; white end chopped into chunks, green end finely sliced
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 800g cooked white turkey meat, torn into big chunks (brown too if you want)
• 2 heaped tablespoons plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 2 pints turkey, chicken or vegetable stock, preferably organic
• 2 tablespoons of crème fraîche
• 1 x 500g packet puff pastry
• 12 jarred or vac-packed chestnuts, roasted and peeled
• 2 sprigs fresh sage, leaves picked
• 1 egg, preferably free-range or organic, beaten


method

This is dead simple, completely versatile and absolutely gorgeous. It’s not a pretty-boy pie; it’s a proper, old-school pie that everyone will be over the moon to see on the table. I’m putting leftover white turkey meat to good use here, but you could also mix brown meat in there too.

Preheat your oven to 190°C/375°F/gas 5. Put your bacon in a large pan on a medium heat and add your thyme leaves. Add a lug of olive oil and the butter and let it all fry off a few minutes. Add all of your prepped leeks and fry them off for about 3 minutes so they are well-coated in the butter. Add a pinch of salt and pepper then pop the lid on top, turn the heat down to medium and let them cook away gently for 30 minutes, stirring every 5 to 10 minutes to make sure they don’t catch. There’s going to be enough moisture in the leeks to keep them happy in the pan so they should be soft and melt in your mouth once they’re done.

When your leeks are ready, add the turkey meat to them and stir. If you’ve got a bit of stuffing mixed in there you can put that in too. Add the flour, mix it in well then pour in your stock and stir again. Add the crème fraîche then turn the heat up and bring everything back up to the boil. Have a taste and add a bit more salt and pepper if it needs it then turn the heat off. Pour the mixture through a sieve over another large empty pan and let the wonderful gravy from the mixture drip into the pan while you roll out your pastry.

Get a deep baking dish roughly 22 x 30cm. Dust a clean surface and a rolling pin with a bit of flour and roll your pastry out so it’s about double the size of your dish. Crumble the chestnuts over one half of the pastry then tear a few of the sage leaves over the chestnuts. Fold the other half of pastry on top then roll it out carefully and evenly so you have a rectangle big enough to cover your baking tray. Don’t worry if a few bits stick out here and there.

Spoon that thick leek mixture from your sieve into the pie dish and spread it out evenly. Lay your pastry on top, tuck the ends under then gently score the pastry diagonally with your knife. Add a pinch of salt to your beaten egg then paint this egg wash over the top of your pastry. Pop your pie in the oven for about 35 to 40 minutes or until the pastry is puffed up and golden brown. When the pie is ready, re-heat the lovely gravy and serve with your pie, along with some peas tossed in butter, lemon, salt and pepper and everyone’s happy!

I will let you know in a couple of hours how it turned out.

[Julie-Ann]

This was delicious. It took an hour to prepare and cook but DH said it was quite easy.
So the only leftovers we have now are some potatoes. So DH is cooking potato, prosciutto and rosemary pizzas with those.
Then we just have lots of fruit mince pies, shortbread and ice cream left.
What about you - what's leftover in your fridge and pantry?

[thisisme]

We never have more than 1 day worth of leftovers. We always divide leftovers between our guests to take home. That way noone has to worry about cooking the next day and at the same time it saves the hassle of having too much leftovers. Win-win

[Julie-Ann]

We divide ours all up too. But still we are left with food to last a week.

[Cherylle]

I love leftovers - anything that means less cooking. Trouble is, the kids get sick of them - such precious little darlings that they are.

[thisisme]

Originally Posted by Julie-Ann

We divide ours all up too. But still we are left with food to last a week.

I think you've either cooked giganticaly enormous quantities of food... Or you all eat like ants

[Julie-Ann]

Rofl TIM. My DH has this thing where he over caters. I have tried to explain that so much food is not needed. But he doesn't listen - so I just buy all the food and then we have leftovers for the week.

[Di]

I over did it with the pork but I've frozen it to make up some roast dinners later on. We grazed on leftover for most of this week. The kids love ham so that was no big deal.

We always have friends over on Boxing Day so that helps to take care of any extras.

Last night was the first time we had something different - lamb chops and sausages with salad.