Good evening and welcome to my installment of What's For Dinner! I thought with the big turkey day coming up next week it would be a good idea to share some recipes & ideas that will make use of all those leftovers from the big feast. Whether you are hosting or attending a potluck style gathering you may find yourself with leftovers and I'd like to give you a few ideas to turn these into more than just the usual cold turkey sandwiches or reheated plates of the sides. (Not that there is anything wrong w/a good turkey sandwich! Sometimes I have to indulge in one later that same night!)
Updated to add a link to the latest Feeding America diary by JayinPortland: Please go give some recs as noweasels has pledged to keep up the challenge of 10cents/rec 5cents/comment!: Here
Please join me over the fold for some tasty inspiration:
The Bird
We'll start with the most obvious thing: the turkey! These ideas are also applicable if you had chicken or game hens or any other type of poultry.
A good idea to speed up your prep via Michael Chiarello is to go ahead after dinner is over and you are cleaning up and stashing away the leftovers: cut as much of the meat off your bird as you can and store it in a container and add some of the basting juices (if you have any left) or some stock to the container to keep the meat moist while it sits overnight. It also helps to separate the dark meat from the white so you have white for sandwiches and dark for things like soups. Then I usually bag up the carcass in a ziploc bag if I'm not going to make stock right away. Stock you say? Believe it or not making homemade stock is really dead simple. It just takes some time.
Turkey Stock
turkey carcass & leftover parts such as wings
1 whole onion quartered (don't worry about peeling it)
3-4 garlic cloves smashed w/the flat of your knife
a couple of carrots
a couple stalks of celery
salt & fresh cracked black pepper
a couple of bay leaves
Toss all ingredients into a large stock pot or dutch oven. Chop up the celery and carrots as needed to fit. Liberally season w/salt & pepper then add water to completely cover the carcass. Bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to a simmer and cover. Let this simmer for anywhere from 2 hours to overnight. You will note that after a couple of hours the liquid will take on a golden color and your nose will know when it smells like flavorful stock. You will want to then prepare a large bowl or if you have another stock pot handy and place a strainer over it in your sink. Carefully strain into this setup and set aside the solids to cool. The stock can then be refrigerated so the fat solidifies at the top to be discarded. Once the solids are cool enough to handle you can pick through the bones to extract any good bits of meat. Discard the rest.
Ok, see that really isn't that hard! You could do this in a crock pot as well! What I find works fantastically is one of those big stock pots that has a pasta insert. Then all you have to do is lift out the insert w/the solids.
Ok, now what to do with the stock? Well soup is always an option. If you want some good ideas you can go here for lots of good ones.
What about all that leftover meat? Aside from sandwiches or soup there are lots of good ideas to be found in food magazines such as Gourmet (so sad to see them go!)Bon Appetit or lo and behold: your weekly coupon inserts in the Sunday paper. I came across this one last week:
Quick Chinese Turkey Salad
1/4 cup of rice vinegar
1tbsp sugar
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp veg. oil
1 tsp sesame oil
1 14-16 oz package of mixed salad greens washed & drained
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro or parsley
1 lb cooked turkey shredded
1 cup dry chow mein noodles
Combine vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, veg. oil and sesame oils in a large bowl, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Add salad mix & cilantro/parsley and toss to coat. Add turkey & dry chow mein noodles & toss. Serve immediately.
From kikkomanusa.com
Now, what about sides you may have?
Squash
I found myself with a bowl of baked acorn squash after attending a potluck style Thanksgiving and this is what I ended up doing with it. The recipe only calls for a cup so it is pretty likely you will have plenty on hand for this simple bread:
Buttercup Squash Bread
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees F to 115 degrees F)
2 tablespoons molasses
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 cup mashed, cooked butternut squash (I used acorn & it worked just as well)
3 cups all-purpose flour
DIRECTIONS
- In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Add molasses, salt, caraway, squash and 2 cups flour; mix well. Add enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to greased top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch dough down; turn onto a floured surface and shape into a loaf. Place in a greased 9-in. x 5-in. x 3-in. loaf pan. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes. Bake at 400 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan to cool on a wire rack.
I had just a little over 1 cup of squash when I mashed it up so I threw it all in. I also did not have any caraway seeds and do not care for them all that much so I added 1/4 teaspoon of allspice and the same of fresh grated nutmeg to the batter before adding the flour.
The bread is really good! Dense and chewy with a really nice squash flavor.
From allrecipes.com
Now if you find yourself with a lot of Butternut squash leftover may I suggest making a decadent lasagna? I have made this recipe after seeing Giada De Laurentis make it on one of her holiday specials and it is divine! Since you've got the squash already cooked you can skip the first part of the recipe to make it even easier!
Cranberry Relish
Ok, here's where I got a bit creative when I had a huge amount of leftover homemade cranberry & blood orange relish:
I found this recipe at Epicurious for Pork Chops with Cranberry, Port and Rosemary Sauce. I adapted it thusly:
I had 8 fairly large pork loin chops about 1/2"thick which I seasoned with salt & pepper and then fried them in the butter as in the recipe. I had to do this in 2 batches. Once all the chops were done I deglazed the pan with a mix of 1/2 cup of dry red wine and 1/2 cup of water. Then I added about 2 cups of my leftover relish and a couple sprigs of fresh rosemary and let this come to a boil then I dropped it back to a simmer and let it reduce by about half. I did add the pork chops back to the pan and covered them letting them simmer in the liquid for a bit before finally reducing the sauce over higher heat until it was pretty thick. Remove the rosemary sprigs & discard. Oddly I found the relish took on a flavor similar to applesauce by the end. Quite tasty and yummy!
Gravy
Ok, I have to add this even though technically it was always served as a side at our Thanksgiving meals when I was growing up. Homemade noodles! My mom started making them one year and they became one of my faves alongside the mashed potatoes smothered in gravy!
Diane's Homemade Noodles
3 cups of flour + extra for rolling out the dough
2 egg yolks
pinch of salt
Water
Mound the flour in a bowl or on your board and make a well in the center. Add the egg yolks & salt and start to slowly mix in the flour from the outer wall of the well. Add water as you slowly mix until the flour has absorbed as much as it can and you have a slightly sticky dough. Let this rest for about half an hour. Meanwhile bring a pot of water or stock (good time to use some of that stock you made from the turkey!) to a boil. Flour your board or countertop liberally and your rolling pin and roll the dough out to about 1/4" thickness. Cut into long strips about 1/4" wide. My mom would just go ahead and drop these into the boiling stock resulting in an almost dumpling-like consistency. They are done when they float back up to the top. Remove w/a slotted spoon to a large pan or bowl as you continue to cook the rest. Smother w/gravy and they are very filling!
Ok, now for something I think is very important this time of year. Hunger. As you may be aware many of our fellow Kossacks are participating in a blogging drive to help support Feeding America as we come into the holiday season. There will be diaries over the next couple of days highlighting issues of hunger in America with lots of links for donations. Please consider donating online or by taking canned/dried goods to a local food bank if you can! Everyone deserves to have food on their table!
Our own blue jersey mom kicked us off this morning w/offering to donate .10/per rec & .05/comment in her diary this morning and in the ensuing diaries many others have taken up the challenge as well. Go Kossacks!
Upcoming What's For Dinner diaries:
Next Sat 11/28: MaskedKat - Healthier Lighter meals
Sat 12/5 Translator - Holiday Treats
If you are interested in doing one of these diaries please leave a comment or email Cordelia Lear or Masked Kat & let us know! It's easy!