The Leftover Experiment

What does one do with leftover stuffing, turkey, veggies and more?

The first post-Christmas dinner meals consisted of pressed turkey sandwiches: multigrain bread, a thin layer of stuffing, turkey and Hot Mamas Cranberry jelly (made with scotch bonnet peppers) then grilled to perfection on the panini press.  The press itself is a classic!  Waffle on one side, flat iron on the other.  No newfangled machine here as it just wouldn't be the same.

But, one tires of turkey sandwiches.  So tonight, we decided on something different.  Tonight's menu consists of Turkey Pot Pie with a twist.

Start by checking out the leftovers.  Plain boiled or steamed veggies such as broccoli and carrots work best.  Add in some potatoe chunks if you haven't already used them for hashbrowns.  (multi-coloured red, yellow, blue fingerling potatoes with shallots shown below ready for cooking into hash browns.)

Since I had used all my cooked potatoes, I quickly diced a few and boiled them in some chicken broth.

While that was cooking, I chopped up 2 large onions and 3 stalks of celery then sauteed same with just under a 1/2 cup of butter until soft.  Then, add about 1/2 cup flour or enough to turn everything into a thick paste.  Pour in the chicken broth used to cook the potatoes. (You may need to add more water or broth - I used about 6 cups).  Then add a tsp of pepper, thyme, savory, sage and a tblsp of parsley.  You can add more or less to your taste or change up the seasonings.  You can also add about a 1/4 cup of whipping cream at this point (or leave it out if milk is an issue).  Once the sauce had thickened, I added a medium ziploc bag full or carrots and broccoli, the potatoe cubes and a handful of peas plus lots of chopped up turkey (about 2 cups).  Note that my measurements are estimates as I cook by touch and seldom measure unless required.

Now, as a twist, I lined my 9 x 13 glass casserole dish with a thin layer of leftover potato stuffing (bread, onions & potatoe, sage, salt, pepper, butter and turkey drippings).  I have never tried this before but I had a lot of stuffing and didn't feel like making extra pie crust from scratch today.

Pour the sauce/veggie/turkey mix into the dish.  Then, cover the dish with pastry.  Tonight I used a Robin Hood pie crust.  The Pillsbury crust is also ok for a ready made crust.

Bake at 350 until the crust is cooked.

The pot pie with stuffing base was delicious!

Ooey gooey or hard and sticky?

This week is all about caramels! 

First off, many people insist you must use a candy thermometer.  After attempting this using the thermometer, I  found it was actually easy to prepare by sight.  When the caramel is nearing the right temperature, the bubbles slow down and become more infrequent.  It`s almost as if the bubbles are talking to you.  I liken the bubbles to those found in flowing movie lava, almost as if the concoction is yawning.  Let this cook a little longer and you are almost there!  Use the ice water trick to then test for doneness by dropping a bit of the mix into water and seeing if it forms a soft ball.  When I say ball, it is usually more of a raised blob instead of instantly turning stringy.  Caramel is done at this point!  If you cook it any longer, it will turn hard when you remove it.

I also found a new recipe that makes a delicious caramel.  Cooked the first batch a touch too long and ended up with hard caramels that are reminiscent of skor toffee.  Really yummy but hard on the teeth!  The next batch, failure to cook sugars a touch longer resulted in a lighter, sweeter caramel.  I also cooked the caramel to a lower temperature (to ensure I avoided the hard caramel) resulting in a slightly soft caramel that will be made into pecan clusters.  Thus far, I have failed to get the optimal result I desire - caramels that are firm enough to hold shape but still soft and chewy.  On next attempt, I will cook the caramel a touch longer to achieve those perfect caramel squares!