[Sca-cooks] Leftovers

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Mercy Neumark wrote:

> Knowing that there will be leftovers of turkey kicking around our houses for
> months to come (and with "buy one turkey get the next free" why argue?)...I
> figured I'd see what people cook with their leftover turkey bits?  Anything
> unusual?
>
> I've tossed some into cheesey pasta before...probably it would make a nice
> fried rice.  Any easy recipes anyone has that they'd like to share? I'm all
> for easy with leftovers. :)


Well, turkey tetrazzini is sort of a classic leftover turkey dish, almost worth roasting a turkey (although you might actually get better results with a poached turkey) just for the dish; it's shredded or diced turkey with lots of mushrooms in a heavily-parmaggiano-laced cream sauce, usually over pasta, then gratineed under buttered, cheesy bread crumbs. I'm a partisan of thin linguine or fettucine for it.


Then, of course, there is pie, to which can be added various leftover
vedge and gravy, under either a leftover-mashed-potato crust or a pastry
crust. A creamy gravy (is a pattern developing here, and does it have to
do with compfrt foods in my world-view? Almost definitely) is good with
the potato crust, whereas the more standard brownish gravy holds up well
with pastry.

I think, however, I may be truly disgustingly decadent and make real croquettes, something I've never done before, but which I may need to do to exorcise the spirit of some of the truly dreadful (in retrospect, probably not all that bad) leftover-turkey croquettes I was exposed to as a child. My mother used to make these sort of blumpers with minced, cooked turkey, egg and such, then crumbed and sauteed. They were kinda sawdusty. The real McCoy, which no doubt all our ungrateful, wretched children do not deserve, would involve finely diced or chopped turkey bound together with a cold, very thick bechamel sauce, formed into balls with floured hands, then [rather thickly] crumbed and deep-fried. A little chopped ham or bacon in there is a wonderful addition, too. Serve with mushroomy sauce of your choice.


My lady wife will probably want some jook (Chinese rice porridge) with turkey, and then there's always a salad.


Adamantius

--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98