Leftovers
My beloved wife has a tradition associated with Thanksgiving leftovers. She takes leftover turkey, cooked spaghetti, a can of Ro-Tel tomatoes and some cream of mushroom soup and creates something that might feature in a Garrison Keilor story about Norwegian btchelor farmers and the hotdishes they bring to Lutheran church suppers. I always assumed that Turkey Tetrazzini was a creation of the 1950s, perhaps invented by the Campbell's soup company to move cream of mushroom soup. Turns out, it was created for a famous (and famously large) Italian soprano, Luisa Tetrazzini, who enjoyed it as she toured the US.
Even knowing the history behind the dish, I'm not a fan. It's bland, ambiguous comfort food... which is basically what traditional Thanksgiving fare is anyway, until you spice it up. Over the past ten years, I've tried to add a certain amount of funk to our Thanksgiving dinner - brining and smoking the turkeys, adding chipotle peppers and roasted cumin to the squash, frying brussel sprouts with pancetta. It only seems logical that leftovers could get more interesting.
My first pass at this has never made me happy. We make excellent broth from the turkey carcasses, and I've served the broth with gnocchi made from leftover mashed potatoes (made with butter, milk and roasted garlic) and from the squash. The gnocchi are terrible, however - the texture of golf balls. So this year, something different.
Leftovers Udon
from Thanksgiving:
turkey broth
sliced turkey
mashed, spiced squash
my sister's Kale
from the pantry:
fresh udon noodles
scallions
ginger root
soy sauce
sesame oil
Sriracha sauce (God's own condiment)
Doctor turkey broth with soy, sesame oil, sriracha and ground ginger until it makes you happy. I find that for four cups of broth, that might be three long dashes each of soy and sesame, 2 inches of ginger, a three-second squeeze of Sriracha. Once correctly seasoned, bring broth to a boil. Boil noodles in broth. During the three minutes the noodles cook, place a thick dollop of cold, seasoned squash in the bottom of each bowl. Layer cooked noodles onto squash. Add kale to boiling broth to heat it up. Ladle broth to fill bowls. Stack slices of turkey on surface of soup. Top with diced scallion and sesame oil.
This turns out to be very, very good - good enough that I can imagine serving it as a main course in a non-Thanskgiving situation. But it's only one meal, and we can't eat udon everyday, even if we'd like to. Hence today's creation:
Leftovers Enchiladas
from Thanksgiving:
turkey broth
sliced turkey
mashed, spiced squash
from the pantry:
corn tortillas
onions
garlic
tomato sauce
Ro-Tel tomatoes
canned chipotle peppers
queso fresco (or monterey jack cheese, I suppose)
oil for frying
First make a ranchero sauce. Blend 2 cups of turkey broth and a cup of tomato sauce, along with 4 garlic cloves, an onion, and four canned chipotle peppers, and cumin, salt and pepper if you'd like. Blend. Put a thin layer of sauce in a baking pan.
Fry up two onions. Add two cans of Ro-Tel tomatoes, and a pound and change of leftover turkey scraps. Fry tortillas lightly in oil, just to soften them up. For each fried tortilla, smear mashed squash on the tortilla, then add two heaping tablespoons of turkey/tomato/onion mixture. Add 1 tablespoon of grated queso fresco. Wrap and place in the pan. After completing a layer, top with ranchero sauce and grated cheese. If you like, keep stacking and layering enchiladas. Bake in a 350 oven long enough to melt cheese and heat squash - if the ranchero sauce is bubbling, you're good.
They're amazingly tasty. We've got a tray full of them which will likely keep us fed for three more meals. And here's the thing - it's now more than 48 hours after Thanksgiving and I've got a vast pile of leftovers to magically transform into something new. I think tomorrow night might be Indian.
Even knowing the history behind the dish, I'm not a fan. It's bland, ambiguous comfort food... which is basically what traditional Thanksgiving fare is anyway, until you spice it up. Over the past ten years, I've tried to add a certain amount of funk to our Thanksgiving dinner - brining and smoking the turkeys, adding chipotle peppers and roasted cumin to the squash, frying brussel sprouts with pancetta. It only seems logical that leftovers could get more interesting.
My first pass at this has never made me happy. We make excellent broth from the turkey carcasses, and I've served the broth with gnocchi made from leftover mashed potatoes (made with butter, milk and roasted garlic) and from the squash. The gnocchi are terrible, however - the texture of golf balls. So this year, something different.
Leftovers Udon
from Thanksgiving:
turkey broth
sliced turkey
mashed, spiced squash
my sister's Kale
from the pantry:
fresh udon noodles
scallions
ginger root
soy sauce
sesame oil
Sriracha sauce (God's own condiment)
Doctor turkey broth with soy, sesame oil, sriracha and ground ginger until it makes you happy. I find that for four cups of broth, that might be three long dashes each of soy and sesame, 2 inches of ginger, a three-second squeeze of Sriracha. Once correctly seasoned, bring broth to a boil. Boil noodles in broth. During the three minutes the noodles cook, place a thick dollop of cold, seasoned squash in the bottom of each bowl. Layer cooked noodles onto squash. Add kale to boiling broth to heat it up. Ladle broth to fill bowls. Stack slices of turkey on surface of soup. Top with diced scallion and sesame oil.
This turns out to be very, very good - good enough that I can imagine serving it as a main course in a non-Thanskgiving situation. But it's only one meal, and we can't eat udon everyday, even if we'd like to. Hence today's creation:
Leftovers Enchiladas
from Thanksgiving:
turkey broth
sliced turkey
mashed, spiced squash
from the pantry:
corn tortillas
onions
garlic
tomato sauce
Ro-Tel tomatoes
canned chipotle peppers
queso fresco (or monterey jack cheese, I suppose)
oil for frying
First make a ranchero sauce. Blend 2 cups of turkey broth and a cup of tomato sauce, along with 4 garlic cloves, an onion, and four canned chipotle peppers, and cumin, salt and pepper if you'd like. Blend. Put a thin layer of sauce in a baking pan.
Fry up two onions. Add two cans of Ro-Tel tomatoes, and a pound and change of leftover turkey scraps. Fry tortillas lightly in oil, just to soften them up. For each fried tortilla, smear mashed squash on the tortilla, then add two heaping tablespoons of turkey/tomato/onion mixture. Add 1 tablespoon of grated queso fresco. Wrap and place in the pan. After completing a layer, top with ranchero sauce and grated cheese. If you like, keep stacking and layering enchiladas. Bake in a 350 oven long enough to melt cheese and heat squash - if the ranchero sauce is bubbling, you're good.
They're amazingly tasty. We've got a tray full of them which will likely keep us fed for three more meals. And here's the thing - it's now more than 48 hours after Thanksgiving and I've got a vast pile of leftovers to magically transform into something new. I think tomorrow night might be Indian.