2014 Thanksgiving Leftovers

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
My favorite way to enjoy leftovers from a turkey dinner is to make poutine with turkey, turkey gravy, cranberry/lingonberry salsa, handcut French fries, and grated gjetost (or cheese curds if I have them on hand). If I don't have any salsa, I'll layer jalapeno peppers 1/2 way up and put more on top, but pickled banana peppers work, too, I always have a block of gjetost (Ski Queen) in the fridge and love it with the salsa.


Other ways to enjoy leftover turkey is to make a turkey hotdish (casserole)--I make mine like this:


900 g bowtie pasta, cooked al dente (although I cook the entire bag, I don't always use the entire amount)
1 tub of sour cream
1 can evap. milk
about 1/2 c leftover gravy (or stock if you prefer)
2-3 ribs celery chopped
3-4 c leftover turkey, diced
1 sm onion diced
8 oz mushrooms, quartered
1-2 diced jalapeno peppers
1 c frozen peas
4 oz grated white cheddar cheese.
1 -2 T oil


1. Cook the onion until it starts to soften in about 1 T oil. Add mushrooms. celery, and jalapeno peppers. Continue cooking for about 5 minutes.
2.Mix the sour cream, evap. milk, and gravy together. Adjust S&P levels.
3. Drain the pasta, toss with a bit of EVOO, and mix all the ingredients together, reserve about 1-2 oz of the grated cheese (I use a microplane, so 4 oz of cheese is about 1 cup grated--but grate to your heart's desire). Determine if it is moist enough, if not, add some stock or more sour cream or more evap. milk or a dollop or two of mayo.
4. Place in a LARGE casserole dish (I have one of those huge Corningware dishes that I use--I think it is 12 cups, or I divide it between 2 or three Corningware dishes and put 2 in the freezer, bake one--depends on if I've got anyone joining me for dinner. I usually give it a swipe with a paper towel and some veg. oil).
4. Cover and bake at 350 for ~30 minutes.
5. Remove lid and sprinkle top with reserved cheese and dashes of Frank's hot sauce,.
6. Bake for another 5-7 minutes until the cheese is melted.


Notes: If this is something you want to make for the freezer, omit the sour cream and use 2 cans of evap milk (evap. milk won't separate when you freeze the casserole, undercook the pasta). You could use cream of mushroom soup instead of the sour cream and evap. milk. I'm guessing you'd need at least 2 cans of cream of mushroom/chicken/celery soup.


How much sour cream and evap milk? I sometimes add more because I don't want the dish to be dry when it is done. I like it to resemble a well-dressed pasta salad when I put it in the oven. When in doubt, I'll add a bit of turkey stock or a glob of mayonnaise. I use the bow-tie pasta rather than rigatoni so that it doesn't absorb all the "sauce." I like it creamy, not dry. Sometimes I take 3 strips of bacon, cook and drain those, and add crumbles of bacon to the top with the cheese.


Variations: When cooking the onions, add 2 tsp of your favourite curry powder and omit the Frank's. Adjust curry powder amount to suit.


Add grated/chopped carrots. Add 1-2 c chopped swiss chard or kale.


Omit hot sauce and jalapeno peppers, add dried cranberries.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
My daughter was supposed to send me a plate today since I went to the hospital instead of getting to eat dinner. But it never arrived. Hopefully tomorrow. :angel:
 
Back
Top Bottom