Turkey leftovers

We’ve just finished opening our presents and the excitement of new toys is now (almost gone) but on the table, we are still to eat turkey (again?!?!).  If the sight of turkey makes you cringe after eating lots of them, here are two easy recipes to re-cook them.

TURKEY PIE

Ingredients:

• 1lb cooked, diced turkey
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 oz butter
• 1tbsp sherry
• 1 tbsp chopped parsley or chives
• 1  1/2 lb mashed potato beaten with 1 egg
• 15 oz. can of condensed soup of your choice
• 1/4lb sweetcorn
• black pepper to taste

To cook:

Set oven to 160 degrees Celsius.Stir fry the onion in butter until transparent then stir in turkey, sweetcorn and herbs. Season with pepper.

Gradually stir in soup and sherry and continue stirring until heated. Place in an ovenproof dish, top with mashed potato and bake for 30-40 minutes.

Serve with a green vegetable and chutney.

Serves 4.

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If you keep vegetables in your fridge, here is another one that will keep your belly warm this cold winter.

TURKEY BROOTH

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. cooked turkey, diced
• 2 oz butter
• 1 finely chopped onion
• 1 finely cubed carrot
• 1 stick celery, chopped
• 4 oz runner beans, sliced
• 1 oz flour
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1 1/2pints game stock
• 1/2 pint creamy milk
• pinch of mixed herbs
• salt and pepper
• pinch of paprika to garnish

To cook:

Melt the butter in a pan and add all the vegetables except the peas and beans. Stir in the curry powder and cook for a few minutes.

Add the flour and gradually stir in the stock. Add the herbs and simmer gently for 40 minutes.Add the peas, turkey meat and beans and simmer for another 15 minutes. Add milk and parsley.

Serve hot into bowls and sprinkle paprika to garnish.

Serves 6.

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In the Philippines we also have this “salad” recipe called Chicken Macaroni Salad. I will replace the chicken with Turkey  but i still  is not what you would expect.. learn why…

TURKEY MACARONI SALAD

Ingredients

• shredded turkey meat
• cooked & cold pasta – macaroni, penne, bow ot twirls are best. Cook enough for everyone.
• 1 small jar Mayonnaise
• 1 can condensed milk
• 1/2 jar sugar plum fruit, cut into small(er) pieces
• 3 tbsp glazed cherries
• 1 small can pineapple chunks, cut into small(er) pieces
• 1 cup raisins
• grated cheese

Preparation:

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl  and chill for a couple hours.

Serve as dessert.

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The above macaroni salad receipe is sweet and the quantities of the ingredients depends on you – nothing is fixed. You can even add slices of hardboiled eggs, sweet pickels, sweet corn. Bare minimum or as colourful as you like – basically whatever or however  you like it to be. My Italian friends, please forgive me for this.

What’s cooking?

Christmas is here soon and have you decided what to cook yet?

For us, we just finished our late Christmas shopping and nailed down the basics.

Our menu includes;

Starters: Vegetarian spring rolls

Main & Side Dish: Honey Glazed Turkey with cheese topped roasted potatoes, courgettes, tomatoes and pesto gratin.Hubby got some Yorkshire pudding just in case…

Back-up main: Embutido, a Filipino mince pork dish with vienna sausages, sweet pickles, raisins and spices.

Desserts: Christmas Pudding, Vanilla Ice cream and Custard.

Drinks: Red wine; someone here likes St Emilion (Diablo is held as backup), our guest love Baileys and the kids have Apple juice. I did not forget mine – we have a box of Coca Cola in the fridge.

Nothing too fancy this year.

Vegetarian spring roll. It’s always different everytime I make my springrolls – i have difficulty following instructions.

This is my chicken a couple of years back. I am using the same recipe but will marinate the turkey for a day first then stuff it with some really nice things.

Stuffed potatoes covered with cheese! It will be accompanied by Courgettes- Pesto gratin. Yum yum!

And we will finish with the traditional Christmas pudding.

We just got ours from Sainsburys but we do love ours with custard and vanilla ice cream.

Hopefully, the glaze will be perfect this year for a photo finish. That chicken in 2007 is selling rather well as a stock photo.

Anyway, I hope that you got your Christmas dinner sorted out as well as ingredients for the left over later.  Have a great Christmas and looking forward to a wonderful New Year!

10 Minute Banoffee

This is a very quick dish with potential of being very photogenic, especially when you use those nice looking  ramekins and small bowls.

What you need:

2 Ginger cookies – broken into small pieces

2 chocolate cookies – broken into small pieces

2 small bananas, sliced

2tbsp toffee sauce

2tbsp muscovado brown sugar

100ml whipped cream

{ One } Divide the the biscuits between two ramekins and lay the sliced bananas on top and drizzle with toffee sauce

{Two } Whip the cream stiff, then spoon over the banana base. Sprinkle with surgar and serve.

Voila! your 10 minute dessert Enjoy!

Oriental pork steaks with spring onions

I initially planned to cook salmon fillets but the fish was still partially frozen so I cooked the pork steaks instead. This recipe will only take between 30-45mins to prepare and cook unless of course you decide to marinate the meat a bit longer.

Ingredients:

2 pork shoulder steaks

1 tbsp soy sauce

2cm fresh ginger, peeled and grated

1 tsp olive oil

1 bunch spring onions

Procedure:

• Mix the soy sauce, grated ginger and olive oil and marinate the meat for at least 10 minutes. For better flavour, marinate for 3 hours.
• Heat the griddle pan until smoking, DO NOT brush oil.  Add the meat and cook for 3-4 minutes each side. Longer if necessary.  Remove from the pan and keep warm.
• Add the spring onions to the pan and brush with any remaining marinade. Cook for 1 minute on each side. Arrange on serving plates and sit the meat on top.  Pour over any juices from the pan and serve with roasted vegetables or crushed new potatoes.

Note:  You may change the meat and use Salmon Fillets instead. Cooking time for the fish is 5 to 6 minutes on each side. Cook skin down first.

Steamed Salmon topped with Creme Fraiche

This week I cooked something healthy for the family.  A nicely steamed fish with some fresh vegetables. Without taking for granted the subtle flavour of the salmon, I cooked a subtle dish to accompany it – steamed new potatoes.

Having a limited time and children with healthy appetites make cooking somewhat a challenge- as long as they eat it all and I can take photographs of the food, I am happy

The sliced salmon was dipped in a bowl of lemon juice, seasoned with salt and pepper and arranged on top of thinly sliced ginger which I lay at the bottom of the steamer.

In another container, I put even sized new potatoes which I seasoned with salt..  I cooked the potatoes for about 30 minutes (or until it is tender) and the fish for about 15-20 minutes.

Then  I  mixed  a pot of creme fraiche, a couple of table spoons of lemon juice, chopped chives, chopped parsley and some salt and pepper to taste for the sauce. This is not too strong nor it is too bland for both the potatoes and the fish.

And voila! a simple, healthy and tasty lunch my kids love.

The fish can also be served with stir-fried vegetables without the creme fraiche sauce.