Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Toujours dinde*

I didn't manage to order my turkey until the Monday before Christmas, about 12 hours after I arrived in Boston. I was a little tense about that. I mean, I know I could've picked up a frozen Butterball at the supermarket, but I wanted a fresh turkey. I'm picky that way.

So anyway, by the time I called (8am on Monday morning), the woman at the butcher shop told me that all they had left was a 15.5-lb (7-kg) turkey. So I took it.

Then I fretted. Would that be enough meat for 12 people? Would it be skimpy? Would we--horror of horrors--run out?

(All the while conveniently overlooking that one of the diners is five, one is a vegetarian, and four would be leaving to eat another Christmas dinner three hours after eating mine.)

You know where this is going: even after everyone eating their fill, and sending a third of the guests home with doggy bags, I was still left with pounds upon pounds of leftover turkey. I finally finished it off today (those of you with food safety concerns, look away now), after having made the following:

1. turkey stock (after removing the aforementioned pounds and pounds of meat from the carcass);
2. turkey risotto (made with the turkey stock and chunks of meat);
3. several plates of leftover turkey and fixings;
4. several more turkey sandwiches;
5. turkey pot pie (involving more turkey chunks as well as more turkey stock in the sauce: one full-size for dinner, two mini, frozen for later);
6. and today, a twofer, to put an end to the madness: for dinner, turkey bolognese; and
7. for lunch, turkey salad sandwiches.

Old school turkey salad
Note: the smaller you cut everything, the neater the end product will be. I like mine chunky, so as a result half of it fell out of the sandwich. I did not care.

1 cup white turkey meat, cut into chunks
2 slices bacon, fried until crisp and chopped up
1 stick celery, cut into small chunks
1 Tbsp mayonnaise**
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
salt & pepper

Mix all ingredients together thoroughly. Eat straight from the bowl or serve as a sandwich on slices of toasted white bread (with pickles and chips alongside, natch).

PS If anyone wants recipes for the other turkey items, do say so; otherwise, I'll assume that by this time everyone else feels like being done with turkey also.

* Translation: "turkey all the time".
** I used the last of the batch of homemade mayonnaise I made last week. More on this later.

5 comments:

Mark Scarbrough said... Best Blogger Tips

Don't forget turkey fried rice. Or turkey casserole.

You know what Dorothy Parker once said? Hell is two people and a ham.

Maybe she meant a turkey.

Roving Lemon said... Best Blogger Tips

What about F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Turkey Remains, and How to Inter Them, with Numerous Scarce Recipes"?

I bet he'd have felt differently if he'd had turkey fried rice. Although I will note here that once again I tried, and failed, to get motivated to make turkey tetrazzini.

seepi said... Best Blogger Tips

Here is is ham that we live on for a week after Xmas. Lucky I really looooove ham.

Home-made baked beans and ham is becoming something I look forward to for boxing day.

and ham probably keeps a little better than turkey too.

Half of team FC said... Best Blogger Tips

made good use of mine.....diced the meat and the leftover root veggies into a dish, made a nice rich white/bechamel sauce, into which i put cream and the left over bread sauce (its an english thing) Poured the sauce over the top and mixed it all together, made topping from breadcrumbs, cheese crackers and grated parmesan, sprinkled it over, and baked for 40 mins.....

Served with fresh greens.

YUM! I fed 13 on this on boxing day. Result? clean plates and NO MORE TURKEY!

Roving Lemon said... Best Blogger Tips

Seepi - ham *is* fabulous. All that salty goodness means it keeps longer!

SR - aha! At last I understand the reasoning behind celebrating Boxing Day--getting rid of the leftovers!

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