Leftover Time

One of the best things about the Thanksgiving dinner is the leftovers. It is a home chef's blank palette for creating new dishes with whatever remains. It's a way of repurposing everything without all the waste.

Repurposing tomorrow's dinner was the subject of Tejal Rao' s article in today's New York Times Food section. The bird itself is rife with ideas , from a second meal with gravy to being made into  other, more refreshing dinners. The first recipe Ms. Rao gives us is a turkey salad with fried shallots and herbs. She spices it up with a chopped jalapeno pepper mixed with coriander and mint leaves. There are also shallots fried in peanut oil.Another idea is the Southern influenced turkey and noodles. This is kind of like the turkey tettrazini millions of American home chefs made thirty and forty years ago. It's creating and hand rolling homemade egg noodles (however you can use the already made Mueller's for this) and boiling them in turkey stock.  A cup of roasted turkey meat is added to make it more substantial. The noodles must air after making to dry out and then they're rehydrated once they're in the broth


The next dish is from Ms. Rao's cookbook.It is pav bhaji and it's a take on the Indian street food.This is for day three of leftovers when there are bits of meat still stuck on the bones. She recommends crisping them in a cast iron pan.It's then mashed with tomatoes ,onion garlic and peas. Garam masala gives it the kick as does turmeric and ginger.Potato buns are used. They are lightly buttered and then  placed cut side down in a separate pan and browned until they are golden. The turkey mix is then ladled onto the buns and eaten sort of like a sloppy Joe.If there are any leftover rolls, you can use them instead of the potato buns.A spin on this is would be crisping the turkey bits and then putting them in the turkey gravy along with switching the veggies to whatever 's left over. Nix the spices and just add sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

The best part of Thanksgiving is the leftovers. Be creative with the bird. Serve it in sandwiches or an entirely new and different dish.It's a canvas to have fun with in the kitchen.