Leftover turkey. There's a good chance you've got some.
There's more to leftover turkey than the meat. The bones are leftover turkey, the fat you pour from the roasting tin is leftover turkey, the skin is leftover turkey and it is all good to eat.
Giblets
Giblets aren't leftovers so much as extras, but they are turkey too and good to eat if made into stock. On Christmas Eve I made stock with the all of the giblets except the liver. The liver I chopped very small and added to my stuffing. Making stock out of giblets is easy. Chuck them in a pan with an onion, a carrot, a leek, and/or a stick of celery. Add a bay leaf if you like. Cover with water and bring to the boil then simmer for 1-2 hours. Strain into a bowl or jug. Use some of it to make the gravy on Christmas day and freeze the rest for future soup.
Fat and Juices
When you take your turkey out of the roasting tin there will be a lot of fat and rich, meaty juices in the tin. Don't think of throwing it away. Pour the lot into a bowl. Use a couple of spoonfuls of the fat for gravy and allow the rest to cool in the bowl before putting it in the fridge. The fat will not get really hard but it will solidify and you will be able to lift it off to reveal the gorgeous jellied juices underneath. Keep reading to see how I used the fat and juices from my turkey this year.
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| delicious jellied turkey juices beneath the rich fat |
Meat
The white meat is easier to slice when it is cold. We like it simply served with baked potatoes and wintry salads like coleslaw, or in sandwiches.
The dark meat I find less appetising. This year I decided to mince it in my food processor.
Bones
Make stock, make it in exactly the same way as giblet stock using all the bones and gristly bits. A turkey carcass will produce a lot of stock. If you don't have much freezer space store it in the fridge and plan to eat soup everyday for a week, why not? Cook pasta and rice in stock. Make risottos. We are eating some of our turkey stock as soup today for lunch. I've added leeks, carrots, potatoes and barley, it smells wonderful.
Skin
The skin can be added to the stockpot or you could try putting it on a baking tray and crisping it in the oven. I say 'you could try' because I haven't tried it. I wish I had though, I think crisp turkey crackling would have gone down well with my boys.
Now for that minced turkey and the delicious fat and juices. Here's what I did.
Turkey Rissoles
The rissole deserves a revival. Made with care these little cakes of minced roast meat can be delicious. Crisp on the outside, soft and savoury inside.
Ingredients
leftover roast meat, minced or chopped finely
fat from the roast (or butter)
onion
seasoning
meat juices from the roast or stock or water
breadcrumbs
I am not giving precise quantities, I don't know how much leftover turkey you have. There is very little point in a recipe which uses up leftovers if it requires you to have a specific amount of leftovers.
Start well ahead as the mixture needs to chill before it is shaped into cakes.
Take a bowl of
minced roast turkey (or any roast meat), add
finely chopped onion (I use my
veg hash), throw in any leftover bread sauce and stuffing you might have lurking around. Season with
salt and pepper.
Now make a sauce using about a tablespoonful of the
turkey fat and another tablespoonful of
flour. Make it exactly like gravy by melting the fat and stirring in the flour to make a paste. Let the paste cook for a minute or two before adding some liquid. I used the jellied
turkey juices from beneath the turkey fat. Obviously if you can use the meat juices and its fat your rissoles will have a better flavour and you will have made good use of all of your turkey. Stir them into your paste until you have a very thick glossy sauce. It should be thicker than gravy because this is going to bind the meat together. If it is too stiff add some stock or water, or you could use leftover gravy (I was saving my gravy to serve with the rissoles).
Add the sauce to the minced turkey. You may not need it all so add it gradually until you have a firm paste.
Spread the mixture on a dinner plate and put it into the fridge for a couple of hours to firm up.
When it has chilled and firmed up cut it into equal portions like a pie and shape the pieces into little cakes.
Roll them in breadcrumbs. If you don't have any
breadcrumbs dust with flour.
Use the remaining turkey fat to fry the rissoles on both sides until crisp and brown. They will become quite soft and delicate after frying so take care when removing them from the pan. Serve with reheated leftover gravy if you have some. Mashed potato is nice with rissoles although I made twelve with my leftover dark meat so we skipped it and just had them with peas.
The same method can be used to make fishcakes or veggie cakes using leftover cooked veg and cheese.
You can of course add whatever spices you like to rissoles to zip them up a bit.
All I have left of my Christmas turkey now are several tubs of stock in the freezer and the sliced white meat which we will eat with baked spuds and salad tonight. The pudding was eaten in one go thanks to me cleverly making a quarter-sized one. There is one jar of mincemeat left and an entire Christmas cake but neither are in any danger of going off due to their high alcohol content so I am not worrying about using them up.
