Pilgrims Pie

This is from the Wednesday, November 25, 2009 Food Section of the Los Angeles Times. It is a simple and delicious way to use up a lot of leftovers.

1/4 cup ( 1/2 stick) butter
1/2 cup diced onions
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning (I made this myself)
1 1/2 cups milk
1 3/4 cups chicken stock
4 cups combined diced leftover turkey and vegetables, at room temperature (We used brussel sprouts and a potato dish I made in a misguided panic that we didn't have enough food.)
2 cups leftover stuffing, more as needed, at room temperature
2 cups leftover mashed potatoes, more as needed, at room temperature

Leftover cranberry sauce, served on the side

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 2-quart casserole (about 10 by 8 inches) and set aside. 2. Place a medium heavy-bottom pot over medium heat. Melt the butter, then add the onion and celery and cook until the vegetables begin to soften and color, stirring occasionally, about 5 to 7 minutes.

3. Stir or whisk in the flour and poultry seasoning,  making sure to eliminate any lumps. The roux will pull together. Continue stirring frequently until the roux begins to toast and color, about 3 minutes.

4. Slowly whisk in the milk and broth, whisking to combine. Once the mixture begins to bubble, turn the heat down and cook for an additional 1 to 2 minutes, stirring frequently.

5. Add the leftover turkey and vegetables, stirring to combine. Taste, adding more poultry seasoning, salt and pepper if desired. (Like I said, I made the poultry seasoning, and then accidently dumped the whole thing, about 1/2 cup, into the mix. I managed to get most of it out, but needless to say, I did not add more here.) Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish.

3. Use a spoon or an ice-cream scoop to alternate small scoops of stuffing and mashed potatoes on top of the vegetable mixture. Don't worry if the topping sinks slightly into the mixture. (Our stuffing wasn't the kind that could be made into scoops, so I just poured a layer of it over the turkey vegetable mix, then put scoops of mashed potatoes over that.)

Place the dish in the oven and bake until the vegetable mixture begins bubbling up and the stuffing and mashed potatoes are heated through and just beginning to brown, about 25 to 30 minutes.

4. Remove from the oven and set aside for several minutes before serving. Serve in a bowl with a scoop of cranberry sauce on the side.

Cornbread Dressing with Roasted Fall Vegetables

This recipe is from Bon Appétit from November 2007

1 10 ounce bag pearl onions (if you can get multi-colored ones it is really beautiful)
2.5 cups carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch diagonal slices (about 3/4lb)
2.5 cups peeled and sliced parsnips (about 3/4lb)
2 cups 1/2 cubes peeled rutabagas (about 3/4lb)
2/3 cup olive oil divided
1 pound crimini (baby bella mushrooms) stemmed, caps halved (I don't like mushrooms so we didn't use any.)
6 large garlic cloves, peeled
2 teaspoons dried thyme
2 teaspoons dried crushed rosemary
1.5 teaspoons dried rubbed sage
6 cups 1/2 inch cubes Cornbread
3 large eggs, beated to blend (I forgot to beat them, just cracked them over the mixture and stirred... it was fine.)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1.5 cups chicken stock

Position one rack in the top third and one rack in the bottom third of the oven; Preheat to 425ºF. Cook onions is a small saucepan of boiling water for 2 minutes. (This will take the tearing burn out of them.) Drain.
Cool slightly, trim and peel. Place onions, carrots, parsnips and rutabagas in a single layer on a large rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle 1/3 cup oil over and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper; toss to coat. 

Place mushrooms and garlic on another rimmed baking sheet; drizzle with remaining 1/3 cup oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, toss to coat. Roast mushrooms and garlic on top rack until tender, stirring once for about 30 minutes. (Since I was not using mushrooms I didn't use as much oil and only roasted them for about 15 minutes). Roast root vegetables on the lower rack until tender and brown around the edges, stirring every 15 minutes for about 1 hour. (I gave them an extra 15 minutes). Add mushrooms, if using to root vegetables in a large bowl. In a small bowl, mash garlic with a fork until it's pureed. Add pureed garlic and herbs to vegetables and toss to coat. (I accidently mixed the herbs with the pureed garlic, which made it hard to toss with the vegetables, but I think it turned out OK.) Season to taste with salt and pepper. 

**You can do up to this point and make the cornbread a day ahead, which is a good idea because it is time consuming. Just let it cool, cover and stick in the fridge. Bring mixture to room temperature before continuing.

Place cornbread cubes on large rimmed baking sheet. Let bread cubes stand at room temperature to dry slightly for about an hour. 

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Butter 13x9x2 inch oval baking dish. Add cornbread cubes to vegetables; toss to distribute evenly. Add eggs, toss to coat. Drizzle with melted butter, toss to coat. Add chicken stock and stir to combine. (Mixture will be very moist) Transfer to prepared dish.

Bake uncovered until lightly browned and crisp around the edges, about 45 minutes. (We put this in the oven as soon as we took the turkey out. The timing worked out perfectly.)

 

 

Shortcut Turkey Stock

In a large saucepan, combine:
8 cups chicken stock;
2 scrubbed unpeeled carrots cut into chunks (I used all the carrots in our stuffing recipe, so we didn't use any)
2 celery stalks cut into chunks
1 rinsed unpeeled onion, quartered
Stems from 1 bunch fresh Italian parsley
Reserved Turkey neck, heart and gizzard
Bring to boil. Reduce heat to very low; simmer gently until gizzard is tender about 90 minutes. Transfer neck, heart and gizzardto plae. Strain stock into medium bowl and cool. If adding giblets to gravy, pull meat from turkey neck. Chop neck meat, heart and gizzard. (We did not do this.)
You can do this up to three days ahead of time. Just cover the stock and wrap the giblets and put it all in the fridge.

Chicken Stock

This is the idea that got me started on this nonsense to begin with. About a month ago I was cutting up some vegetables to make something that I don't remember, and I was thinking about how much I detritus I produce in the process of cooking vegetables. One wants to feel virtuous when cooking with fresh produce, but here I am tossing out handfuls of potato skins, carrot shavings, onion skins, parsley stems, etc. I know that all of this can be composted, and I do make an effort to do that. But I felt like in the Depression, or on the Frontier people knew how to make use of this so-called waste and I wanted to know that too. It turns out that plenty of real modern day people already have that knowledge and all a girl has to do is utilize a little piece of twenty-first Century magic called "Google" to learn the secrets too. But sometimes it takes a little extra push to actually make something happen.

So my internet search on how to make chicken stock netted me a wide range of options, from boiling multiple whole chickens and pounds of fresh vegetables (which I'm sure gets you a really rich and amazing stock) to doing entirely with scraps, (which is what I opted for.)

Since I knew for about a week that I was going to do this after I roasted a chicken I began collecting scraps in a ziploc bag that I kept in my freezer, everytime I chopped up an onion, or peeled a carrot, or a potato I put the scraps into this bag. After we roasted the chicken and pulled all the meat off that we were going to eat, I put the remaining carcass and skin in another bag in the freezer. When I was ready I put the bones and skin in a large stock pot and covered it with cold water Then added about 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper and brought it to a boil, then immediately lowered it to a simmer and let simmer uncovered for four hours. After about an hour I added the bag of vegetables (use whatever you think would be good in a stock. Not all vegetable are right for this. Carrots, potatoes, onions, parsley, celery, garlic and a little bell pepper are what I used.)
After four hours I strained it and had about 5 and half cups of stock. I'll let you know how it tasted when I have the opportunity to use it.

My favorite part of this particular recipe is that it is essentially free. I made it entirely with food parts that I would otherwise have thrown away. And chicken stock is something that is called for in so many recipes. It was an item I tried to always have on hand in the past, so it is exciting to know how easy it is to make from scratch. And for an added bonus, my house smelled wonderfully chickeny and homey the whole time it was cooking.