Finding the chase and cutting to it

Last year, I saw an interesting take on the 12 days of Christmas being overhauled against the inevitable left-overs following the feasting period.  The is my version of that excellent piece of work.

Really, that’s where you’re going with this, excellent?

Not excellent, obviously. But it is my version… and we’re not aiming for 12 days of left-overs, just the six.

The assumptin is you have half the turkey left (around 2.5kg) , and a ham roasted the weekend before Christmas – my family used to have the ham Christmas Eve’s evening, but this gives you some wiggle room in eating many big meals in the space of two days… We’re not feeding guests, but obviously, having more people over gets through the remainder of the food much faster.

You’ll have vegetable dishes and stuffings left too. Here’s our response to not getting bored.

Day 1 (aka Boxing Day or St Stephen’s):

Meal 1 – bubble and squeak.

Today served with fried patties made from the stuffings. Delicious with the added bonus that if you don’t mash the left-overs, there is very little washing up! Remember to remove the broccoli – it really dominates the stir fry and you are looking for sprout heaven.

Meal 2 – Remainder of the stuffings.

Eaten cold, delicious, though being bread based, seriously high in carbohydrate. Sorry, no photo available.

and

Meal 2 – Last bit of cauliflower cheese.

3 minutes in the microwave gives one of you a treat.

The aim is to let your stretched stomach return to its normal size. No picture available.

Day 2:

Meal 1 – Home made ham sandwich.

Easy living – an electric slicer means the bread is the same thickness as the ham, butter on one slice of bread, french mustard on the other, one of my favourite meals in the whole world.

The ham was originally cooked the weekend before Christmas, placed whole in a glass container with a sealable lid and stowed at 0°C stops anything going green or dull. We’ll finish off the remainder of this meat later today.

Meal 2 – Home made vol au vents.

“Vol au vents” means “flying in the wind” in its original French? Puff pastry and a rich sauce with a flavour added with the meat. My mum did these on the day after boxing day. For vegetarians, a few left over vegetables can be used instead with a little garlic and/or onion.

A bit more effort but the microwave is your friend for making the roux. Make a simple roux, then toss in cold turkey and ham, chopped into strips or diced. When using the ham, bear in mind you won’t need to salt the roux, but lashings of black or white pepper really makes this pop.

Make your life significantly easier with premade puff pastry, or store bought blocks or rolls. Happy for you to make the puff from scratch, just start the task just after lunch to be ready for tea at 18:00. The full recipe here: Vol au vents.

Day 3:

Meal 1 – turkey arrabiata.

White meat can be put into a Pasta Arrabiata. Spicy and a bit of a break with the traditional northen european fair. Sorry, no pictures.

Meal 2 – tucchino ad astra.

Bascially, a pollo ad astra but with pre-cooked turkey. Dark meat works well to give a twist. Baically do everything, accept skip the chicken in the oven for 15 minutes!

Day 4:

Meal 1 – turkey and broccoli stir fry.

Last bit of the turkey, dark meat works well here, and any ham, tossed with the broccoli you didn’t put into the bubble and squeak. I do this fried with onions, peppers, left over baby sweet corn, then add cooked basmati into the frying pan before serving. Sorry, no pictures.

Meal 2 – left over dough balls.

From yesterday’s pizza dough, served with home made garlic butter,

Day 5:

Meal 1 – a cheeky sandwich.

We had family over for lunch, so we did a home made french onion soup. A lovely break. For the evening, my beloved was working, so had a canteen meal (not turkey or ham).

Having baked a wholemeal loaf during the afternoon, a cranberry and white turkey meat sandwich served as my repast. The end is definitely in sight – I have carefully saved a lovely chuck of white meat… Sorry no pictures.

Day 6:

The final meal.

Even with modern fridges, the turkey is on its last legs, so to speak. Using the last of both types of meat, a meat pie is made with chicken stock. A few bones are left but I have to say, I did sling them as they did not look great.

For next year, I am going to take the bones and make stock in the microwave on Christmas day. It will make a lovely addition to the meat pie (though it might need to be frozen).

Looking forward to doing this all again next year. Happy 2025!