leftovers

SRC: Turkey Pie

~ lk529 ~ 33 Comments

newsrcbanner

Today’s Secret Recipe Club post kicks off Thanksgiving week. This year I want to celebrate everyone’s second favorite part of the holiday – leftovers! I knew that in my search through my assigned blog, Chocolate & Chillies, I knew I would be on the search for turkey friendly recipes.

If you don’t yet know, in the Secret Recipe Club, each participating blogger is assigned a blog from another participating blogger and secretly searches their site for something to recreate. The accompanying blog post then goes live on reveal day!

And last month, Asiya was assigned my blog! She made Pumpkin Zucchini Bread inspired by my Pumpkin Broccoli Bread. Asiya left the workforce as an analyst seven to stay home with her first son. I can relate as I too just left my job as an engineer after having my first child. She started her blog as a way to branch out in the kitchen, and she has a husband who happily supports her endeavor. Her family is Indian and her husband Pakistani, so her blog is heavily influenced by these two cultures.

Using dishes from other cultures is a wonderful way to use up those turkey leftovers without getting bored, so I must thank the Secret Recipe Club for helping me to think outside of the box! If you usually make soup with your leftovers give her homemade oyster crackers a try; they’re on my bucket list.

I pulled two recipes off of Chocolate & Chilles, Mummy’s Chicken Pie and Chicken Biryani. As I am posting a rice skillet dish tomorrow I opted for her chicken pie. Because I used precooked roasted turkey instead of cooking chicken for use in this dish, I added extra garlic and ginger paste. Normally I’d shy away from the eggs in the pie filling, but it’s Secret Recipe Club so I left the ingredient, and I’m glad I did! I’d also never worked with phyllo dough before, mostly because I’m too impatient to brush each layer with melted butter, but also because I don’t want to be using that much butter. I’m glad that Asiya used a milk and olive oil wash instead!

Stuart and I both loved this Thanksgiving leftover solution. I served it with the leftover twice baked sweet potatoes from my “Thanksgiving for Two” menu.

Turkey Pie

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb cubed cooked turkey breast
  • 2 hard boiled eggs, diced
  • 2 tbsp canola oil
  • 1 tsp ginger paste
  • 1 tsp garlic paste
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • 3/4 C + 6 tbsp milk, divided use
  • 1 roll frozen phyllo dough, thawed
  • 2 tbsp olive oil

Steps:

  1. In a saucepan heat canola oil over medium heat. When hot add the ginger and garlic pastes, reduce heat – it will splatter. After 30 seconds whisk in the flour and return heat to medium. Slowly whisk in 3/4 C milk, whisk over medium heat until thickened slightly and free from lumps. Mix cubed turkey and diced hard boiled eggs. Set aside.
  2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
  3. Whisk together 6 tbsp milk and 2 tbsp olive oil. Brush mixture on bottom of a 7×11″ casserole dish.
  4. Slice phyllo dough in half, place one half in the fridge until ready to use. Place one sheet of phyllo in casserole dish, brush with milk and oil mixture, repeat until all of the sheets have been used.
  5. Top phyllo with turkey pie filling.
  6. Top the filling with the second half of the phyllo dough – repeating the process of brushing with the milk and oil mixture. Brush the top of the pie with the milk and oil.
  7. Bake 20 – 25 minutes, or until the top is lightly golden and inside is hot.

*This recipe is adapted from Asiya at http://www.chocolateandchillies.com/2011/06/mummys-chicken-pie.html*

Turkey Pie FG1

To see the other bloggers who participated in the Secret Recipe Club this month click here:

Italian Sausage and Red Pepper Pesto Panini

~ lk529 ~ 1 Comment

About twice a month I’m met with the “I don’t want to cook” flu. It’s usually accompanied by a strain of the “need to go to the grocery store” virus. There are two popular remedies to this illness: 1) date night out and 2) go to the store on the way home from work.  With this recipe, I’ve discovered a new antibiotic! Take what you have and make a sandwich.

In asking Stuart what he wanted for dinner he actually had an answer other than my favorite “I don’t know”. He wanted a panini. So I hit the web and found one that looked good. I shared the recipe and was given the vote of approval… along with the question, “Do we have what we need?” My answer, “ Um, we have bread.  And maybe cheese?” Instead of getting discouraged I read her blog post and thought, I could do that! (She utilized ingredients from her pantry/fridge to create her masterpiece.)

I used my engineering degree in the kitchen once again and improvised a panini maker. I slathered some butter on the outside of the sandwich and treated it like a grilled cheese. Except instead of using a skillet, I used my indoor grill pan. Taking the flat top of a saucepan, I pressed the sandwich. After achieving those traditional grill marks I flipped it over and repeated the process. The result – a beautiful panini fake out.

Italian Sausage and Red Pepper Pesto Panini

Ingredients:

  • 4 slices of bread
  • butter, for spreading
  • 2 tbsp red pepper pesto
  • 2 links hot Italian sausage, sliced into medallions
  • 2 slices white American cheese
  • kale

Steps:

  1. In a small skillet, cook sausage.
  2. Assemble sandwiches: Spread butter on all pieces of bread. On the opposite side of butter spread pesto on 2 of the slices. Top with sausage, kale, and cheese. Top with other slice of bread, butter side out.
  3. Press in panini maker or follow my method described above.

Fake Out Panini