What to Do with Your Thanksgiving Leftovers

Thanksgiving Leftover day is my favorite time of the year because figuring out what to do with the them is a fun creative exercise. It’s gotten to a point where I over-prepare dinner to ensure I’ll have stuff to play with for the whole weekend.

Here are some of my hacks to repurpose everything from mashed potatoes to the turkey bones.

1. Keep the Party Going

In years past my friends at Put a Egg on It would host a day after Thanksgiving sandwich potluck. Everyone would bring their leftovers and we’d spend all day making sandwiches. It’s such a great idea because you can try everything from another person’s dinner. Here are some of my favorites:

Pulled turkey is easy to make the next day. All you need to do is shred all the meat and simmer it in a bit of gravy and brown sugar. You can also ~trust me~ and use mang tomas a Filipino brown sugar liver sauce. Serve on potato rolls with pickles.

Leftover cured meats platter and salad turns into an Italian sub.

Have you ever considered a dessert sandwich?

2.  Soup’s On

Save the turkey carcass and bones to make soup stock. Remove all the meat from the bird and set aside for another dish. Roast the bones on a sheet pan at 400 degrees F for 15-20 minutes until they are golden brown. Throw those into a stock pot with any carrot shavings, celery hearts or tops; onion peels, garlic, bay leaf and enough water to cover. Bring to a boil and simmer for up to 4 hours. Cool it down, strain and you’ll have stock for days!

Gravy can also act as a soup starter. Just add 1 cup of water or unsalted broth per tablespoon of gravy.

An easy leftover soup is shredded turkey, hot broth and a scoop of mashed potato.

3. Fry, My Pretties!

Cold mashed potatoes are perfect head start for croquettes. If your mashed potatoes are on the liquid-y side, stir in dry bread crumb or blended up stuffing to make a thicker filling. Using a small ice cream scoop, scoop the potatoes into balls, roll them in flour, dip them in whipped egg and roll in bread crumbs. If they fall apart while you are dredging them, the potatoes are too thin. I like to freeze these croquettes before deep frying for 3-4 minutes until they are golden brown.

Make turkey tenders by tearing leftover meat into large chunks. Similarly, dust them in flour, dredge in egg and panko breadcrumb before deep frying to a golden brown.

4. Butter Me Up

Make cranberry orange compound butter. Fold a hefty spoonful of cranberry sauce and zest of an orange into a stick of softened butter. Place the mixture on parchment paper, roll it into a log and wrap it in plastic wrap. Chill for two hours to set it. It also freezes well for a couple months.

Got a ton of leftover herbs? Thyme, rosemary and sage blend well together with a bit of garlic and melted butter. You can substitute olive oil and use this as an easy spread for garlic bread. It lasts for up to another week or freezes for a couple months.

5. On the Rocks

Make a cranberry simple syrup by mixing 1 cup of hot water per 2 tablespoons of cranberry sauce. Strain the mixture, let it cool completely and mix with your favorite seltzer, lemonade or vodka on ice.

Cheers! If you use any of these leftover hacks, I’ve love to see it! Tag @Randwiches on Instagram.

Thanksgiving 2016: Easy Cranberry Sauce with Tangerine & Pecan Bitters

This is part of my Thanksgiving 2016 post, see the rest of the menu here.

Cranberry sauce has a bad reputation. Many people have only experienced the gelatinous canned version. What will blow your mind is how easy it is to make. It'll take less than 15 minutes, I promise.

Things you'll need:
1 bag of fresh cranberries 2 tangerines 1/4 cup honey	Two dashes of nut bitters* Pinch of salt

Wash the cranberries thoroughly. They float! Make sure you jostle them around. 

Add the honey, tangerine juice and zest to a small sauce pan on low heat. Whisk to combine. 

Place the berries in the pan and turn the heat up to medium. The cranberries will quietly pop over the next 5 minutes. Stir to scrape the bottom and make sure none of the sauce burns. Turn the heat down to low and continue cooking until all the berries are popped and have liquified. When the sauce is done, turn off the heat and let cool for a couple minutes before adding the bitters and salt.

You can make this up to three days before Thanksgiving!

Switch it up! 

• Instead of honey, try maple syrup or sugar.
• Replace the tangerine with any citrus fruit you want. 
• Try another type of bitters.

*The story behind the pecan bitters is that I got it from my dear friend Lauren Nischan, who I bunked with at Eat Retreat in Wisconsin. She made 20+ bottles of homemade bitters and taught us how to mix and match them. At the end of camp, she really didn't want to lug the bottles home, so I took the pecan!

Making your own cranberry sauce? Show me by tagging @Randwiches on Instagram! I want to compare notes.

It's the Best Time of the Year: Thanksgiving Leftover Eve!

Ah, Thanksgiving day. It is merely the social hurdle standing in the way of my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving Leftover Day. With catering, you try to make exactly the amount of food you need for a job. However, today, I am overprepping my dishes to ensure that I have things to play with all weekend. I've even gone so far to co-host several leftover parties over the past few years.

Here's what's I'm contributing:

Pastrami Smoked Turkey, a hybrid of Bon Appetit & Michael Ruhlman. [Recipe here!]

Pastrami'd veggie proteins

Green beans with hazelnut and shallot petals

Carrot, nuoc mam cham, dukkah

Mashed potato and celery root 

Cranberry sauce with tangerine and pecan bitters [Recipe here!] 

Smoked ham hock gravy

Egg nog ice cream with marshmallow creme

Learn How to Cook with ChefShock on Twitch

Subscribe to our show to help us keep the lights on! // See all of my GIFs here

ChefShock is a brand new cooking show on Twitch. Wait, Twitch? Yes, the video game streaming site! It is the first live cooking show where my friend Justin Warner cooks an entire meal from scratch. You can buy the ingredients ahead of time and cook along with us.

I'm thrilled to be part of this show as a chat moderator and 'peanut gallery,' switching off duties with the lovely Kelsey Kinser. See me drop some mad food science as Justin preps the food.

You'll learn basic skills like cutting onions and other aliums...

Meet my personal hero, #SaltPig...

And because we're on Twitch, we still geek out about games...

What I love about this is our anti-Seamless, DIY approach to cooking. It's within reach and totally possible if you learn the basics with us. We live-moderate the chat to answer questions about the recipes and kitchen tools. Plus, we're fun! All of the pixel art for the dishes and titles are by my dear friend Diego Garcia. We have episodes saved if you missed it live. You won't find another show that does this right now, so I hope you watch!

Here's week 1's menu:

Tune in weeknights at 8pm ET or catch up on the previously aired dinners.

Pickle These Beautiful Wonderland-Inspired Oyster Mushrooms

As seen on FeedFeed!

I’ve seen pickled mushrooms in Italian deli cases and was always off-put but their slimy nature. Inspired by Epicurious’ #CookItWithColor challenge on Instagram, I scoured the internet for ways to transform the magical looking mushrooms I picked up every week from the Madura Farms table at the McCarran Farmer’s Market.

I love the idea of roasting the mushrooms before brining them, they have more of an edge and developed flavor. The addition of white wine vinegar and paprika add a much-needed zest to an otherwise run-of-the-mill appetizer.

What you'll need
1 pound of oyster mushrooms 1/2 lemon, zest reserved 1/4 cup of white wine vinegar 1 small chili pepper 1 shallot, sliced into rings 1 garlic clove, grated 1 tablespoon of hot paprika	1 tablespoon of brown sugar 1/3 bunch of chives 2 tsp of salt 2 tablespoons of olive oil 1/2 teaspoon of whole peppercorns 1 bay leaf 1 medium swing top jar

Cut the foot off the oyster mushrooms and separate them. Make sure to brush off any dirt with a paper towel or food-safe brush. Lightly toss the mushrooms them in a pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 1 teaspoon of the salt and a couple grinds of fresh pepper. Broil them on low for 5 minutes or until they shrink. The idea is to wring them out of moisture so they will absorb the brine.

Meanwhile, prepare the jar by steaming it in a water bath for one minute. In a small pot, simmer the vinegar, sugar, garlic and remaining salt until the sugar dissolves. Pierce the chili pepper and add it to the jar with the mushrooms, lemon, zest, shallot, paprika, peppercorn and bay leaf.

To finish, twist the chives into a rope and coil them into the jar. Fill the remaining space with ice and let the jar cool at room temperature until the ice melts. Store it in the fridge for two weeks. 

I recently served these mushrooms as an amuse bouche on a dollop of whipped robiola cheese. Try them on your next antipasto plate, in a salad, sandwich or on pizza.

Love mushrooms? Check out these other posts.

• An important guide to lion’s mane mushroom

• Super savory mushroom rubbed Delmonico steak

• Shiitake tartines with arugula salad

• Daring exercises with a giant king oyster mushroom

• Zero waste mushroom powder

Watch me on Guy’s Grocery Games

Meep! I have some news!

Freaking out over here because I got to show my extreme love for cheese on Guy’s Grocery Games, season 10 episode 5. Watch me and 3 other contestants race around a Flavortown with shopping carts.

You might be able to catch reruns on Food Network, check their page here.

It’s available on Amazon for $2.99 and for $1.99 on Youtube

Will you be tuning in? Let me know by tagging @Randwiches, @FoodNetwork and #GroceryGames on Twitter. Here is the link if you want to share the show details: bit.ly/jdlvonggg

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank a few people who have helped me build my cheese knowledge over the years.

• Steve Jenkins, author of the Cheese Primer. This was the first book I ever read about cheese. It’s meant to be a reference, but I read it straight through like it was a Jane Austen book -clutches pearls-

  • Another bit of trivia is that if you look closely in the background of any Good Eats episode, Alton Brown has a copy in his kitchen.

• Monica Byrne and Leisah Swenson, owners of Home/Made Brooklyn. If it weren’t for a fateful Craigslist posting and opportunity to spread my wings in the kitchen (and cheese board), I wouldn’t be writing this post right now. Will always and forever bring a wheel of Mt. Tam from Cowgirl Creamery to every job interview.

• Murray’s Cheese shop. I interned in the caves with Zoe Brickley (now at Jasper Hill) and volunteered for as many classes as I could in my spare time between running communications at The Tank and working at Home/Made. I did it for the love of cheese and I have to thank Murray’s alums Beth Griffenhagen, Sascha Andersen, Jordan Zimmerman, Josie Adams, and Sydney Wilcox for teaching me. I still have my stacks of pairings worksheets and tasting notes!

Do you love cheese or want to get on my level? Get to know these people or ask me questions any time!

Love Mushrooms? Here's a Quick 15 Minute Dinner For You

Rich miso mushrooms take this spin on grilled cheese to another level. Pair it with the zesty acidity of an arugula salad and crunchy garlic, you’ve got an easy dinner in just 15 minutes. Inspired by the mushroom tartine at Home/Made Brooklyn, where thick slices of walnut bread are grilled with their famous herb oil and smoked mozzarella.

What you'll need
For the tartines: 10oz shiitake mushrooms, stems removed 1 tablespoon of butter 1 teaspoon of miso ¼ cup pesto 1 shallot, chopped 1 ball of fresh mozzarella, sliced 4 thick slices of crusty bread 1 garlic clove, grated ½ cup of water Salt	For the salad: 1/4 pound of arugula Juice & zest of 1 lemon 1 teaspoon of olive oil 1 tablespoon of fried garlic Fresh pepper

Makes 4 tartines

Set your oven to broil.

Slice the mushrooms into 1/4” pieces and place in a pan on medium heat to dry them out.

Meanwhile, spread a thin layer of pesto on each slice of bread. Whisk the remaining pesto in a small bowl with ½ cup of water and the miso.

As the mushrooms release water, add the butter and shallot. Once the shallot is translucent, add the garlic. If the mushrooms aren’t sizzling and look too dry, add a swirl of olive oil. Saute for 5 minutes. Turn the heat all the way up and deglaze the mushrooms with the miso-pesto. Reduce for 4-5 minutes on low heat until it forms a thick sauce. Turn off the heat and let rest in the pan. Taste and salt it as needed.

Broil the bread for 1-2 minutes until toasted. Place mozzarella on each slice and broil until the cheese melts. Turn off the oven, move the toasts to the highest rack and hold there until you are ready to eat.

Combine all of the salad ingredients except the fried garlic. Garnish with the garlic right before serving.

Arrange each plate with a handful of arugula salad and a piece of cheesy toast. Spoon an equal amount of mushrooms on each tartine & enjoy!

Love mushrooms? Check out these other posts.

• Zero waste mushroom powder

• Super savory mushroom rubbed Delmonico steak

• Pickled oyster mushrooms

• Daring exercises with a giant king oyster mushroom

• How to cook lion’s mane mushroom

Cure Your Mornings with this Savory Oatmeal

As seen on FeedFeed!

Here's a tip from issue #10 of Put a Egg On It. Cure egg yolks for two days in soy sauce for a custardy addition to oatmeal! This requires no skill except for cracking open an egg and separating the white from the yolk. 

Here I have a bowl of overnight oats with a cured yolk, chopped flowering mustard greens, garlic scapes, and sliced turnip. Sure beats a bowl of sugary oatmeal from a packet!

The Finger Foods (& Awesome Host) of Lady Parts 003

Last May, I made snacks for Lady Parts: 003. My friend Cassie organizes these quarterly events where women can meet each other, brainstorm, bounce ideas and most importantly, work together. I set up on a beautiful, wide countertop at the BarkBox offices. As I put out platters of finger food, I learned about new projects from incredible women hustling in New York City.

Many thanks to Cassie for inviting me and for letting me run wild with the menu below.

The Menu

• Tea sandwiches
  • Slow cooked adobo beef and white thousand island
  • Miso butter and raw turnip
  • Rampscallion (literally ramps and scallions) cream cheese and cucumber
• Milk and white chocolate bark with sea salt, pepper, dried peaches
• Cheese and chorizo platter

Selects

Get to know Cassie (& hire her if she's available!).

Spring Forward for These Absolutely Beautiful Greens

As seen on FeedFeed! 

I know it looks like I pulled up a corner of grassy field and put it on a plate. It's a showcase of my market finds last spring and it was an easy enough salad to bring to work! Crunchy, spicy and totally healthy. No fretting about transporting salad dressing, either.

Here's what we have:

At the top we have a delicate purple chive flower. You can break buds off and use them as garnishes for a wide array of dishes, from tea sandwiches to sushi.

Clockwise from there are the deep green fronds of agretti. Uncooked, it resembles a thick dill. If you think of seaweed, you're not far off. It is nicknamed "land-seaweed" and is actually a succulent. I was told to blanch them before eating and they retain a crunch when you add them to salad.

At the bottom, we have small Japanese turnips from the Brooklyn Grange (vending at the McGolrick Park market after the winter break). If you're short on time, pre-wash, quarter these little babies and store them in a tub of water until you're ready for a snack.

Hiding underneath we have gorgeous heirloom tomato. I like to leave mine out on the counter stem-side down until they are ready to leak all over the place. Kind of like a firm water balloon. If you try to pick it up and it liquifies, that's too far (but I don't need to tell you that)..  It is moist enough to constitute a light "dressing" with our next ingredient.

Sprinkled on top are chunks of sheep feta and some of its brine. Its saltiness alone is enough to season this whole plate of vegetables. I like the way it crumbles in my fingers.

Lastly, and quite possibly my favorite new discovery is the minutina. Long, salad greens with a clean crunch. Much like arugula but shaped like linguine and minus the spicy bite.

The most exciting thing is that once spring hits, these specialty greens will be returning to the farmer's markets. My favorite source is Bodhitree Farm at the McCarren Park Greenmarket. 

What are you looking forward to this spring? Let's talk about it! Tweet me @Randwiches.