Leftover Turkey Curry

And Other Unconventional Thanksgiving Recipes

Welcome to the third-annual Happy Wanderer Thanksgiving post!

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Unsplash.

Alas, our table doesn’t look like this, because, obviously, Thanksgiving is not celebrated here in Switzerland. Some American expats do host Thanksgiving dinners, but they have to special-order turkeys from France, and one small turkey costs about $120 (not a typo!). Besides, as a vegetarian, I haven’t eaten turkey since childhood. So every year I offer some off-the-beaten-path recipes for Thanksgiving. This year’s post includes a few ideas for dealing with leftovers too. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

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Thanksgiving Recipes from Previous Years

My first Thanksgiving post, “Uh Oh! A Vegetarian Is Coming for Thanksgiving!” features recipes for mushroom lasagna, quinoa salad, and guacamole, which you can serve to the vegetarians at your feast (but which will also be devoured by the carnivores). Last year’s Thanksgiving post, “Cultural Appropriation Thanksgiving,” ends with recipes for two appetizers that you can bring to someone else’s Thanksgiving feast: hummus, and Thai peanut dip.

A Recipe for Thanksgiving, or Any Time Really

The following recipe for squash biscuits, which I have liberally adapted from one I found at Williams-Sonoma, is hugely popular with my friends and family. I make these biscuits whenever my knitting group comes over, as well as for brunch and dinner guests. The biscuits are a great addition to Thanksgiving dinner, or you can make them the next day with leftover canned pumpkin.

One note: This recipe includes an initial step in which you roast butternut squash for the biscuits. This step might sound like what my friend Rick refers to as “cooking adventure mission creep.” (You know the phenomenon: Some recipes insist that you make every last ingredient, including those that are commercially available, from scratch.¹ In Rick’s case, he set out to make homemade ravioli, and then online folks guilted him into making homemade ricotta for the filling too, which he decided in retrospect was not worth the extra effort.)

Anyway, the reason I make my own squash puree is not because I am especially virtuous, but rather because canned pumpkin is not a thing over here. You are welcome to use plain canned pumpkin (most canned pumpkin is actually butternut squash). The made-from-scratch version is slightly tastier and gives the biscuits a brighter color, but it’s probably not enough of an improvement to justify the extra work. Unless you enjoy roasting squash! No one is judging either way!

Butternut squash that you roast yourself does produce a lovely color though.

Squash Biscuits

For the squash:

Ingredients

1 butternut squash

Olive oil, salt, and pepper

Method

1. Cut off the stem end of the squash, halve it lengthwise, and scoop out and discard all the seeds and gunk.

2. Drizzle olive oil over the halves and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper.

3. Place the halves facedown in a baking dish (I use a 9 x 13 Pyrex lasagna pan lined with a silicone baking mat). Add about 1/2c water to the pan.

4. Roast at 375F/190C for 45 minutes to an hour. The squash is finished roasting when the skin is caramelized and wrinkled-looking.

5. Cool completely and remove the skin. (It should peel right off.) Be sure to remove the icky stringy thingies too.

6. You will have about 4c of squash. Reserve 1c for the biscuits and freeze the rest in 1c-batches for future biscuits. (Or you can make soup with the remaining squash.)

For the biscuits:

Ingredients

1c roasted squash or plain canned pumpkin

1/2c heavy cream, plus a bit more if necessary

2-1/4c flour, plus a bit more

1T each baking powder and sugar

1tsp salt

1/2tsp nutmeg

Freshly-ground black pepper to taste

Plenty of chopped fresh herbs—I use sage, rosemary, and thyme—about 1/3c, loosely packed

1 stick/100gms very cold unsalted butter, cut into 1cm cubes, plus a bit more

Method

1. In a small bowl or measuring cup, mix the squash and cream until smooth.

2. In a large bowl, stir together all the dry ingredients and the herbs.

3. Add the butter cubes to the dry ingredients and cut in with a pastry cutter until a crumbly texture is formed.

4. Pour the squash mixture in and mix with a spoon as best as you can in the bowl. Then, butter your fingers and get your hands in there and kind of work the dough into a ball, turning it over and kneading it a few times in the bowl. If the dough isn’t coming together at all, you can drip in a few additional drops of cream, but be careful not to overdo it. Warning: This step is VERY sticky. Kids enjoy helping with this step!

5. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and pat it into a circle about an inch thick.

6. Butter a cookie cutter (I just use a juice glass) and cut out 10 to 12 biscuits. Place the biscuits on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

7. Bake at 375F/190C for 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown. Remove the biscuits from the baking sheet immediately and place them on a cooling rack so their bottoms don’t get soggy.

8. These biscuits are best piping hot! You can quickly reheat them just before serving Thanksgiving dinner, or toast them for breakfast the next day.

Recipes for Dealing with Leftovers

Save your turkey carcass and leftover meat! At the end of the following post you will find a recipe for thrifty and delicious chicken soup. (The recipe includes a step where you roast chicken thighs, but if you have leftover turkey on hand, you can skip this step and use the turkey instead.) This recipe not only uses up leftovers but will also make your house smell wonderfully homey.

Privilege, Gratitude, Service

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Or, after a traditional American meal, you may prefer something completely different the next day. I have liberally adapted the recipe below from one I learned to make at a cooking class in Prague. My vegetarian version is made with paneer instead of with turkey, but this spicy, creamy tomato sauce will complement leftover turkey or chicken too. One note: All measures for spices are approximate, and you should adjust according to your own taste.

Leftover Turkey (or Paneer) Curry

Ingredients

Plenty of vegetable oil and ghee (I used about 2T oil and 4T ghee)

Whole spices: 1 cinnamon stick, 2 or 3 whole star anise and cardamom pods, freshly-ground black pepper, and at least 2T cumin seed

1 small onion, minced

Salt to taste

1 garlic clove, finely minced with 1/2tsp salt to make a paste

A good-sized knob of fresh ginger root, peeled and finely grated

2 small medium-hot chilis, seeds and veins removed and finely minced (I use pepperoncini, or you can substitute 1 jalapeño)

Dried spices: Coriander, garam masala, turmeric, and a dash of chili powder (I throw in at least 2T of everything except the chili powder, which I use sparingly in deference to the sensitive palates in the family)

1 red and 1 yellow bell pepper, seeds and veins removed and cut into matchsticks

3 tomatoes, prepared as follows: Cut in half and squeeze out and discard pulp and seeds, and then coarsely chop the flesh

1 15oz/400gm can diced tomatoes

Plenty of chopped fresh cilantro

2c shredded leftover turkey (for the vegetarian version, substitute 14oz/400gms paneer,² cut into small cubes)

3/4c or so full-fat yogurt

Method

1. In a very large skillet, melt the ghee and oil together. When hot, add in the whole spices and toast briefly over medium-high heat.

2. Add in the onion, sprinkle some salt over, and sauté, stirring occasionally, until soft. Don’t let the onion brown.

3. Add in the garlic, ginger, chilis, and the dry spices and sauté briefly. Don’t let the garlic brown.

4. Add in the bell peppers, sprinkle some salt over, and sauté, stirring occasionally, until soft. You may need to deglaze with a few drops of water.

5. Add in the fresh tomatoes, sprinkle some salt over, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes break down and form a paste.

6. Add in the canned tomatoes, stir, and lower the heat. Keep at a low simmer, stirring occasionally, until about fifteen minutes before serving.

7. Add in the cilantro and turkey (or paneer) and heat through. Taste and add more salt and other seasonings if necessary.

8. Add in the yogurt, heat through, and serve the curry with rice and—for spice-lovers like me and my son—hot mango pickle.

Hot mango pickle, my beloved.

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Or, if my turkey curry recipe seems like far too much work, my daughter recommends Adam Ragusea’s recipe for Chicken Tikka Masala, which she makes whenever we have leftover tandoori chicken. You can also make this recipe with leftover Thanksgiving turkey, so long as you use dark meat and add in extra spices.

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How about you, readers? What is your best strategy for Thanksgiving leftovers? Please share your thoughts (and tips!) in the comments!

The Tidbit

But if all of these recipes are too much trouble, you could always just make the recipe below, which everyone will love!

H/t my friend Jonathan, who posted this on Facebook.

1. I’m looking at you, New York Times cooking app. Why must we prepare and store our own homemade “chili crisp” instead of just using dried chili flakes like normal people?

2. The editor in me is being driven crazy by how the measurements for the canned tomatoes and the paneer are inconsistent. I promise this is not an error! The can of tomatoes really does measure 15oz in the US or 400gms everywhere else, and my metric conversion app tells me that the 400gms of paneer I use equals 14oz. Maybe the weight of the canned tomatoes includes the metal?