So Many Leftovers

Last night, I began to use the massive amounts of leftovers we have from our Thanksgiving Day feast. What I realized is that we have a lot of turkey to use in the next few days! Yikes! We're going to be turkey-ed out before you know it!

I don't really like just "making a plate" of leftovers, since it's like reliving the original meal, which has already been done. I like to be creative with the ingredients, and make something totally new, if possible! Last night, I went a bit mainstream and we had Gobblers for dinner! A Gobbler is a sandwich, made with all the leftovers from Thanksgiving dinner: cranberry sauce as a spread, stuffing as a filler, and turkey slices as the meat. I had made a loaf of Brioche bread on Thanksgiving Day in anticipation of this dish (but also to make the house smell yummy). Brioche is the perfect bread for this type of sandwich because it is dense, and can hold the moistness of the cranberry sauce, as well as the weight of the stuffing and turkey. I enlisted the help of my Breville Panini Grill, in order to heat everything up once the sandwiches were made.

For dinner tonight, I decided to go with a lighter use of the turkey, by making a Vietnamese dish, known as Pho. For all of you who are not familiar with Pho, it's one of the best things for a cold winter's day - a big, steaming bowl of noodles, with broth, veggies, and if you so choose, meat. I'm going to use the turkey in this version of Pho, along with some baby corn, snow peas, water chestnuts, thinly sliced onion  and zucchini. Since I keep most Asian cooking ingredients in the house all the time, I didn't need much at the grocery store, but it's good to keep hoisin sauce, fish sauce, and some ginger on hand for a recipe like this as well. Check out this heartwarming bowl of goodness!

I steeped some cloves, coriander seeds, peppercorns and a cinnamon stick in the chicken broth for a few minutes before adding all the veggies and allowing them to cook. I sliced the turkey into small pieces, and added that as well, allowing everything to heat up together. At the last minute, I added some rice noodles, since they would only take a minute or two to cook, and then I served. This dish is easy in the sense that stir-fry is easy, just add what you have, or what you want to eat, to some broth and let it all simmer together. You could put any veggies in there, and really any kind of meat as well. It was really hearty and warming, and a great use of leftover turkey!

How are you using your leftovers? Comment on this post to share your favorite leftover turkey recipes!

Pasha

One cuisine that I haven't explored nearly enough is Turkish food. Thankfully, a Turkish restaurant has moved into a nearby town, and we've tried it twice now. The first time we had it, we ordered take-out, but when I walked into Pasha's space to pick up our order, I was immediately transported to a small cafe in the center of Istanbul. I had to try eating there, and tonight, we did!

First, let me say that the presentation on every dish that was brought to us was absolutely gorgeous. The colors, the music and the decor in the restaurant are so authentic, and I think it will quickly become one of my new local favorites. We decided to order a bunch of things to share, and I got some great pictures too! I'm also going to include the Turkish name for each dish, in parentheses, for fun. I love learning new languages.

For appetizers (mezeler), we chose to order Mujvair (mucver), which is baby zucchini fried with fresh vegetables, topped with garlic yogurt sauce. We also ordered Beet Tarator (kirmizi pancar), which is boiled and shredded beet with homemade yogurt and mayonnaise. The zucchini was crispy and well seasoned, tasting fresh and light. The beets were REALLY good! It was a chilled dish that would make for a great summer side dish...I think I'm going to try making it sometime soon!

For our shared entrees, we chose to order the Shepherd Salad (coban salatasi) and Baytea (beyti). The salad included diced tomatoes, cucumbers, red and green peppers, mint, dill, parsley and was lightly dressed with a house dressing. It was so fresh and crispy and cool...really the perfect dish for a warm spring day like today. Very refreshing! As for the Baytea, it is sauteed ground lamb gently rolled in fillo dough, topped with yogurt and tomato sauce. There must be some lemon juice in the sauce as well because it had this wonderful hint of acidity in every bite. That acidity is something I never would expect, looking at the dish, but it just adds a brilliant touch.

Everything we've ordered at Pasha has been delicious, refreshing, and satisfying. It makes me want to visit Turkey so badly, to experience everything for real. Until that day, I will live vicariously through my visits to Pasha, which is located at 669A Massachusetts Avenue, in Arlington, MA. Right now, they aren't delivering, but it's worth it to drive there to pick up your order if you are looking for take-out. Their number is 781-648-5888. Check out their menu here!