Holiday Leftovers Two Ways – Sauteed Green Bean Casserole & Turkey Sausage Hash over Stuffing Cakes
Posted on | December 23, 2008 | No Comments
Tis the season for leftovers. With the traditional spread of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, dressing and cranberry sauce, the leftovers are indeed often better than the main event. However, after sandwiches, and the inevitable re-warming/repeat of the holiday meal, we often run into a dead-end.
Here are a couple of fun ideas you might try, or expand upon.
Each of these features the stuffing cake as its base. Our family used the traditional store bought stuffing mix (I think we used this brand), and then added chicken stock, raisins and other simple accouterments. I added a whole, beaten, egg to about two cups of stuffing mix, blended quickly in the food processor and formed into cakes. I cooked this in oil for about 2-2.5 minutes per side and removed to a cookie sheet in a warm oven.
The stuffing cakes, crunchy from the pan frying and warm in the center, have this wonderful, familiar flavor of stuffing, with the sweetness of raisins, celery, herbs, apples, or whatever you’ve added previously. The possibilities for these are vast.
A quick search didnt’ turn up too many variations, so I encourage you to send them to me if you come across them.
A fellow blogger over at The Barber Bunch has a cool take on this concept.
Sauteed Green Bean Casserole
The first topping is a simple re-imagining of the traditional green bean casserole, with the added benefit that the green beans and mushrooms haven’t spent 30 minutes cooking in the oven, and the white wine, garlic and stand on their own quite well.
Again, it’s a familiar, comforting flavor profile, with a fun new twist.
I used moreover green beans, mushrooms, white wine, garlic and cream.
- Saute a crushed garlic clove or two in butter and remove when it turns golden
- Add mushrooms (about a cup depending on how many cakes you intend to make) and fry in the garlic oil. Remember the rule about mushrooms: leave them alone so they brown slightly. Stir them to much and you’ll reintroduce a cold surface a hot pan, in essence steaming the mushrooms. No one likes gray, rubbery mushrooms. If you have a recipe that calls specifically for these, I’d love to see it.
- Remove mushrooms, add another small pat of butter, a glug of chicken stock and a glug of white wine to the pan. Cook green beans about two minutes per side in simmering wine/butter mixture.
- Reintroduce the mushrooms to the pan and add a few shots of cream, Mr. S and Mrs. P. If you’re feeling adventurous, grate some fresh nutmeg into the mixture as well.
- Stir occasionally as the mixture reduces. When the consistency thickens, remove from heat and spoon over warm stuffing cakes.
Turkey Sausage Hash
This is as simple as it gets. I used moreover turkey sausage from an earlier night in the week, added a few onions, marjoram. ground red pepper and chicken stock. I encourage you to use turkey scraps and a bit more than a cap full of cider vinegar if sausage isn’t just laying around.
- Cook the onions in butter and chicken stock until translucent. Add chopped turkey sausage with the casing removed (easy to do, just slice the sausage on one side, from end to end, and peel off the casing).
- Add marjoram and red pepper flakes, turn to simmer, and cover for about 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat when the onion mixture starts to come together (I judge this by the slightly glistening look that the reduced stock, caramelizing onions and turkey sausage begin to give off. you’ll see it in the picture above).
- As always, make sure you’ve introduce Mr. P and Mrs. S.
- As above, spoon hot mixture over stuffing cakes and serve.
- This would be FAB with a fried egg. Give it a try.
More later
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