RECIPES: Christmas left-overs

Wondering how to be creative with all that leftover food from Christmas Day? Here are a few recipe ideas to ensure none of that festive fodder is wasted:

(Courtesy of www.waitrose.com)

Boxing Day Salad

Liven up leftover turkey and ham.
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Serves: 2

Ingredients
½ x 100g bag Waitrose Tenderleaf Salad
50g leftover cooked ham, sliced
1 head red chicory
1tbsp extra virgin olive oil
50g leftover cooked turkey, sliced
25g walnut pieces, chopped
50g Stilton, crumbled
2tbsp Waitrose reduced fat Caesar dressing

Method
Arrange the salad leaves in the base of a large shallow bowl. Break the chicory into leaves then arrange on top. Drizzle with the olive oil.
Tear the turkey and ham into shreds using two forks.
Mix with the walnuts, Stilton and Caesar dressing.
Pile on top of the salad leaves and serve.

Christmas Pudding Cigars

Liven up leftover Christmas pud.
Preparation time: 10-15 minutes
Cooking time: 8-10 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients
200g leftover cooked Christmas pudding
50ml essential Waitrose whipping cream
4 sheets of La Petite Maison Feuilles de Brick Pastry
4tsp Cooks' ingredients cinnamon sugar

Method
Preheat the oven to 200C, gas mark 6.
Break up the Christmas pudding into pieces and mix with the cream until smooth. Spoon into a piping bag with a straight nozzle.
Lay out the pastry sheets and pipe a cigar-sized line of the pudding mix lengthways along the middle of the pasty.
Fold over the pastry lengthways and roll into a cigar shape.
Place on a baking tray and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
Bake for 8-10 minutes or until crisp and serve with Waitrose mince pie ice-cream.

More than 5,000 recipes can be found at www.waitrose.com.

(Courtesy of www.bbcgoodfood.com)

Cheeseboard and onion tart

Use up remnants of cheese in this delicious tart. A mixture of blue, creamy and cheddar works well.
Serves: 8
Preparation: 15 mins
Cook: minimum 1 hr 5 mins

Ingredients
FOR THE PASTRY
250g plain flour, plus extra for rolling
125g butter, cold and cubed
½ tsp salt

FOR THE FILLING
2 onions, sliced into rings
1 tbsp oil
2 eggs
284ml pot double cream
250g cheese - could use a third each Stilton, Brie and cheddar

Method
Put the flour, butter and salt into the bowl of a food processor, then pulse until the mix looks like fine crumbs.
Splash in four tbsp cold water, then pulse to a dough.
Turn onto a lightly floured surface, shape into a smooth disc, then wrap and chill for at least 10 mins.
Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6.
Roll pastry out on a floured surface until large enough to line a 23cm loose-bottomed tart tin.
Line the tin with the pastry, leaving any excess pastry overhanging.
Line with baking paper, then fill with baking beans.
Bake on a baking sheet for 15 mins.
Take out the paper and beans, then bake for 10 mins more until pale golden and cooked.
While the pastry cooks, soften the onions in the oil over a medium heat for 10 mins until golden.
Beat the eggs and cream together, then season to taste.
Crumble up the hard cheeses and chop or pull the creamy cheese into small pieces.
Scatter the cheese into the pastry case, add the onions, then pour in the egg mix.
Turn the oven down to 160C/fan 140C/gas 3 and bake for 40 mins until set and lightly golden.

Turkey tetrazzini

Try this American pasta dish, with its creamy sauce it goes well with leftover turkey.
Ready in 45 minutes.

Ingredients
50g butter
2 tbsp flour
250ml hot chicken stock
Tabasco sauce
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
1 tbsp dry sherry
3 tbsp single cream
300g cooked turkey, diced
200g chestnut mushrooms, sliced and fried in a little butter
200g spaghetti, cooked following the packet instructions
4 tbsp grated parmesan 
 
Method
Firstly make the white sauce by melting the butter in a pan.
Stir in the flour and gradually whisk in the stock until the sauce is smooth.
Add a few drops of Tabasco to the white sauce and whisk in the egg yolk, sherry and cream.
Stir in the turkey and mushrooms.
Layer the spaghetti with the sauce in an ovenproof dish, sprinkle with parmesan and grill until browned.

Ham with boozy cranberry and mushroom sauce

An easy and decadent way to use up leftover Christmas ham.
Serves: 4
Preparation:5-10 mins
Cook: 20 mins

Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
Large knob of butter
250g chestnut mushrooms, halved
4 tbsp port or red wine
2 rounded tbsp cranberry sauce
150ml hot water
2 clementines, satsumas or mandarins, juice only
1 tsp bouillon powder or ½ chicken stock cube, crumbled
Splash of soy sauce
About 350g leftover cooked ham, cut into chunky slices

Method
To fry the mushrooms, heat the oil and butter in a frying pan over a high heat until the butter is foaming.
Add the mushrooms and fry for 4-5 minutes until they're golden.
To make the sauce, pour in the port or wine to deglaze the pan, then lower the heat and stir in the cranberry sauce until dissolved.
Pour in the hot water and fruit juice and sprinkle in the bouillon powder or stock cube.
Splash in a spoonful or so of soy sauce and stir well.
Turn up the heat and boil the sauce rapidly for a few minutes until it reduces slightly.
Slide in the ham and heat through for a minute or two. Taste for seasoning and serve.

Pan-fried Camembert sandwich

A toasted cheese sandwich that is anything but ordinary - oozing with Camembert and topped with cranberry sauce to give it a Christmas kick.

Ingredients
2 thick slices of white bread
Wedge of Camembert or Brie (about 85g)
Spoonful of cranberry sauce
Few drops of balsamic vinegar

Method
Butter bread. Put wedge of Camembert or Brie on the unbuttered side of one slice of bread.
Top with a spoonful of cranberry sauce. Drizzle with a few drops of balsamic vinegar, if you have some.
Put the second slice of bread on top, buttered side out.
Fry in a hot non-stick pan, pressing down with a fish slice, for a minute or two on each side until golden brown and melting.
Cut in half and eat straight away.

Boxing Day soup

Use up your leftover Christmas Day vegetables in this comforting winter soup.
Serves: 4
Preparation: 30-45 minutes

Ingredients
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 celery sticks, chopped
2 medium potatoes, about 350g/12oz total weight, peeled and cut into small chunks
1 tbsp curry paste
1.2l vegetable stock, made from a stock cube
550g leftover roasted or boiled vegetables, such as Brussels sprouts, carrots, parsnips and squash, roughly chopped
Natural yoghurt or crème fraîche, to serve

Method
To fry the vegetables, heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the onion for 5 minutes until golden. Stir in the celery and fry for 5 minutes, then tip in the potatoes and fry for a further 1-2 minutes, stirring often.
Stir in the curry paste, let it cook for a minute or so, then pour in the stock.
Bring to the boil and stir well.
Lower the heat, cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the potatoes are tender.
To serve, tip the leftover veg into the pan and warm through for a few minutes.
Pour the soup into a food processor or blender and blitz to a smooth purée.
Thin down to the consistency you like with hot water or stock (we added 300ml), then taste for seasoning.
Cool and freeze, or serve in bowls with spoonfuls of yoghurt or crème fraîche swirled on top. 
 
Make it meaty - meat eaters can use turkey stock if they have it.

Bubble and squeak

A great way of using up leftover mash, sprouts and cabbage.
Serves: 4
Preparation: 10 mins
Cook: 20 mins

Ingredients
1 tbsp duck fat, goose fat or butter
4 rashers of streaky bacon, chopped
1 onion, finely sliced
1 garlic clove, chopped
15-20 cooked Brussels sprouts, sliced, or leftover boiled cabbage, shredded
400g cold leftover mashed potatoes, or cold crushed boiled potatoes

Method
Melt the fat in a non-stick pan, allow it to get nice and hot, then add the bacon.
As it begins to brown, add the onion and garlic.
Next, add the sliced sprouts or cabbage and let it colour slightly. All this will take 5-6 mins.
Add the potato.
Work everything together in the pan and push it down so that the mixture covers the base of the pan. Allow the mixture to catch slightly on the base of the pan before turning it over and doing the same again.
It's the bits of potato that catch in the pan that define the term 'bubble and squeak', so be brave and let the mixture colour.
Cut into wedges and serve.

Coronation turkey with homemade chapattis

A jar of homemade spicy mayo will brighten up your turkey leftovers - it makes a great sarnie filling too.
Serves: 4
Preparation: 20 mins
Cook: 30 mins plus resting

Ingredients
½ tbsp vegetable oil
½ onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 tbsp curry powder
½ tsp each ground cumin, ground coriander and turmeric
125ml coconut milk
125ml chicken stock
200g mayonnaise
425g leftover turkey
2 tbsp desiccated coconut, toasted
Handful chopped coriander, to serve
Chopped tomato, sliced onion and lettuce leaves, to serve

FOR THE CHAPATTIS
350g wholemeal flour (or roti flour), plus extra for dusting
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Method
Heat a saucepan and add a little vegetable oil.
Fry the onion and garlic until both are lightly browned.
Chuck in all the spices and let them sizzle for 1 min, then add the coconut milk and the stock.
Allow this to reduce until you have a thick, rich, creamy, spicy onion mixture in the pan.
Pour into a bowl, leave to cool, then stir through the mayonnaise. Can be kept in the fridge for up to a week.

To make the chapattis, put the flour and 1tsp salt into a large bowl.
Pour in the oil and rub into the flour with your fingertips.
Pour in 250ml lukewarm water, mix to form a firm dough, then knead for about 10 mins until springy. Place back in the bowl and leave to rest for 30 mins.
Cut into eight walnut-size pieces and roll out into thin discs on a lightly floured surface.
Pan-fry the discs in a dry heavy-based pan for about 1 min on each side. They should colour and blister - use a clean cloth to press flat in the pan while cooking.

To serve, mix the curried mayonnaise with the turkey.
Toast the desiccated coconut in a dry pan until golden.
Sprinkle over the turkey along with some coriander, then serve alongside the chapattis with some tomato, sliced onion and lettuce, if you like.

Recipes available from bbcgoodfood.com. For all your festive food needs check out BBC Good Food's new Festive Recipes App available on the iphone and ipod touch priced at £2.39.