There is always leftover turkey after the next-day leftover Thanksgiving dinner and possibly a turkey sandwich, so I usually make real McCoy turkey enchiladas. Well, more like real Garcia turkey enchiladas since I learned how to make them in a lesson just for me by the Mexican-native mother of the teenager who babysat my daughter now and then when we were living in Santa Monica. We love them.
This year, since there was a good amount of leftover spicy sweet potato along with turkey gravy and broth to go with the turkey breast cubes, I decided to try something different, having only a general idea of how it might turn out, working with the pantry contents rather than making a trip to the store.
I had yellow onion, garlic and fresh ginger, frozen French-cut green beans and leftover Basmati rice, a tin of Mexican-spiced stewed tomatoes and an abundance of spices from JD’s Market for what I thought might be a sort of turkey curry. Sliced. Chopped. Sauteed in heavy Belgian pot in olio. Fried curry powder, cumin seeds, cumin and coriander powders, basil and red pepper flakes. Put the spicy sweet potatoes and stewed toms in the food processor and pulsed them roughly — not to baby food! — then added that mixture to the pot along with the turkey.
The sweetness of the sweet potato disagreed with me when I tasted the mixture, so I added lime juice, fried up a bit more curry powder with some chili powder and let everything simmer a little while. Adjusted later with just enough salt to please my palate (others may prefer more), then poured over and marbled into the rice and with a bit of lime juice squeezed over the top, it was, finally, an experiment that worked. Naturally, the mango-ginger chutney recently made played its role in the finale. That was the plan.
Another way to make something tasty with leftover turkey. A one-timer.
Ms Chef in Seattle 