TRAVERSE CITY — Once Thanksgiving is over, James Biehl doesn’t want to be looking at the leftovers for days on end. Owner of Biehl’s Turkey Farm in Mancelona, he says that he and his wife estimate what they might consume in the short term and freeze the rest immediately, while it’s fresher.
“I like to take what I think I’m not going to eat after two to three days and freeze it right away,” he says. “Don’t wait.”
They either package some turkey, potatoes, gravy and stuffing in portions together in freezer bags to make a complete meal or wrap each of the elements up separately. Either way, it all goes in the freezer for later use. What doesn’t get frozen becomes turkey or turkey salad sandwiches, he says. His wife, Anelyn, likes to make soup out of the leftovers, or turkey pot pie.
That seems to be a common refrain.
“The first thing we always like to do is pull that turkey out and just do a cold turkey sandwich,” says Sue Duerksen, co-owner of Mancelona’s Duerksen Turkey Farm.
Her version includes a pulled turkey sandwich in which she pulls the meat off the legs and thighs, warms it with barbecue sauce and serves it with fresh coleslaw on a bun.
“And I like to make soup — just a wild rice and turkey soup,” she says. “We pull the meat off the bones and put the bones back in (to boil) to make more stock. You can use wild rice, black beans, lentils, onions, chopped-up potatoes.”
Auston Minnich, executive chef at Grand Traverse Resort and Spa, takes his turkey sandwiches up a notch by making sliders on Hawaiian rolls.
“I literally take cranberry, mayonnaise, turkey and lettuce and put that right on the Hawaiian roll,” he says.
He also does a “kitchen sink” turkey soup, using basically anything that’s left over as ingredients. He’s also partial to turkey casserole and turkey pot pie.
“The sky’s the limit (as far as) whatever you could do with everything,” he says. “You kind of want to think outside the box — look at what we have and what we could make with it.”
Crystal Mountain Resort Executive Chef Kenneth Quade also makes soup out of the leftovers.
“You can incorporate a lot of different things from the Thanksgiving dinner,” he says.
Shepherd’s pie is a route that some take. Duerksen makes hers by layering turkey on the bottom, then mashed potatoes, followed by stuffing, corn or green beans if available and gravy on top, then baking it.
“We put cranberries on the side,” she says. “Not everybody likes cranberries in our family.”
At Delamar Traverse City, Corporate Chef Chris Rutkowski says Artisan restaurant makes a point of repurposing food it doesn’t use. Artisan was serving Thanksgiving dinner for guests this year.
“Since it’s already cooked, it’s most likely reformatted into some type of pie or lunch special the next day,” he says.
Leftover vegetables can be made into sauces served on pasta.
“So if we have a bunch of leftover sweet potatoes, we can turn that into almost a sweet potato sauce — add some vegetable stock and a little bit of butter,” Rutkowski says. “You can coat pasta with a little bit of that and grated cheese.”
And some get extra-inventive with what’s left after Thanksgiving.
At home, Rutkowski turns his mashed potatoes into pierogi and also uses them to make filling for scratch-made tortelloni — a larger version of a tortellini. He also likes to make stock from the turkey carcass and freeze it to use at Christmas.
“You can use it to add moisture to your stuffing for Christmas,” he says. “It’s good to set the stage for your Christmas meal as well.”
Andy Elliott, chef and co-owner at Traverse City’s Modern Bird, says his family enjoys waffles prepared with stuffing.
“We take the stuffing and crack an egg or two into it to just kind of bind it, throw it on the waffle iron, fry an egg and put it on top and have that for breakfast,” Elliott says. “It’s not the lightest fare in the world, but it tastes pretty good.”
If Duerksen has extra stuffing, she rolls them into balls, bakes them and serves them with drizzled cranberry sauce. Extra potatoes get repurposed into mashed potato cakes for breakfast a day or two later.
“Those are really good — a little bit of flour, an egg, leftover mashed potatoes,” she says. “I like to chop up some fresh green onion with that, mix it all together and make a patty and fry it in butter. It’s kind of like a hash brown, and butter makes everything good.”
Turkey Leftover Casserole
3 C. turkey
3 C. stuffing
1 C. white onion, diced (if not in stuffing)
1 C. celery, diced (if not in stuffing)
1/2 C. turkey gravy
1 1/4 C. heavy whipping cream
1 C. Swiss cheese, shredded
1 T. minced garlic
Salt & pepper to taste
Topping:
1/4 C. seasoned breadcrumbs
3 T. butter, melted
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Spread mixture in a greased 9-by-13 casserole dish.
— Auston Minnich, Grand Traverse Resort and Spa
Leftover Tortelloni in Brodo
The pasta:
2 C. flour
1 C. (4-5) eggs
2 T. egg yolk
The filling:
2 C. leftover mashed potatoes
The brodo (broth):
4 C. leftover turkey stock
Garnishes:
Parmesan
Fried sage
Mix flour, eggs and yolks together and knead until the eggs are completely incorporated into the flour.
Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and allow to rest at room temperature for an hour.
Cut off a portion of dough and carefully flatten it with a rolling pin. Dust with flour and roll through the thickest setting on your pasta roller. Roll it a few more times at a slightly smaller setting. Fold the sheet in half and roll it through again. Repeat the previous two steps until you get a uniform, rectangular sheet of dough.
Run the pasta through on thinner settings each time until the pasta is quite thin (0.5-0.75mm).
Cut approximately 2 1/2-inch squares from the sheet and reserve your trim to roll out again later.
Place a small amount of filling in the middle of each square. With one of the corners facing you, fold over so the corners touch. Press down on either side with your index fingers to seal the triangle. Then wrap the triangle around your thumb to connect the two corners to create the tortelloni.
The hydration of the dough should be sufficient to seal on its own, but if it doesn’t stick, a light spray of water will suffice. Place the finished tortelloni on a floured tray and refrigerate until needed.
To finish, boil pasta in salted water until al dente (approximately 3 to 4 minutes). Place in a bowl and ladle in hot broth. Garnish with Parmesan and fried sage.
— Chris Rutkowski, Delamar Traverse City