It happens every year. The Yuletide table is heaving with food, a significant percentage of which goes into the fridge where it can sit for days before being binned. (Apart from the odd turkey sandwich, of course!)
But Gary Rhodes says it can all be used up — and even transformed into dinner party fare, with a simple mindset shift. “Many people just think, oh, I’ve got to do something fresh, you can’t give people these leftovers — but they don’t realise that sometimes those flavours are even stronger, they’re richer and more flavoursome,” the British celebrity chef tells Gulf News tabloid!.
“It’s about opening up that fridge and recognising what you’ve got and what you can do with it,” he says. “It’s about being your own chef, putting in your own sort of style and combination.”
We ask the original MasterChef US host for five tips on using leftovers.
1. Turkey: The giant bird, so beloved of Christmas tables everywhere, can easily be diced or shredded and added to a risotto with cranberry sauce. Or if you’ve got some smoked meat, use that instead, with a few chopped dates. “That could be absolutely divine particularly if the ham is slightly smoked — that works well against the treacly caramel flavour of the dates,” he says.
2. Smoked salmon: Sliced and served with blanched French beans, sliced cucumber, apple, radishes and avocado, this festive starter does double duty as a salad. Mix together a spoon of marmalade and two spoons of sour cream for a quick dressing. “I say to everybody, be brave, don’t think that everything you know to be sweet can only work in the dessert,” Rhodes says.
3. Trimmings: Bubble and squeak, the traditional Boxing Day breakfast is a great way to use up your old Brussels sprouts. “Shredded with a little touch of onion in there, some chopped roast potatoes… all in the frying pan, and as it starts to soften if you press it down gently and finish it off in the oven. If you want, you can sprinkle little bit of cheese just before, so it melts into a lovely gratin, and there you have a bubble and squeak with a difference. It’s also a great way to use up some of those cheeses.” Blue cheese works particularly well with Brussels sprouts, he says.
4. Christmas pudding: Crumbled together and mixed with flour, eggs, milk and dried fruit such as raisins and candied peel, pudding makes for great pancakes. Drizzle with a quick syrup of raisins simmered for 10 minutes in water with caster sugar, lemon juice and vanilla. “Another thing you can do with pudding or cake is to crumble it into slightly softened vanilla ice cream, stir it all through, back in the freezer and you’ve got a Christmas pudding ice cream and that is delightful,” Rhodes says.
5. Christmas cake: Bought a large cake and left with half? Remove the icing and break the cake itself down into smaller pieces. Place a spoonful onto a little square or round of shop-bought puff pastry, dab a little egg around the edges, fold it over, coat with an egg wash and sprinkle with cater sugar before baking. Christmas cake pasties could be a new tradition.
