The Ultimate Turkey en Croute!

TLDR version: The best meal of the year made with the leftovers from the (joint) second best.

This time next week you'll likely still be feeling fit to burst from the heaps of turkey, pumpkin pie, corn based things, and freedom that you consumed for Thanksgiving Dinner. But, once you've managed to digest that there's still the question of what to do with the leftover turkey that's sitting in your fridge. It's time for my favourite meal of the year, and the best thing about being British overseas is that you get to do this twice, turkey for Thanksgiving, and turkey at Christmas means double the deliciousness.

Plenty of meat left on there, you'll get at least a couple more meals out of that, a vat of stock, maybe a sandwich as well.

In our family this is traditionally eaten a few days after Christmas, and is made as one big pastry parcel stuffed with a creamy turkey, mushroom, and ham filling. Once my sister left home I would often get the final quarter down me after returning from a festive pub trip post meal. I probably wasn't meant to, but post pub me doesn't have that kind of self control. 

Individual versions means a better pastry:filling ratio

Obviously, living in China now, I can't rely on my mum to make it every year, so I've been making it myself, and come up with a couple of alterations. Firstly, I make it in individual portions, it looks good on the plate, plus it ups the amount of delicious crispy puff pastry you get per person. Secondly, I make it more Chinese friendly by adding a bit more spice into the mix (I'll mark this as optional in the recipe, as it's a personal taste thing really).

On to the recipe then...

Serves - four people
Prep time - 35-40 minutes (plus time to let the filling cool/chill)
Cooking time - 20-25 minutes

Ingredients

For the stuffing:

450g leftover turkey meat*

275ml stock (chicken/turkey, or whatever you have), warmed

150g ham* cut into small pieces or 6 rashers streaky bacon* cut into strips

55ml cream

50g mushrooms (chestnut or button), quartered

1 small onion, finely chopped

25g butter*

25g flour

2 level tablespoons finely chopped parsley
Sweet paprika & chilli, to taste (optional)
Salt & pepper

For the pastry:
1x375g (ish) pack of ready rolled puff pastry (this is China gettable, I've seen it in supermarkets, and on Taobao, and it certainly beats making your own for most of us)

2 large egg yolks, beaten

*(available in our online store @ www.breakfastchampion.cn)

Method

1. First up you need to strip the meat from the carcass and divide it into rough 1cm chunks. You can use a knife for this, but I prefer to tear it by hand. Makes the end product more aesthetically pleasing for me.

2. Fry your onion (and chilli if you're using it) in the butter over a medium until it becomes translucent (roughly four  minutes), then remove it from the pan and leave to one side. Fry the bacon/ham in the leftover butter (also four minutes over a medium heat) then add the bacon/ham to the onions on the side.

Generic meat in pan pic (bit blurry) - I'll come back and add my own once I've had a turkey dinner and made this with the leftovers in a couple of weeks.

3. Fry your turkey pieces in the fat still in the pan (you may need to do this in two batches with each batch taking about two minutes), then add the onion and bacon/ham mixture back to the pan.

4. Keeping the flame on medium sprinkle the flour into the pan and stir it in to soak up all the juices. Allow to cook for at least thirty seconds before beginning to add the warm stock a tablespoon at a time, stirring to incorporate the flour mix. Once all the stock has been added, let it come to a simmer, and the mixture should look creamy and have started to thicken. Add the mushrooms, season well (add the paprika here if you're using it), turn to the lowest possible heat, and allow to simmer, uncovered, for half an hour.

5. Once the half hour is up stir in the cream and chopped parsley, check the seasoning, then leave to one side until cool (it's preferable to allow it to chill in the fridge, makes putting the parcels together much easier. I tend to make the mixture the day before and leave it in the fridge overnight). 

6. Once your mixture is chilled, and you're ready to make the final dish, preheat your oven to 200c.

7. Allow the pastry to come to room temperature (about ten minutes), then unfold the pastry sheet and cut in half. You'll need to roll each one out to make it a little bigger. You're wanting two 45x40cm sheets, which you then trim to make four 18x18cm squares. Keep the trimmings in reserve to decorate the outside of the parcels.

8. Talking of parcels, now's the time to put them together. Divvy up the mixture into four equal portions and place each one in the centre of the squares of pastry (because it's chilled it should hold its shape in the centre rather than ooze outwards). Brush the edges of the pastry squares with the beaten egg yolk, then pull up the opposite corners so that they meet in the middle. Give them a little squeeze, then pinch the seams together, taking care to make sure they won't split during cooking. Once this is done punch a small hole in the top to allow steam to escape.

9. Using the reserved trimming decorate the outside of the parcels (leaves are traditional/easy, but knock yourself out, be as creative/lewd as takes your fancy). Once done you can brush the whole thing with the remaining egg yolk and then place on a greased baking sheet on the top shelf in the oven for 20-25 minutes (until golden brown).

10. Serve immediately with some green beans, or a light salad. It doesn't need much else, it's a meal in and of itself really. 

I'm always disappointed that I don't make more of this, so, if you have enough turkey, you can probably make them up until just before the oven and freeze them for later. You could definitely just make more of the mixture and freeze it. 

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