Party starters: how to jazz up your Christmas leftovers | Kitchen aide

3 days ago 8

“Pastry and cheese are the best food groups,” says Sarah Rossi, author of What’s for Christmas Dinner? Happily, those two worlds collide in her brie and cranberry bites, AKA an easy, scalable canape that minimises time in the kitchen. Cut a sheet of puff pastry into squares, then push them into the greased holes of a muffin tin. “Dollop each one with leftover cranberry sauce and top with leftover brie. Brush with beaten egg, then bake at 220C (200C fan)/425F/gas 7 for about 20 minutes, until golden.”

Lettuce is another great carrier of leftovers, and especially Conor Gadd’s turkey and ham fried rice. The chef/co-owner of Trullo in London starts by separating the leaves of a little gem. “Fry thinly chopped brussels sprouts, get some leftover turkey and ham in there, some [cooked and cooled] rice, sesame oil, fish sauce and a load of chopped spring onions and chilli.” Scoop the mix into the lettuce cups, and you’re done: “It’s a nice contrast from the traditional Christmas flavours,” Gadd says, though, to keep your snack game strong, he suggests perhaps finishing off with a scattering of chopped cashews.

If, meanwhile, your party is a sit-down affair and you’re actually up for even more cooking, it’s got to be pie. After all, crisp, golden pastry welcomes a multitude of festive leftovers. Will Stoyle, head chef at Silo in London, starts by melting a knob of butter in a pan on a medium heat, then adds two sliced leeks and cooks them until soft. Meanwhile, he knocks together a bechamel (you want 300ml for this), then stirs in 150ml leftover gravy. “Add the cooked leeks, 300g chopped leftover turkey, 200g chopped leftover smoked gammon and some chopped fresh herbs [parsley, sage, thyme, say], and season.” Spoon the lot into a pie dish and spread evenly (Stoyle recommends putting a pie funnel in the middle), then top with flaky pastry. “Press the edges to seal, brush with beaten egg and bake at 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6 for 20-25 minutes, until the pastry is golden and crisp.”

Ravioli is also just the ticket for putting a bunch of Christmas dinner leftovers to good use. “Blitz any turkey, ham, sprouts, potatoes to a paste, then season with parmesan, salt and a big old crack of pepper,” says Gadd, who uses this to fill fresh pasta. And if you’ve got any leftover gravy knocking around, you’ve got an almost readymade sauce. “Melt some butter in a pan, pour in the gravy and that’s it!”

Near-empty selection boxes, meanwhile, mean you’re well on your way to pudding. Whether it’s a dinner party or a New Year’s Eve buffet, one of Rossi’s favourite things to do is to reincarnate mini Maltesers and Cadbury Heroes (Dinky Deckers, in particular) as brownies. Other chocolates are, of course, available, and which you go for, Rossi says, is “more a personality question”, but a basic brownie batter really does welcome all. Alternatively, Rossi suggests combining spent chocolate (melted, of course), biscuits and nuts, then rolling them into a salami and chilling. “It’s a really fun thing to do, and you get a lot of portions from it,” she says. Just add espresso (martini or otherwise).

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