Remains of the day

Left over porchetta layered in between slices of rustic country bread

'Please sir will you leave a bit for tomorrow, ?'

Even as I tucked into my Christmas roast,I was already looking forward to the leftovers.Sometimes I can barely wait for Christmas lunch, or any lunch for that matter, to finish so as I can look forward to getting my creative head and hands on the leftovers.Surprisingly, so often the cold cuts taste better than what was hot from the oven the day before.

Sandwiches come first, of course; barely have we finished the main meal before we are slicing thick, thick slices of mighty white,with meat sliced as thin as leaves, piled high in layers, so it looks overfilled and meltingly tender. Pickles are not an option, they are the requirement. Their vinegary tartness the essentiality to cut through the possible blandness of the filling.Onion marmalade, green tomato relish, or tomato and ginger chutney will lift the sandwich to higher ground. Home made tracklements  should not be shy on spice, and set your sandwich alight.

Turkey, pork, chicken or beef sandwiches-choice of bread is of the essence here.

Use yesterdays leftovers to make delicious and easy baked potato toppings for lunch today!

Turkey and cranberry sauce

Chippolata and crispy bacon

Creamy bread sauce and stuffing

Christmas cake/ Christmas pudding ice cream

Crumble up left over Christmas pudding or fruit cake and mix it into any flavoured ice cream.Line a loaf pan with foil and fill with the ice cream mixture pressing it down with a spatula and spreading the top

till it is even and smooth.line the top with more foil and freeze,When ready to serve turn out onto a plate and carefully peel the foil away.With a wet knife cut into thick slices.

Cold play porchetta

A domestic take on the classic Italian marketplace or street food, Porchetta is actually roast suckling pig served up in sandwiches. Thickly sliced rolled belly pork  served up in rustic country bread is an equally delicious sandwich, hot or cold. Gennaro Contaldo also recommends eating the dish cold. This is JUST gorgeous! Much better cold than hot. He says it’ll keep for up to a week in the fridge. Yesterday morning we removed the joint from the fridge. It was much easier to slice a lot thinner and had the consistency of pressed ham. The aromatic flavour was glorious. I preferred eating it cold – while hot you really were aware of the amount of fat you were eating whereas cold it had a much more delicate taste and was not so filling.

Given that streaky bacon is made with pork belly we fried a few slices in a nonstick pan (no need for oil), and ate it on rustic baguette with poached eggs. I can’t recommend this highly enough.

Turn those leftover vegetables into heartwarming soups

Make a hearty Turkey stock with your left over carcass,  vegetables and herbs and use it as a base for soups.

I made a  contemporary curried parsnip and carrot soup loosely based on my  mother´s Curried parsnip soup

Roasted onion and garlic soup

...and of course not forgetting that classic solution, curry

Turkey curry- every which way, with coconut cream, citrus flavours.