Good morning. How’d it go yesterday? Was the turkey moist? The gravy smooth? You enjoy the side dishes, the dinner rolls? Were the pies abundant? Did Cousin Amy keep her cool?
I hope so. I hope your Thanksgiving was bathed in the spirit of the holiday — that you gave thanks and were given thanks, that you cooked well or at any rate ate well, that you got some time to yourself and with those who care about you. I hope you were able to sleep in this morning, and that you arose rested and ready for the long slide that leads from today, Black Friday, to the Wednesday dawn of 2025.
Mostly, I hope you have plenty of leftovers. To some — and absolutely to me — they’re the very best part of Thanksgiving.
I start with a leftovers sandwich. For years, I assembled mine on the fly, between slices of toasted English muffin: swipes of mayo and congealed gravy, a dab of cranberry sauce, a shred of turkey, a spoonful of stuffing. I’d smash that together and eat it in three bites, leaving the kitchen feeling as if I could go pro.
But then Sohla El-Waylly came along with a recipe for the best Thanksgiving leftovers sandwich (above), to show me how professionals actually do these things. Her instructions are precise and specific. They lead to joy. Her sandwich is maybe better than the Thanksgiving meal itself.
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Best Thanksgiving Leftovers Sandwich
Later on, I’ll make Samin Nosrat’s recipe for turkey tikka masala, a comforting riff on the Punjabi-style curry, to serve with steamed basmati rice, mango chutney and the naan that Meera Sodha taught me to make. I love that meal.
I’ll make turkey à la king, too, with a whisper of sherry added at the end to evoke country estates and grandparents and the children home from boarding school. Very John Irving. I’ll make turkey congee with white pepper, perhaps the pressure cooker’s highest calling, a comforting porridge whether you’re eating in Montana chill or the shower-room heat of a Florida evening.
Maybe turkey tetrazzini? Turkey pho? A stuffing panzanella with cranberry vinaigrette? Those, too, are magic.
And when I’ve harvested all that I can from the bird, when it’s down to bare bones and a few pieces of errant sinew and skin, I’ll make stock.
And with that stock, I’ll turn to the last great Thanksgiving recipe of them all, a kind of free-form turkey gumbo I learned years ago at the shoulder of the New Orleans raconteur Pableaux Johnson, no recipe required.
You can do it, too. Make a roux in a big Dutch oven or heavy pot. (I generally double that recipe.)
Dice a few onions, a few ribs of celery, a couple of bell peppers and season them with salt, black pepper and a big pinch of cayenne pepper. Stir those into the roux and keep stirring them around over medium heat until they soften.
Then cube a few andouille sausages — or chorizo sausages or kielbasa, anything smoked — and get them in there, along with the vegetables. Mix that around and continue cooking until they’re nice and starting to melt.
At which point, add enough turkey stock so that you’ve got enough gumbo to feed the number of people you’re feeding, turn down the heat and allow the pot to burble along slowly for 45 minutes to an hour. Do you still have some leftover turkey meat? You can shred that into the stew at this point, or not.
When you’re ready to serve, scatter some diced scallions over the top, give it a few pops of hot pepper sauce and ladle the gumbo into soup bowls half filled with steamed white rice. Give thanks for leftovers!
Now, it’s nothing to do with allspice or blackberries, but you need to read Rachel Kushner in Harper’s, on “the past and future of hot-rodding in America.”
I binged “Hit & Run” on Netflix the other day, since it stars Lior Raz, who was so good in “Fauda.” It’s not “Fauda.” But Raz is still Raz, and the cliffhangers keep you going.
You should absolutely sign up for our Cookie Week newsletter, which will bring you a brand-new cookie recipe every day from Dec. 1 until Dec. 8.
Finally, Slate picked what it calls “the 25 most important recipes of the past century.” Then Dan Kois cooked every one of them. Here’s how that went. I’ll see you on Sunday.
The post Give Thanks for Leftovers appeared first on New York Times.
