New Year's Eve Feast from Christmas Leftovers

We had so much food left over from Christmas that the refrigerator was making I'm-going-to-die noises. And yet, Gail and I enjoy making a New Year's Eve dinner. Gail suggested a challenge of nice dishes made from the leftovers. The result was spectacular.

First Course: Pumpkin Soup with Chevre and Goose Cracklins
We started by dressing up the pumpkin soup Gail made for when our daughters came home from school. Pumpkin soup is homey and works for Noele's vegetarian diet. This particular soup used winter squash rather than pumpkin and was mashed rather than pureed.  Gail also used more stock rather than milk, since our daughter Anna doesn't do so well with milk.

To dress it up, we took the skin from a goose we cooked for friends and made cracklins. Cracklins are simple with goose skin because it's so fatty. We cut little pieces and cooked them in a hot pan just like bacon, until crispy, about five minutes. The cracklins and a dollop of soft goat cheese blended perfectly with the soup for a perfect starter. Since Noele joined us for the soup, her portion had crisped up sweet potatoes made from Anna's leftover sweet potato fries.

Gail's Pumpkin Soup

Serves: 1 (1 ½ c)

1 t oil

¼ c sliced onion

2 T sliced celery

2/3 c vegetable stock

1 c peeled chopped pumpkin flesh (or other winter squash)

1/16 t salt

¼ c 1% milk (optional)

1 t dark brown sugar

Freshly ground black pepper

1/16 t nutmeg

1. Remove string and chop celery. Melt butter in heavy soup pot; chop onion while butter heats.

2. Sauté onion and celery until tender.

3. Add stock, pumpkin and salt, simmer until pumpkin is tender, about 15 min.

4. Cool enough to put in food processor; puree.

5. Return to soup pot. Add milk, sugar, pepper and nutmeg.

6. Reheat slowly, being careful that soup does not boil.

Second Course: Nova Scotia Hot Lobster in Portabello Mushroom Caps
I'm a bit surprised, but we had just a little bit of Nova Scotia Hot Lobster left over from Christmas dinner. We also had a package of baby porabello mushroom caps that didn't get used in Noele's risotto. We put the lobster in the mushroom caps and simply baked them. The result was a stuffed mushroom that would have made a star appetizer at any party.

In the background of the picture, you can see the split of Veuve Clicquot that we popped for New Year's Eve. That reminded us of our trip to Reims over the summer when we visited that Champagne cellar.



Third Course: Mashed Potato Pancakes
Leftover mashed potatoes became potato pancakes based on this recipe from cooks.com.  They were a bit too thin to be formed, but dropped into the pan just fine. We left out the green peppers.

This recipe would work well as the base for a seafood cake of any kind by adding drained crab, oysters, or even leftover fish.

Fourth Course: Mushroom Risotto Arancini
Noele's risotto is a big hit at every holiday meal. She made a lot more this year, since we usually run out. But we had leftovers this time. Gail found this recipe for arancini from allrecipes.com. Arancini are deep fried risotto balls. Yes, deep frying risotto is as delicious as it sounds.

We modified the recipe to use the leftover risotto and goat cheese we had on hand. We guessed at two cups of risotto for each dry cup of rice, but the result was slightly too thin to work with. We would have done better with three cups of cooked risotto to one egg.




Fifth Course: Pressed Goose with Potatoes and Black Lava Salt
For our last savory course, we made a casserole from leftover goose and potatoes. The potatoes were originally baked with the goose. We made a layer of potato on the bottom of a generously greased ramekin, and topped that by pressing in about a half cup of leftover chopped goose meat. We topped that with a decoration of potato slices. We were pleasantly surprised by the star decoration the potato made on top of the dish. Before baking, we added a pat of butter and some black lava salt. The salt was a Christmas gift from Noele, and added a little something special to the dish.

We ate the whole meal over about three hours, and this final meat dish added the right savory weight to sate us.

Sixth Course: Chocolate Mousse
For dessert, we made a simple dish of chocolate mouse. The mousse was leftover from a chocolate mousse crepes we had with a Hanukkah dinner earlier in the week. For this dessert, we piped the mouse into a wine goblet and topped it with whipped cream. I had a cherry on mine, mostly to decorate it for the picture. I doesn't seem to have helped much.

This particular mousse came from a recipe on cooks.com. The recipe simply adds instant chocolate pudding to fresh whipped cream. When we first made it, we only had half the required heavy cream. That worked fine for the first day. But after sitting in the fridge for a few days, the instant pudding firmed up a bit too much. It wasn't bad, but it would have been better with either more cream, or a lighter cream in the mix.

Epilogue: Rib Roast Open Faced Sandwich with Peppers
Tonight we made one more leftover meal. We took the last bits of the beautifully dry aged Christmas rib roast and sauteed it to render the remaining fat. We served the meat over toast topped with a milk gravy we made from the drippings, and added a sprinkle of the black lava salt. Gail sauteed some leftover peppers and added them to the side for a light but hearty supper. Cooking the meat this way refreshed it much better than a quick trip through the microwave would have.