Remains of the Day

Thanksgiving is over, the relatives have all left, the kitchen is clean and you still have turkey to eat. You are probably sick of turkey, turkey sandwiches and turkey salads so you can freeze it... then add your leftover Christmas turkey to it in a month, or do something with it. I suggest a couple of things. The first is Turkey Noodle Soup, I don't need to give you a recipe for this, just check out my previous post about chicken noodle soup. I highly recommend using the saved turkey carcass to make the stock, although you may not have saved your carcass since I wasn't timely enough to post something about saving the carcass! So first I am sorry I took so long to get back on here, it won't happen again, and second if you didn't save your turkey carcass you can just use boxed chicken stock, it will still be tasty.

My second suggestion is Turkey Enchiladas Verde, this is what we had for dinner last night. My 18 month old son was not interested in it but my husband was, he loves anything with a Mexican food flavor. This recipe has you making the enchilada sauce from scratch which you will see is a pretty easy task, but you can also buy enchilada sauce in a jar, red or green. If you do this you only need the turkey, tortillas and cheese to complete the dish. I also don't make individual enchiladas I make this more like a lasagna with layers of tortillas, turkey and cheese. So I hope you enjoyed your holiday weekend and ate too much yummy food. I will make sure to get back on here with more recipes sooner rather than later.

Turkey Enchiladas Verde
2 Tbl Olive Oil
1 Small Onion, chopped
2 Garlic Cloves, minced
1 Serrano Chili, deseeded and minced (can be found fresh in the produce section)
1 Tbl Cilantro*, minced
28 oz can Tomatillos, pureed
1.5 tsp Salt
3-4 cups Turkey**
Corn Tortillas***
2-3 cups Monterrey Jack Cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Heat olive oil and add onion and garlic, saute till soft.
Add chili and cilantro, stir for one minute.
Add tomatillo puree and salt, simmer for five minutes.
Add turkey.

Time to layer!
In a 9x13 inch casserole dish put half a cup of sauce mix on the bottom. Lay down a layer of tortillas, spread with 1/3 of sauce mix, sprinkle 1/3 of cheese. Repeat twice more. And you are done. Pop it in the preheated oven for approximately 20 minutes till the cheese is melted and it is bubbling around the edges.

As I was writing the ingredients down I realized I had something to say about a few of them:
* I do not like cilantro. It tastes like soap to me. My husband does not like cilantro either. So we don't put it in most things. But I know that the good Dr. Crystal likes cilantro, so she may have something more to say about it.
** You can easily replace the turkey with chicken, just follow the recipe from the previous post about cooking the chicken for the Chicken Noodle Soup.
*** And finally corn tortillas. I use corn tortillas in my enchiladas, I believe that is what is traditional. I like the flavor and the texture. My husband doesn't agree; he prefers flour tortillas for enchiladas. I love flour tortillas but I feel they get gummy and slimy when baked in enchilada sauce and covered in cheese. Having made that statement I am surprised that my husband likes the flour tortillas in enchiladas seeing as he has a problem with things that are a funny texture like apple pie and pears. But I still make them with corn tortillas because otherwise it just isn't right and I still get text messages from my husband at lunch time that say, "Hot damn, that was some good enchilada!"
Side note: I just read this post to said husband:
Him: "Don't you mean flour tortillas?"
Me: "Um no... those were corn."
Him: "Oh."
Folks he couldn't even tell the difference! I win.
Enjoy the enchiladas, no matter what kind of tortillas you use!