Three easy recipes that will make you fall in love with Christmas leftovers

There’s a lot of complaining done about Christmas leftovers. ‘God, not turkey again,’ is uttered in many a house. Me? I simply love them. 

Even if you have to keep unpacking and repacking the fridge – finding a place for everything becomes a game worthy of The Krypton Factor – you’re reminded of the glories still to be eaten (oh, the joy of finding a bowl containing three pigs in blankets). 

And there are treats you can get away with at this time of year that you wouldn’t in the normal course of events. A sandwich with stuffing, cranberry sauce, mayo, cold bread sauce spooned from the gravy boat, even the jellied turkey juices from the roasting tin, is sublime. When else do we get a sandwich so decadent that we put gravy in it? Rules go out the window at Christmas.

Any kind of hash – with crushed potatoes, greens, turkey or ham – becomes lunch, though I find it hard to turn the ham into anything, it’s so good on its own. Let’s just cut another slice, one with plenty of sugary glaze.

I usually find, after such a traditional British meal, that I’m craving spices, so use them in a quickly made relish; the mango version here still tastes fresh and slightly tart and is much more vibrant than a slow-cooked chutney.

An excess of smoked salmon can be raised to luxurious heights. Add it to a risotto (with plenty of soft herbs) or kedgeree or serve it with buttermilk pancakes and sour cream and dill. If you have a ham bone, make lentil soup – with either yellow split peas or red lentils – being careful to taste the stock in case it’s a bit salty (add water if it is). There’s never been a Christmas when I don’t make lentil soup the day after Boxing Day.

The turkey is the thing people tire of. It’s not that the meat is tasteless, it’s that ideas for what to do with it are thin on the ground. You can’t simply reheat it – it tastes awful, just as reheated chicken does – but you can reheat it in a sauce. That’s why, for years, we resorted to ‘turkey fricassee’, heating it up in a sherry-flavoured white sauce. 

Americans have turkey tetrazzini, a dish that’s easy to sneer at, but who doesn’t fancy the deep comfort of baked pasta with cheesy sauce, nuggets of turkey and crunchy breadcrumbs?

And there’s the Moroccan-spiced pie here, for which you heat the turkey in a little stock enriched with ground almonds. This is leftover cooking to be proud of. You’ve taken that bird and made it into a completely different dish.

With a bit of orange juice and a couple of tablespoons of marmalade, you can turn the cranberry sauce into a sweet topping for ice cream or pain perdu. Panettone can be toasted and spread with brandy or rum butter or made into a Christmassy bread-and-butter pudding with drops of cranberry sauce dolloped between the layers (the contrast of tartness and sweetness is irresistible). 

If you’re left with Christmas pudding, heat it in a frying pan with some Marsala until it’s warm right through and eat it with cream, or crumble it before heating and you have another ice-cream companion.

It pays, if you are the master or mistress of the house, and therefore the kitchen, to keep an eye on just how quickly stocks are being depleted. When anyone leaves whatever movie you’re watching under the pretext of ‘getting a bit of air’, you can be sure they’re not stretching their legs but have their nose firmly in the fridge. 

Before you know it, the leftovers earmarked for next day’s lunch are no longer available. You have been warned.

This is based on a Moroccan pie called b’stilla – which is made with either chicken or pigeon – but it’s a lazy version done with turkey. The meat doesn’t need to be cooked again, but heating it briefly in stock – as here - is a good thing to do.

It might seem a faff to cook the leeks before the potatoes, but I want the leeks to be soft and buttery and the potatoes to be crispy and golden in patches, so I cook them separately and then combine them. This is a good brunch dish for Boxing Day (you can easily scale it up) or a good supper for two once you’ve got rid of all the relatives.

I make a lovely toastie with pineapple pickle, but the pickle takes quite a lot of work, so I wondered what would be simpler and require fewer ingredients. This is just as good – sweet, sour and hot – but it’s made in minutes.