Memoirs of an Amateur Cook

Last night, I really didn’t want to cook.  It was Friday night, I wanted a takeaway curry, a glass of wine and a nice relaxing evening.  Mr MAC was acting like a devil and trying to convince me that a takeaway really was the way forward but I remained strong and didn’t give in, thus creating a rather yummy pie that I was quite proud of out of our final lot of leftover roast turkey from Monday evening (a good job it was the last of it….don’t think we could have eaten it any longer!).

Leftover Turkey and Vegetable Pie

Potatoes

Chicken stock

2 tbsp fromage frais

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 large handfuls of mushrooms, sliced

5 rashers of smoked bacon, fat removed and cut into chunks

2 leeks, sliced

A large handful of frozen sweetcorn

Leftover turkey

Large tub of light cream cheese

Dried thyme

Dried mixed herbs

Salt and Pepper

A large splash of dry white wine

Cheddar Cheese

1. Put your peeled and cubed potatoes in a pan with the chicken stock and some seasoning.  Bring to the boil and allow to simmer for 20 minutes.
2. Bring a small pan of water to the boil, add your leeks and allow to cook for approximately 4 minutes.  Drain and set to one side.
3. In a large frying pan, cook your mushrooms and garlic in frylight for about 5 minutes.  Add your bacon and cook. 
4. Add leeks and a dash of wine to the frying pan and allow the wine to cook out (so that there is none left).  Next add the turkey, cream cheese, herbs and seasoning.  Keep stirring to allow the cream cheese to melt and to ensure everything has been coated in the cheesy mixture.  Chuck in the sweetcorn and cook for a few minutes.
5. Transfer the cream cheese mixture to a large casserole dish.  Mash the potatoes with fromage frais, add seasoning and half of the cheddar cheese.
6. Smooth the mash on top of the cream cheese mixture making sure to cover all of the edges.  Sprinkle the cheddar on top before putting in the oven.
7. Bake at 200 degrees for 30 minutes or so until the mash has browned and is bubbling.

I throughly enjoyed this dish, in fact, I think it was my favourite meal of the week.  As you can see, I just kind of chucked in whatever  had lying around at home so, sorry about the lack of measurements!

This recipe is also fairly healthy too, not bad for a Friday night!

Turkey Pie (This photo does definitely not do it justice!)

All in all our turkey butterfly produced a whopping 16 healthy and tasty meals.  A really enjoyable week of cooking and an economical week of eating!  Hopefully some of my recipes have proved that leftovers are not to be snubbed and are certainly not boring…..