Christmas Leftovers - Gourmet Burger Recipe

Ah leftovers, simultaneously the best and the worst thing about Christmas. The best – because you can carry on eating tasty Christmas food, the worst – because after 3 days of nothing but turkey, you can begin to get a little bored. Carine, however, likes to take the opportunity to get creative and do something a little exciting with her leftovers. Last year she made a tasty salad using her leftover duck à l’orange, and this week, she’s going to show you how to turn your trimmings into a delicious gourmet burger!

Carine is doing this with her leftover duck, but it will work with any type of poultry, so what are you waiting for?!

For the Buns

Ingredients

• 2 Eggs – 1 for dough, 1 to glaze
• 4 tbsp milk (full fat) 
• 50g softened butter
• 3 cups Strong/Bread flour
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• Fast-action dry Yeast
• 1½ tsp Sea Salt
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 cup water

Method

• Combine warm water, milk, and butter (in a food processor or a bowl)
• With a Thermomix – 3.5mins, 50 degrees, speed 2 then turn to speed 3 halfway through
• Without Thermomix, combine ingredients with yeast, mix well, and leave it somewhere warm
• Once mixture is combined and warm, add all the dry ingredients – strong flour, all-purpose flour, salt, sugar and yeast – couple of tsp (about 7g)
• Thermomix – mix for 3 minutes
• Without Thermomix - mix really well for 3 minutes, by hand, kneading it – don’t worry if it’s sticky, it’s meant to be!
• Then beat your egg and add it to the mixture – once your mixture has cooled down – DON’T add egg to warm mix
• Then your dough will be ready! Expect it to be very sticky.
• Remove the dough and place it on a well-floured flat surface
• Knead it with plenty of flour then shape into buns – with a dough-scraper, if you have one
• Leave to prove for an hour or so then pop in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 180◦.

For the Salad

Ingredients

• 50g shredded red cabbage (or any other cabbage, or Brussel sprouts – any leftover leafy veg, basically!)
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp whole grain mustard
• 1 dash lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp good olive oil
• 1 pinch sea salt
• 1 pinch freshly ground black pepper
• A little hot water

Method

• Shred your cabbage or other leafy veg using a mandolin, a blender, or simply by finely chopping
• Boil some water and blanch the veg for 30 seconds
• Remove from the hot water and rinse in cold running water
• In a bowl, mix all your other ingredients until they are thoroughly blended
• Add your cabbage and mix together.

For the Chips

Ingredients

• 2 roasting potatoes – again, if you’ve got leftovers from Christmas dinner, use these!
• 2 tsp melted duck fat
• Pinch of sea salt
• Pinch of black pepper
• 1 Sprig rosemary

Method

• Boil your potatoes and slice into large, thin chip-shapes!
• Sprinkle them with salt and pepper, and spread on a little of your leftover duck fat (if you made duck) or butter/oil if you didn’t
• Spread over a baking tray and pop in the oven at 190◦c for 10-15 minutes until golden brown and crispy.

For the Burger itself

Ingredients

• Leftover duck meat (or whatever meat you had for Christmas Dinner!)
• Leftover orange sauce (this could be replaced with gravy!)
• Carrot purée, made from any leftover carrots or from the sieved carrot mixture if you made our Duck à l’orange.
• A little hot water

Method

• This bit is the easy part. Remove all leftover meat from the carcass and shred it into a microwave-safe bowl 
• Add a few tablespoons of your sauce à l'orange or gravy – make sure the mix is not too wet, you just want the sauce to hold the mix together 
• Mix it well and warm in the microwave for approximately 2 minutes.
• Take your leftover carrots and pop them in the blender with a splash of hot water to make a carrot puree

To assemble, slice your buns and lightly grill them, spread on your carrot puree and top with duck mix and salad. And there you go - the perfect, gourmet, duck à l'orange, Christmas, leftover burger. Leave the dry turkey in the past!