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Curried Leftovers

Use up chicken, pork, turkey, lamb, shrimp, etc. in this curry sauce. Apples are the standard fruit, but you could substitute fresh pineapple or fresh firm pears. Our family traditionally makes this with leftover Thanksgiving turkey or Christmas lamb.

Ingredients:

1 apple, peeled cored diced

1 small onion, diced

4 tbl butter

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground ginger

1-2 tbl curry powder

4 tbl flour

2 cups hot stock (chicken or fish to match meat)

1/2 cup raisins

1/8 cup slivered almonds

3 cups cooked leftover meat, poultry, or shellfish in small chunks

Plain yogurt (optional)

Directions:

1. In a large saute pan, cook onion in butter until soft and starting to become translucent. Sprinkle in flour and immediately start mixing. Let cook for a minute or so, then stir in apples and continue stirring and cooking until bubbly and starting to get color. Mix seasonings together and stir in, continuing to cook. Slowly add hot stock, stirring, until sauce forms. Add meat, almonds and raisins. Simmer 10-15 minutes.

2. Serve over hot cooked rice, with a dollop of plain yogurt on top, if you have it. Or with other suitable chutneys and condiments of you keep them around.

Notes:

I found the base recipe in a magazine 20 years ago. It is not a very hot curry - you can make it hotter with better/more curry powder.

The basic curry sauce is the onion roux with the seasonings and stock cooked in. The fruit and meat can be widely varied, depending upon what is in season or leftover. If I am using fresh pineapple I sometimes caramelize it in a little butter separately, or grill it and throw the chunks in toward the end. If am using softer fruit like pears, I wait until close to the end to add it, so it gets hot but not mushy.

I start the rice cooking first, in chicken or fish stock, then start sauting the onions. I find it useful to measure out the rest of my ingredients ahead of time, like a TV cooking show. Once the onions are getting translucent, you will be stirring and adding things continuously, to avoid lumps forming.

You can easily go vegetarian with this, using vegetable stock, tofu, and whatever veggies you have on hand. Curried cauliflower always looks pretty. If the veg are already cooked, be careful not to overcook them into mush in the sauce. If they are raw, cut them small enough that they cook quickly, or get them sauting in another pan while you make the sauce to toss with them.