Cheesy Biscuit Turkey Pot Pie

Here's a really excellent way to use up two types of leftovers...Thanksgiving turkey and last night's Baked Potato Soup.

First off, let me just say that the turkey I used for this dish was from Thanksgiving, but Michael had frozen it on Friday. I did not use turkey that was just hangin' out in the fridge for over a week for this dish!

Secondly, this is one of those double 2DG wins! I used last night's Baked Potato Soup in the filling for this dish.

Here's how it went...
Similarly to last night's soup, I cooked some chopped carrots, onions and celery in 3 T butter for about 10 minutes to soften them.  I added some chopped fresh parsley, rosemary and oregano from the garden while the veggies were cooking. Then I sprinkled about 1/4 c. flour on them and stirring constantly, cooked the mix for about 2 minutes. I gradually stirred in 2 c. chicken/turkey stock combined into a nice gravy. then I added about a cup of last night's soup, and stirred it and let it thicken up. While that was simmering, I chopped up the remaining turkey and got about 3 - 4 cups out of it. This got added to the filling, along with a few handsful of frozen peas. Let the bubble away while the oven preheats and you work on the cheese biscuits.

If you don't have buttermilk on hand, make your own "sour milk" by putting 1 Tblsp vinegar or lemon juice (I used lemon juice) to a cup, and fill the cup with milk. Stir and set aside for about 5 minutes so it can "sour". Meanwhile, combine 2 c. flour, 2 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp. pepper. Add 1 c. shredded cheddar cheese and 1/4 c. parmesan cheese and toss to coat cheese mix with flour mix. Dice 3/4 stick of cold butter and combine with flour/cheese mix, using pastry knife or fingertips until mix is course.

Before you add the sour milk to the flour, get your filling into your baking dishes. I managed to get 3 good sized individual servings and 1 deep dish pie plate out of mine. When that's done and you're ready to put them in the oven, go back and finish the biscuit dough. I recommend this because the acid in the sour milk will activate the leavening power of the baking powder and soda, so I always wait until the last possible second to add the milk to the mix, since I don't want all the rising power of my biscuits to be used up before I even get them in the oven.

To finish the biscuit dough, add the sour milk to the flour/cheese mix and stir until just combined and a loose dough forms. Drop the dough by spoonsful (I use an ice cream scoop) onto the fillings in the dishes.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 35 - 40 minutes until the biscuits are nice and brown. I rotated mine front to back and top to bottom after 20 minutes to ensure even baking.

Mike asked me to make a few individual pies so he could give them to his grandmother and 2 friends, so I did that and also made a bigger one for the two of us. I filled all of the dishes at the same time, using a big ladle, to make sure I'd have them all relatively even. I also did all the biscuits at the same time too, to make sure they were all fairly even.

If you have any leftover cranberry relish, serve it up with this!

Enjoy!

Turkey Mushroom Veggie Risotto

I actually made this earlier in the week, Tuesday, I think, but haven't had time to post this. The base for this was on Simply Recipes, but I added some more stuff to it. Oh, about the rice...I picked up a short grained rice at the grocery store for about 77 cents. I compared this to the special "risotto rice" that I saw that was priced much much higher, and it looked the same to me! It works just fine for risotto. And you need to know, risotto is a very "mindful" dish! You will need to give it almost constant attention, and I use the time to "meditate" a little bit! Hee hee...

I used: Turkey Broth I made from our Thanksgiving turkey, veggie stock I had in the freezer, a chopped onion, and sage I had on hand, leftover sliced portabello mushrooms, a zucchini I had in the fridge that I needed to use, chopped, some leftover creamed spinach that I made for a pot luck dinner on Monday, most of the remaining turkey in the fridge, and some grated parmesan cheese.


I mixed 2 c of Turkey Broth, 1 c. of veggie broth, and 2 c. of water and heated this to a boil. Turn this down and keep it at a simmer. You want the liquid to be hot when you add it to the rice.

Melt 2 Tbsp. butter in a big skillet until it stops foaming a litte. Add onion and about a cup of sliced mushrooms to the butter. Salt them a little and let them sweat until the onions are translucent. Add 3 cloves of garlic, minced, about a Tbsp of fresh sage, and 1 1/2 cups of short grained rice. Stir it a few times and let it cook for about 2 - 3 minutes.

You will now add the stock slowly, a little at a time. I use a ladle that holds a half a cup, so I know how much I'm putting in. First add a cup of the hot stock. Stir it with a wooden spoon until most of the liquid is absorbed. Get used to doing this. You'll be doing it for quite a while!

When most of that liquid has been absorbed, add another half cup of hot stock. Stir again until the rice absorbs most of the stock. The short grained rice will release starch as it cooks, and this will make the dish nice and thick and creamy. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

When you get about halfway thru the 5 cups of stock, you can start adding some of the additional veggies you have on hand. At this point, I added the chopped zuchini. Stir stir stir, again until most of the liquid is absorbed. Add another ladle of stock and stir some more. When you've got about a cup of stock left, add the chopped turkey and a half cup of stock. Stir until it's mostly absorbed. I added the last 1/2 c. of stock and stirred that until it was absorbed. Then I added the rest of the creamed spinach, about  a cup, and stirred that in until it was heated thru. This thickens it up a lot!

Toss in a good sprinkle of grated parmesan cheese, and if you want, about a Tblsp. of butter, but that's not really necessary for this risotto, even though I think finishing with butter is a LAW of risotto making! Stir it in and marvel at the creaminess.

Serve and enjoy!
-J

ps...no pix of this one, sorry! And be sure to sample this when you're almost out of stock. You want to check the rice to make sure it's cooked enough. If you run out of stock and feel you need more, heat up some water before adding it a ladle full at a time.