Turkey Cassoulet (or… What to do with leftover turkey)
As a North American, turkey winds up being the main course for a lot of holiday events. And every time, I’m forced to reconcile the fact that it’s hard to get birds that are small with the fact that nobody seems to like leftover turkey. This cassoulet is my solution to the problem, and the majority of it can be made in advance, just waiting to receive the roughly 3 lbs of extra bird meat. It seems like a lot of work, but take a look at the number of servings... if you freeze them in smaller portions you have the protein part of truly delicious dinners set for many days, it's a lot less work/meal than it appears at the outset.
I have structured it as a 2.5 step process, but, you can do it all together on the same day if you wish, it just takes a long time. The recipe uses a wide 8 quart stockpot, a skillet, a casserole dish, and an instapot specifically to get the beans done quickly, but you could cook the beans in advance conventionally (soak and just let to simmer most of the day or use a crock pot) or even (dare I say it) used canned beans, although the latter generally are a bit mushy. I am assuming you've basted your turkey with a bottle of wine, and that you don't thicken the basting juice with flour or cornstarch. This recipe makes an enormous amount, about 1.75 gallons. It is meant to be portioned out and frozen, as it freezes and reheats very well.
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ lb dried cannellini or great northern beans
- 1 - 2 cups of turkey pan basting jus
- 8 cups of stock (low sodium vegetable or low sodium chicken)
- 2 - 3 yellow onions, diced (half for the beans, half for the base)
- 3 - 4 carrots, diced
- 3 - 4 celery stalks, diced
- 8 garlic cloves, minced
- 8 oz packet kosher turkey salami, diced small
- 14 oz packet kosher cocktail franks, sliced into rounds
- 6 oz. can of tomato paste
- 1 ½ cups dry white wine
- 1 oz dried porcini mushrooms
- 1 cup boiling water (to rehydrate porcini)
- 3 bay leaves
- 6 fresh thyme sprigs
- 2 fresh rosemary sprigs
- 1 tbsp smoked paprika
- 2 tbsp kosher-certified Worcestershire sauce (optional — check the label)
- 3 tbsp schmaltz or olive oil
- About 3 lb shredded leftover turkey
- 1 roasted orange (the one from the turkey cavity works well), juice squeezed and strained, to taste
- 1 ½ tsp kosher salt (taste the jus first — adjust down if it's already well-salted)
- 1 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
Method
WELL IN ADVANCE:
Cook the beans: pressure-cook them in plain stock — combine the beans, stock, 1 bay leaf, and half the diced onion (roughly chopped) in the Instant Pot. High pressure, 35 minutes, natural release. Reserve the beans and their liquid together; don't drain them off.
Rehydrate the porcini: pour the boiling water over the dried porcini in a heatproof bowl and let sit about 20 minutes until soft. Lift the mushrooms out, squeezing excess liquid back into the bowl, and strain that liquid through a fine-mesh strainer or a paper-towel-lined strainer to catch any grit. Finely chop the mushrooms. Set both aside.
Render the salami and franks: heat the schmaltz or oil in a wide stockpot over medium heat. Add the diced salami and sliced franks; cook, stirring occasionally, until browned, 8-10 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside, leaving the fat behind. (These are fairly lean, so don't expect heavy fond — that's normal.)
Build the aromatic base: in the same fat, add the remaining onion, carrots, and celery. Cook until softened and starting to caramelize at the edges. This can take anywhere from 10 to 20+ minutes depending on your pot, so go by how it looks rather than the clock. Add the garlic and cook 1-3 minutes more, depending on the depth of the pot.
Deepen with tomato paste and porcini: add the tomato paste and chopped porcini, cook, stirring constantly, until the paste darkens and smells toasty, about 2 minutes.
Deglaze and combine: pour in the wine and the reserved porcini liquid, scraping up the browned bits. Return the rendered salami and franks to the pot along with the beans and their liquid. Add the remaining bay leaves, thyme, rosemary, smoked paprika, Worcestershire if using, salt, and pepper. Simmer uncovered until reduced to a thick consistency. A ladleful poured back in should mound slightly rather than spreading flat immediately. This can take 1-2+ hours in a wide pot; check texture periodically rather than trusting a fixed time. Periodically stir with a flat ended spatula so that any beans that stick to the bottom are occasionally loosened and reincorporated. Cool and refrigerate.
LAST STEPS (the night you've served turkey):
Debone your turkey, removing skin, bone and gristle. When serving a 13.5 ish pound turkey to about 6 people, I easily have 4 lbs of meat left. (If you are short on turkey, you can use gedempte chicken from chicken soup to make up the rest of the weight.)
Combine and rest: Into the base that has been refrigerated from before, stir in the shredded turkey, the reserved jus, and the squeezed, strained orange juice. This is done cold. Taste for salt. Refrigerate overnight so the turkey takes on the sauce's flavor.
LAST STEPS (the day after you've served turkey):
Portion, freeze, and bake: Divide into what you're serving now and what you're freezing. Freeze the extra into portions suitable for reheating for your family's meal size. For tonight's portion, transfer it cold, straight from the fridge, into your baking dish. Leave this portion out, covered, on the counter as your oven heats up.
Bake: preheat to 375°F. Cover the dish and bake until heated through, about 25 minutes, checking that it reaches 165°F in the center. Uncover and continue at 375°F another 25-45 minutes to let the top set and darken. (The timing of this depends heavily on how "liquidy" your base was, and this varies a bit.) After uncovering and baking for 20 minutes, check every few minutes, since the edges brown faster than the center and can go from done to burnt quickly.