SECRET INGREDIENT

     Because my dad was an only child, and my mom's two siblings lived in Ohio, my sisters and I grew up with little benefit of cousins.  We did have three, all girls, that we knew about, but our only connection was in the form of boxes of hand-me-down clothes.  Which I, for one, cherished.  No offense, Mom, but the time you made all of us dresses out of a single bolt of cloth?  Does anyone hear the Sound of Music?
     Then we all grew up, had children, and to our great surprise, cousin Mary Chandler moved to the Portland area with her family, moved to an acreage in the country.  She was wonderfully talented, making exquisite doll houses, painting, and, here's the point of today's post, she was a great cook.  From her I learned a little secret which I'll share with you now:  curry powder.
     How many times do you taste something you've made from a recipe which should work, but just doesn't have it.  It's flat, missing something -- maybe umami, but this story comes from a pre-umami time in American history.  So you start adding lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, catsup, maybe, more salt, cayenne?  For me, almost anything can be improved with some white wine, thyme, lemon juice, and a dash of curry powder.  Note I said a dash.  The point is that it remain subliminal.  It does it's best work incognito.
     To prove my point, here's my favorite post-Thanksgiving dish to make with leftover turkey:  Turkey Tetrazzini.  Recipe from a long-lost magazine collection, I think published by McCalls.   It was fine, okay, and then I discovered the curry powder, thyme, lemon juice, which make this recipe OUR recipe, not McCalls.

     First, you have to have made broth from the roasted turkey carcass, which can sit on low heat all day while you start on your Christmas cards.  To make the broth, you toss all the bones, gristly bits, the wings, neck, whatever you don't otherwise eat into a pot of water to cover.  Add a stick of celery, leaves included, a handful of peppercorns and half an onion, if you like.  You will already have packaged the lovely meat which you've carved from the bones and stored in the refrig.  Eventually you strain the long-simmered broth and pick off the remaining bits of meat to be eaten out of hand, with a sprinkle of salt.
     Now you're ready for the Tetrazzini:  This makes quite a lot, which is a good thing.

3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup flour
salt
1/8 tsp nutmeg (this is so slight you can certainly leave it out)
1 quart milk
2 cups turkey broth
4 egg yolks
1 cup cream
1/2 sherry
a judicious amount of curry powder, lemon juice, and thyme to taste -- this is up to you.

1 pound spaghetti noodles
6 cups turkey meat
1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced, sauteed separately in a skillet with butter
8 oz. cheddar cheese, grated

Make a roux with the butter, flour, and salt.  Slowly add milk and turkey broth, heat, stir until thick.  Beat the egg yolks with cream just until blended.  Stir some of the hot mixture into the egg/cream, stirring steadily, add more until you've tempered the eggs.  Then pour the egg/cream/sauce mixture back into the remaining hot mixture and turn down the heat.  Continue to stir until smooth.  Now add the sherry and seasonings, tasting all the while until you get it right.  You want it to be assertive because it loses strength when mixed with the spaghetti.  You may even add some cayenne here, depending on your audience.  Now the meat and the sauteed mushrooms go in. Check for salt.

Cook the spaghetti until done to your liking, then drain. Combine everything in a casserole.  Top with shredded cheese.

Bake, uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
The end.  But wait!

You will still have lots of broth, so will probably also want to make soup.  Good idea.  Here's one:  You just have to use however much of anything you think appropriate, but I'll give you suggestions.

Saute some mushrooms in a soup pot with butter until golden brown.  Set mushrooms aside and, in same skillet, saute some chopped onion (maybe a half onion would be about right) and green pepper (again, a half) until softened.  Add 2 TBS butter and 3 TBS flour.  Cook roux until slightly brown.  Add let's say 2 - 3 cups broth, slowly, stirring so you don't have lumps.
Separately cook 2 russet potatoes, cubed, and carrot cubes (about 1/2# cubes), and when done, add to soup.  Add the mushrooms back in.
Add a handful of noodles, salt and pepper, thyme, sliced water chestnuts (fresh if you can find them -- they're amazing!)
Simmer until the noodles are done.  Add more broth until you're satisfied with the ratio of liquid to solids.  Because you made the broth, it probably will need a shocking amount of salt.  Don't worry, if you used commercial broth it would already have the salt in it and you wouldn't know how much.  JUST KEEP TASTING!  This should do it, but
it wouldn't hurt to add a splash of white wine, some lemon juice and yes, a tiny skiff of curry, but not enough that you can taste it, you'll simply sense its warm presence.

That's it for left-over turkey recipes, but what's wrong with turkey sandwiches with lots of mayo, with bacon and lettuce (some restaurants serve their sandwiches with cranberry sauce and cream cheese, but I'm not a convert to that philosophy. However, there's lots of time, and you should try anything once)? Can't wait!