Leftover leftovers

Newsletter 12.03.2023

Bienvenue and welcome back to Musée Musings, your idiosyncratic guide to Paris and art. This week’s post is on the retrospective of the artist Nicolas de Staël that I saw right before I left Paris in November. But first, a few final words about our Leftovers Odyssey. Bill in Ohio seemed puzzled that one could call a turkey sandwich a Reuben’s. (Fig. 1) Where’s the pastrami? (Fig. 2) Here’s the deal: 1) You accept the fact that pastrami is a salty processed meat that should be avoided and 2) that the flavor is going to come from enhanced Russian dressing, sauerkraut, melted gruyere cheese and buttered rye bread. Only then will you be able to appreciate Martha Stewart’s Turkey Reuben. Which is, btw, simply delicious.

Figure 1. Our Turkey Reuben sandwich with a side of coleslaw

Figure 2. A Real Reuben sandwich stuffed thick with pastrami

My litmus test is Nicolas. He’s willing to go along with Turkey Reuben. He does draw the line at my version of Philly Cheesesteak. From a recipe I found on Food52 (do you know it? Started by Amanda Hesser who gave up her job as food editor of the New York Times to start her own business, Food52). Filling in for the meat is thick slices of sautéed cauliflower. Once again, it’s the accessories that do the heavy lifting. By which I mean give it taste - the provolone cheese, pickled pepperoncini and good mustard. The sautéed kale surreptitiously snuck in, doesn’t add much. (Fig. 3)

Figure 3. Cauliflower cheesesteak 

I mention it because as we were eating our Turkey Reuben earlier this week, Nicolas derisively mentioned my ersatz Philly cheesesteak. He and I have been to Philadelphia a couple times. The last time we went, my role was to book tickets to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Rodin Museum and Barnes Collection. His responsibility was to research places to eat Philly cheesesteaks. Of course, we tasted and compared Pat’s Cheesesteak (Fig. 4) and Geno’s. The other variations we tried were recommended by Nicolas’ favorite source of culinary advice, the chef/rapper, Action Bronson. He has a show (it’s ‘Somebody Feed Phil’ for cool people) which is called, (please excuse the French) ‘Fuck, That’s Delicious.’ We have followed Action’s suggestions for places to eat in New Orleans, Nashville, Brooklyn and even Paris. This past summer, we followed his advice for the best hotdog cart in Copenhagen.

Figure 4. Pat’s Cheesesteak 

Right, back to leftovers. The Turkey Tikka Masala was the most complicated recipe. (Fig. 5) It had four steps which included marinating and lots of spices, fresh and dried. The recipe is from Samin Nosrat. Did you ever read her book, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat or see the 4 part series based on her book? She knows her stuff just like Kenji Lopez-Alt does. When I stopped brining my turkey as Jacques Pepin had me doing for years, I switched to Samin’s buttermilk marinade recipe which I abandoned last year for Kenji Lopez-Alt’s mayonnaise marinated one. Both Samin and Kenji spatchcock their turkeys. The presentation might be different but the cooking time is so much shorter and the taste is so much better that I urge you to try it the next time you prepare turkey. Just have the butcher do the spatchcocking.

Figure 5. Turkey Tikka Masala with Cranberry Negroni

Where was I, oh right, turkey tikka masala. You have to plan ahead since the cooked turkey has to marinate for between 4 - 12 hours, in a yogurt marinade that includes 4 tablespoons of fresh grated ginger and four teaspoons of powdered turmeric (and lots of other spices). Since I was grating and since I had just bought fresh turmeric (to make the healthy and restorative Golden Milk - fresh turmeric steeped in warm milk, Fig 6) I grated that, too.

Figure 6. Golden Milk with Turmeric

Then there was another batch of spices, garam masala and cardamom pods; more ginger and turmeric and two Serrano peppers, this time for the tomato sauce. Twenty or so minutes later, it was time to add the heavy cream. I admit, I swapped out some of the cream with whole milk. After broiling the cooked turkey until there were some charred bits (following instructions here) I mixed the poultry into the tomato cream sauce. Samin told me to put the sauce into a blender and purée it first, but that was a step too far. I thought it was delicious over basmati rice. Ginevra didn’t much like the tomato - cream vibe. As it served 6 and we were only three, I put what we didn’t eat into the freezer - so now I have leftover leftovers!

When I mentioned pizza dough in my last post, Vincent described how his wife made bread with it. As I mostly live in Paris where there are 5 excellent boulangeries within a few blocks of my flat and even in San Francisco where the selection is both less extensive and more expensive, I probably won’t be making bread. But I pass the recipe along to you in the comments below, because, you never know.

Using pizza dough to make hot pockets was a genius move on Kenji Lopez-Alt’s part. One pound of pizza dough made 6 hot pockets. Kenji wrote that anything that tasted good on your Thanksgiving dinner plate should taste good in a hot pocket. So, I portioned out stuffing, turkey, brussel sprouts, sweet potato and cranberry sauce. I sealed each pocket and placed it seam side down on the parchment paper covered baking sheet. The final step was putting a few slices of cheddar cheese on each pocket. After 20 minutes in my oven, they were nicely browned and crispy. (Fig. 7)

Figure 7. Our Turkey leftovers Hot Pocket

Ginevra and I thought they tasted great. Nicolas said we should have gone the extra mile and found some sleeves, if not to use, then at least for appearances sake. Sleeves are apparently an essential component of cooking hot pockets in microwaves. (Fig. 8) Actually I just googled hot pocket sleeves and find that it is Nicolas and not me who is behind the times. Crisping Sleeves were critical for achieving a crisp instead of flabby microwaved hot pocket. But the hot pocket package now proclaims that after 35 years, they have figured out how to achieve sleeveless crispness. Wow!

Figure 8. The Hot Pocket Sleeve Nicolas was chiding me about

The day I made the Turkey Tikka Masala, I also stripped the turkey carcass and made turkey broth. I don’t know when I’ll get to making soup, so I froze the broth and have begun gathering recipes that might merit it. Turkey Pho is a contender.

We did have Turkey Reuben a second time and we did try Mark Bittman’s Eggs nestled in Stuffing another time. (can you believe it, I forgot to take a photo!) I enhanced his simple recipe of cracking eggs over stuffing and baking until set, by adding sautéed onions and roasted brussel sprouts topped with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese. I served it with hot sauce on the side. I recommend.

I cleared out the fridge with one final Leftover feast. Margaux Laskey’s Enchilada Pie. The recipe was developed for a special kids’ edition of the NYT but everyone loved it. To leftover turkey, pearl onions and brussel sprouts, I added sautéed onions and a can of black beans. The recipe calls for layering quartered corn tortillas dipped in enchilada sauce with Thanksgiving leftover vegetables and piles of grated cheddar cheese. (Fig. 9) It was an all Trader Joe’s affair - from the black beans to the enchilada sauce, cheddar cheese and corn tortillas as well as the salsa we ate it with. Laskey is right, it is a crowd pleaser. There were leftovers but we ate them before I had a chance to freeze them!

Figure 9. Thanksgiving Leftovers Enchilada Pie

As you might imagine, I haven’t been just cleaning out my refrigerator. Especially since so far the weather has been perfect - raining as we sleep, just like in Camelot. One day, Ginevra and I walked through Golden Gate Park - from 36th Avenue to Stanyan St. to check out the new sculptures that line the no cars allowed road. (Fig. 10) Which should be calm but isn’t. Why? Cyclists.

Figure 10. Dog and Rabbit statues in Golden Gate Park

Another day we went to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, specifically to enjoy two Kusama Infinity rooms. (Fig. 11) I think that SFMOMA is one of the most joyful museums I have ever visited. It is an exciting building that offers an abundance of rich and often challenging art to see on every one of its 7 levels. This time, there was a sculpture by Simone Leigh (Fig. 12) with whom I fell in love at the Venice Biennale in 2022. And a performance piece by Ragnar Kjartansson, (Fig. 13) whose retrospective I couldn’t get enough of at the Louisiana Museum in Copenhagen this summer. Finally, one evening, I was a guest at a Proust class at the Mechanics Institute.

Figure 12. Cupboard, Simone Leigh, Bronze, 2022, SFMOMA

Figure 13. The Visitors, video, Ragnar Kjartansson, 2012, SFMOMA

Figure 14. Anne, (artist’s daughter) Nicolas de Staël

Today’s post is on Nicolas de Staël, an artist whose use of colors and forms just delights me, I hope it delights you, too. (Fig. 14) Gros bisous, Dr. ‘B.’

Below are Comments, for which I am most appreciative.

New comment on Talking (mostly) Turkey:

Pizza dough: My wife's recipe if you want a quick homemade bread. Buy a bag of prepared, raw pizza dough in the supermarket. Place in a greased (I use EVOO) bowl. Put into a warm oven (I set it on warm for 3-4 min. and turn it off) for 30 min. Take out, form it for either a loaf pan or baguette pan, rub it with olive oil. Bake 30 min. at 400 degrees. G. Vincent

New Comment on Talking (only) Turkey

Your writing is well done and very interesting as a food piece. I would submit it to nytimes as a possible piece for them to publish You have a spontaneous slant that makes it good. Harriet, Brookline, MA