Using up Christmas left overs (gammon and turkey)

So everyone always has left over food from Christmas, whether its gammon from boxing day or turkey from Christmas day, and as hard as you might try you somehow can't stop the men from eating dry turkey and ham sandwiches. In my eyes these ingredients can make some lovely dishes.

Left over gammon and mushroom pasta (serves 4)

Ingredients:
500g pasta (your choice, my favourites are farfale or spaghetti)
left over gammon cut up

2 large leeks 
1 clove garlic (crushed)
50g butter 
2 tbsp plain or wholemeal flour (give or take) 
60ml milk 
100g grated cheddar cheese 
Handful of fresh parsley 

Method: 

I'm a sort of chef who thinks pasta is a beautiful type of food that doesn't need any recipes cause it will always taste great. But I just realised I think that because I cover my pasta in cheese and cream and who wouldn't want that? So I've done this recipe using a roux rather than cream. I have kept the ingredients quite vague as its a matter of opinion really how much cheese or sauce you like. This dish can be made with almost any additions, if you're looking for a more healthy alternative to carbonara, this is perfect. 
Put a large pan of water on to boil for the pasta with plenty of salt. Start by slicing the leeks thinly and frying them in a small amount of olive with the crushed garlic. Put the pasta onto boil. Once the leeks are cooked through and have come apart add the butter to the pan until it melts, and then add a tbsp of flour and stir for at least 30 seconds. The butter should have been absorbed, add more flour if it has not. The sauce will look lumpy and unappetising at this point. Once you have stirred the flour for at least 30 seconds (the starch granules need to swell and absorb moisture) add a small amount of milk. Stir vigorously now as the lumps will come out and the milk will thicken. Keep adding the milk until you have a decent amount of sauce (I personally like a lot) then add the grated cheese. Stir until all the cheese is melted. Add the chopped gammon now and allow it to heat through. Drain the pasta, but reserve some of the water from the pan and add it to the sauce if it is getting too thick. (the flour granules will continue to burst, making the sauce thicker while it is still hot). Once the sauce as reached your desired consistency stir in the pasta, top with chopped fresh parsley and enjoy! 




"Sick food"  (serves 4)

I urge you not to be put off by the name! In my family this is what we call it as its just the perfect thing for when you're feeling poorly, but its also delicious when you're healthy of course! This recipe is using up your left over turkey in a fantastic way. Similar to the recipe above, the additions can altered, we usually make this dish with chicken, but with left over turkey its just as lovely.

Ingredients:
left over turkey 
250g mushrooms sliced
350g long grain rice 
50ml double cream 
2 tbsp creme fraiche 

Method: 
Cook the rice (2:1 ratio water to rice cooks perfectly), fry the sliced mushrooms and then add the cream and creme fraiche, if its too thick add some water from the rice. When the sauce boils add the left over turkey, you only want to it add it at the end as it could turn to mush with lots of cooking, and then serve over rice. Top with fresh parsley if desired.