Leftover turkey recipe: Gemma Simmonite’s Ultimate Christmas Sando

There is nothing that quite hits the spot like tucking into a delightful leftover turkey sandwich on Boxing Day. We caught up with chef, recipe writer and restaurateur Gemma Simmonite, co-owner of Gastrono-me in Bury St Edmunds and Cambridge, to get her take on how to make the BEST leftover turkey sandwich on Boxing Day…

If you want the most splendid creation, that’s less sandwich, and more veritable feast between bread, then read on…

Here are some Gastrono-me sandwich pointers if you’re going to start some festive sandwich scatting.

• Choose a fabulous bread, sturdy bread. You can’t layer this bad boy in a flaccid white homogenised loaf – this is a pap free zone. Choose something like a sourdough, or a rye that is going to stand up to the challenge.
• Choose a couple of meats, to keep your taste buds guessing, this ain’t no service station turkey and stuffing sarnie, I like Turkey, ham and bacon, even a bit of pastrami!
• Do spread on cold gravy, despite it feeling strange. Then spike it with something hot – creamed horseradish, English mustard are my favourites, a little cranberry is also nice as a sweet contrast.
• Get some crunch in there – ‘slaw is super, and I also love a couple of sliced up pickled onions, or pickled walnuts. The brilliant thing is most of these will be in Christmas pantry anyway.
• A bit of stodge. Stodge is good here, so include leftover stuffing, mushed up roasters, soggy Yorkshires, bread sauce. These additions will be what lines your stomach and makes it possible to indulge in maximum Christmas tippling.
• Greenery good – sprouts, cabbage, runner beans, get them in.
• Lastly and unashamedly enjoy it. Do NOT try to figure out the calories or the rightness or wrongness of its beautiful ‘sandwichy’ existence. It has been a sucky year of gargantuan proportions and you need to let go, after all as Mr Holder reminds us annually “It’s Christmaaaaaas!”

Gastrono-me’s Ultimate Christmas Sandwich

Ingredients

2 x slices of NY Deli Rye lightly toasted

2 x slices from your Xmas roast

2  x slices of good ham

2 x slices of streaky, crispy bacon

2 x slices of pastrami

1 spoonful of good crunchy ‘slaw

3 x bashed up roast potatoes

1 x Yorkshire pudding torn up

2 x stuffing balls

2 x spoonfuls of leftover veg

1 tablespoon of cold gravy, ‘thickish’ is best

3 x pickled onions sliced up

1 teaspoon of English mustard

1 teaspoon of horseradish

Salt and Pepper

Method

Lightly toast the bread on both sides, to allow maximum robustness.

Smear one sides with some of the cold gravy, smear the other side equally with mustard and horseradish.

Meanwhile, heat the stuffing, roasters, Yorkshires, crispy bacon and veg briefly in the microwave with a few dollops of gravy. Not until piping hot, just to take the chill off.

Now let the layering begin! This is entirely up to you, but you are aiming for different layers, and using your meats as barriers between the soggier elements.

Give it all a squish and mentally prepare yourself for a religious experience.

You should now be looking at the most splendid creation – less a sandwich, more a veritable feast between bread. Eat undisturbed, partly as this will get messy, and partly so you don’t have to share. May I also remind you not leave this sandwich unattended in the fridge – people WILL steal “my sandwich, MY saaaaaannnndddwich!!!”