cook: hotpot for one

Husband and I are STILL working through our Thanksgiving leftovers. I finally made my turkey pot pie with what was left of the carrots and celery, mashed potatoes, and turkey bone broth with some green peas in the freezer as well as turkey. 

Only instead of using puff pastry for a crust, I used the leftover mashed potatoes. I suppose what I made for dinner was really a turkey cottage pie.

And I suppose I could use the rest of those frozen peas to make mushy peas and use that instead of mashed potatoes of which I ran out as a "crust" for the remaining turkey filling. And Christmas jazz has me humming along as I cook and sew in this chilly, rainy, and foggy month.

 

I visited a friend in South San Francisco on Sunday, and while picking up groceries for her, I also stopped for me at the Pacific, an Asian grocery store and went a bit bonkers over finding chrysanthemum greens, oyster mushrooms, pickled mustard greens and dwarf bananas. Finally, I had the makings for what I really have been longing to eat which is my own Chinese soup. Turkey bone broth with the addition of the Sichuan chili paste or hot pot base, crushed garlic, sesame paste, soy sauce, and bit of sesame oil make a delicious vehicle for protein and vegetables.               

 

As with all Asian cooking, a mise en place is de rigueuer. I had bought fried tofu and hard boiled eggs over the weekend.

I remembered the chicken and cilantro wontons I still had in the freezer and decided to slice up Chinese sausage for additional meat protein as well as scallions for garnish.

Into the broth all went followed by the chrysanthemum greens, bok choi, oyster and beech mushrooms that I'd also prepped.

And ready to eat after 5 minutes of simmering!

My meal was actually hot pot rather than soup, and I kept the leftover broth which had now been flavored by all the ingredients for a Moroheiya noodle soup later on in the week. My meal like a French village's stone soup just keeps on giving.