[Food Diary] Leftover Christmas Turkey Porridge

After many year, my husband MT and I have finally moved into a place that is solely our own, where I have carte blanche.... To think the first meal I'd cook in our new home kitchen would be leftover Christmas turkey porridge.

The leftover Christmas turkey porridge is an annual Boxing Day family tradition of my husband's side of the family. After the annual Christmas family lunch, they'd make turkey porridge with the leftover turkey, using the turkey carcass to make the stock and then using the stock to make porridge with jasmine rice, leftover turkey meat and a little ginger.

Leftover Christmas turkey porridge

I didn't have the turkey carcass, but managed to take home the drumsticks and wings. So I used those and chicken stock to make the stock. In a slight deviation from my MIL's recipe, I added a little corn. She'd scream blue murder and lecture me about not doing it the "right way" (which mostly just means her way). But this is MY kitchen.

To be honest, it's not entirely accurate to say I followed my MIL's recipe anyway. I asked her for the recipe but her instructions were super vague and so haphazard that it was impossible to make head or tail of it. It has nothing to do with the agak-agak style of cooking, okay. Frankly, she hasn't actually made it herself in eons, relying mainly on others to do it. It was the same with her shark fin soup, kiam chye ark and macaroni cheese recipes. So I ended up asking Sirom (her current domestic helper) and also looked up similar looking recipes to help me along.

I referenced the turkey congee recipe by Funky Asian Kitchen, sans the spinach. For the rice, I used jasmine rice (Thai Hom Mali rice) and short-grain Japanese rice (Hokkaido Sansanmaru) in a ratio of 1:1. I soaked the rice overnight because that helps to shorten cooking time, helps the rice grains break down faster which results in a creamier texture.

Jasmine rice and short grain Japanese rice, ratio 1:1

Honestly, is leftover turkey porridge (congee) a thing that one would commonly find among the Chinese disapora? It looks that way to me because it's not uncommon for many English-educated Chinese Singaporeans to celebrate Christmas with their family, and have a mix of Western, Malay, Indian and Chinese dishes on the feasting table. And then use the leftovers, such as the turkey, in subsequent meals.

My paternal side of the family and MT's maternal side of the family would celebrate Christmas with a looooong luncheon. Both sides of the family would have roast turkey and honey-glazed roast ham. But then their feast tables would diverge. My side's always had the more Western table, with roasted vegetables, some kind of pasta, beef stew or pot roast and log cake.

MT's side would have a chapalang mix: Indian yellow rice (or turmeric rice) or fried rice or fried beehoon, Malay chicken curry, beef rendang, one year, our cousin LT even did pot roast with wagyu beef, and there would always be the family's Singaporean-style macaroni cheese (mayo instead of bechamel, canned pineapple and chicken ham). Sweets would include log cake, Nonya kueh, and sometimes Eurasian sugee cake if my MIL was inclined to make it. MT and I often bring back honey castella cake from Japan, and it always gets wiped out. Our non-Chinese friends and acquaintances have asked questions about our Christmas traditions, out of genuine curiosity. To be honest, I actually don't know how it all started.