Eat, drink, and be queasy. That might have been the motto for Matt’s Christmas Eve menu. From the hackelback caviar seafood timbales to the flaming ginger pudding, it was an exercise in excess. I guess it was a smashing success by Oscar Wilde’s standards.

The roast goose, accompanied by a stuffing of smoked cornbread, chestnuts, and andouille sausage, was served with a trio of carefully selected wines, all of which Matt wolfed down like a trick-or-treater scarfing sweets, and with a similarly unpleasant end result; a sudden fit of hiccupping, a hasty retreat to the bathroom, and the wretched sound of retching. Fa la la la aaaugh…

On Christmas morning we concocted a couple of remedies to offset the overindulgence; first, we juiced a cleansing combination of carrots, apples, celery, and parsley, then steeped a batch of Celestial Seasoning’s Tension Tamer tea with a handful of minced fresh ginger and a tablespoon of slippery elm bark to soothe his stomach.

Off with the hangover, on to the leftovers, which lent themselves perfectly to a variation of a classic Scottish soup called “Cock-a-Leekie.” My well-worn, much loved American Medical Association Family Cookbook contains a variation called “Scottish Turkey, Leek and Barley Soup.” I used this recipe for inspiration, but I made several substitutions, some by necessity, others by choice. I had to use scallions instead of leeks, for example, because I had no leeks and all the grocery stores were closed. Also, I couldn’t resist adding shitake mushrooms and Lima beans because they go so well with the barley. And, obviously, I used goose instead of turkey. Here’s my version:

Kat’s Cock-a-Not-a-Leekie Christmas Day Leftover Soup

1 cup Christmas Lima beans (optional)
1/2 cup dried shitakes (fresh are fine, too, if you have them—I didn’t)
1 Tbs canola oil
2 cups finely chopped scallions (you could use leeks instead, of course!)
3 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
4 cups fat free chicken broth
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced parsnips (carrots are fine, too)
1 cup hulled barley (you can substitute pearl barley, which cooks twice as fast)
1 cup chopped, pitted prunes
2 cups leftover goose meat (any fowl will do)
2 Tbs chopped flat leaf parsley
1 Tbs lemon juice
dash of Worcestershire sauce and Bragg amino acids
salt & pepper to taste

Precook the Lima beans and set aside. Soak the shitakes for 30 minutes in a cup of hot water; drain, saving the liquid to add to your soup base, and set aside with the beans.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and cook the scallions and garlic till translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the broth and liquid from the shitakes, and bring to a boil. Add the parsnips or carrots, barley and prunes, and lower the heat. Cover and simmer till the barley is cooked, which will depend on what variety you use.

I made my soup in the pressure cooker, so even with the hulled barley, which would otherwise take as long as an hour and a half to cook, it only took 35 minutes; if you use pearl barley, you can cook this soup in about 45 minutes without a pressure cooker. I use hulled barley because it’s more nutritious, but I probably wouldn’t have the patience without a pressure cooker (wouldn’t bother with the Lima beans, either, for that matter, which take only 10 minutes in the pressure cooker.)

When the soup is nearly done, add the cooked beans, shitakes, leftover meat , parsley, lemon juice, and seasonings. If you don’t have any leftover turkey or chicken (I’m guessing you won’t have leftover goose,) you could add a1/2 pound of cubed raw turkey or chicken to the soup during the last 15 minutes of cooking.

Matt declared my cock-a-not-a-leekie soup to be phenomenally good, better even than the feast the night before. But I thought his Christmas Eve menu was truly memorable. He just can’t quite remember it. The moral of this story? Don’t overdo it when you’re overdoing it.

Image credit: Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division 1913