the early bird sees the turkey

i've never seen the very start of my father's turkey process. reason being, the bird is in the oven by 7am latest. even when i lived at home, my daily routine included keeping late hours and jumping out of bed early. so i've always used weekends, holidays, christmas and new year's day, to sleep in. this year however, with the help of the most brutal ringtone a phone could have and a late start by my father, i was able to catch the start.

this is the bird chillin in the fridge. it sat there thawing 2 days before, had some seasoning rubbed on it (including under the skin on the breast meat) the day before, and today its ready to take part in the festivities.

but before taking the bird out the ice box, he prepares the stuffing. this starts with some olive oil in a pan.

he adds to this some onions and celery...

about a heaping teaspoon of salt and some cayenne powder.

meanwhile, mom crushes some crackers a bit at a time. unlike me with my modern, unique, absolutly premium rolling pin, mom is a fan of the standard traditional equipment.

multi-grain crix was the flick this time around. this is how fine they go with it.

back over on daddy's side, minced beef is added to the pan to get some colour.

he mashes about 5 big potatoes in a bowl and adds the cracker crumbs, a box of evaporated milk, a little melted butter, some chives and the minced beef. mixes it all up.

this is what the mixture looks like before its oven appointment.



now the bird is set free from its chilly prison. butterball turkeys (i don't know about any other brand) come with this handy string that you wrap around the bird. you'll see it in action a little later on.

dad stuffs the bird first from the cavity below, then from the neck cavity, so the bird is well packed. now, both my father and myself usually listen to the advice of alton brown of food network fame, but on this matter we differ. alton's advice is to cook stuffing separate so that the bird cooks faster and dries out less. for the turkey drippings to soak into the stuffing for that blow mind flavour... sorry alton, but we'll wait. and we'll do our best not to let the meat dry out too much.

a lot of pinning up takes place. a pin goes into each wing to hold them down. this helps it cook evenly.

then an operation of a pin job goes on at the neck cavity to help hold the stuffing in.

remember the string? well there yuh go. lift and transfer.

next he creates a mixture of melted butter, olive oil and honey...

which he uses to glaze the turkey.



then its into the oven preheated at 350. following the butterball guide, on which our turkey fell closest to the 10 to 18lbs category, this bird would roast for about 3hrs.



every hour, he applies the honey glaze to it. gives it a nice colour and texture. according to how it looks when he takes it out, he adjusts the temperature of the oven. this time around, he backed down to 300 after the last glaze for the final hour.

it's all done and ready to be enjoyed when the stuffing is out of the turkey in a bowl at the side, and the house smells unbearably good. this is no time to be mixing matters.

the stuffing is always a hit, and with a strong supporting cast, there's no better way to bring in the new year. especially since mom bought chinet so we didn't have to wash wares. no place like home on new year's day.

leh we bubble in 2010!

THE SAUCE OF INSPIRATION

tomorrow will make it one year since i promised to do a post with this title. i guess good things really come to those who wait, because this is the perfect post for it. during my mother's birthday dinner at the normandie hotel, my father and i tasted a cranberry sauce that was quite nice. he called me on christmas eve and asked "what yuh say was in that cranberry sauce again?". "i think i was tasting x and y if i had to guess." was my response. (the ingredients shall remain nameless for now to maxmize impact later on) "yessssss! aight, ah gone." he replied. little did i know he was in the middle of preparing everything already. when i arrived on christmas morning, the main stuff was already done, but guess what he was about to prepare? yup... the cranberry sauce. in other words, the source of my inspiration in the kitchen was in the kitchen preparing a sauce inspired by a sauce that inspired me to try cranberry sauce on my turkey for the first time ever. i thought it was ripe for a saucy entry.

so he started off by getting the two secret ingredients:



cinnamon powder



and bay leaf. now in these here parts, a lot of herbs and spices are picked fresh from the garden. bay leaf is no exception. can't beat that with a bat.



he put the spices in a sauce pan and added some water plus that hot fiyah.




next, he got out some jellied cranberry sauce. we have this every year, but i never put it on my turkey. the jelly just isn't my thing.



he mashed around the jelly with a wooden spoon while it took the heat.



then he added a little salt to refine the taste.




balanced out the flavours wth a little sugar. it thickened up nicely and had this sweet and spicy flavour that was reminicent of the sauce that inspired the effort. i had to try it on my turkey.



so i did. it worked. i don't like a lot of sweet stuff, but this was just right. it played a good supporting role.



the cast was strong as usual: (going clockwise from the turkey at the bottom) minced beef and potato stuffing, cauliflower in white sauce, shepard's pie, peas with coconut milk, vegetable lasagne, beef pastelle and a vegetable rice with carrot, pepper, celery, onion, chive, apple and raisins.

thanks to the sauce, the falvours changed up again this year and it was another meal worth remembering.

SNACK WHILE WAITING

while browsing through the christmas snack pile at the parents', waiting for the christmas pot to bubble, i found a stash of my moms new can't-put-the-bottle-down snack.


pub mix. if you don't know, it's a tasty bunch of crunchies in a tall bottle that can throw off your appetite if you're not careful. "more-ish" as my mom describes it.



anyway, just a quick snack... well, a quick post... food post comin just now!

NEW YEAR SIPS

if i ever needed a character reference from a friend of over 10 years, Helga Trim would be one of the people that would immediately come to mind. so when she asked me to contribute to her Wine & Spirits article in the Sunday Newsday's Good Living section, the only real delay was the time it took to open my laptop and boot it up. (which reminds me, i think i need a new laptop). anyway, her article asks "what do you drink to welcome the new year?" this was my response (with a few visuals thrown in because daz how we do it on a blog):

What I end up sipping on while the notes of Auld Lang Syne fill the air has been dictated by the context of the limes I attended over the years.

For example, one year I hopped around Tobago hotels storming their formal Old Year’s Night festivities. That year, twelve found me sipping the formal champagne, trying to blend in with the rest of the paying crowd.

Last year the stroke of twelve caught me heading to a lime by some friends that I never spent New Years with before. I joined them in an after-the-stroke-of-twelve toast when I arrived, and to facilitate it, we had shots of Patrone tequila… a drink I never had before. That also led to a new type of disaster for me, unfortunately unsuitable to mention in such a lighthearted article.

But the closest thing to a consistent New Year’s drink for me is what you’re sure to find whenever I get together with my inner circle of friends either at my place in Aranguez, by Ma in Barataria, or up on the block in Laventille by Jo. That’s Johnnie Walker Black, which we usually have in 2L bottles affectionately called “De Man Wit De Handle” because of the handle worked into the bottle design. There’s just something comforting to me about sipping a Johnnie on the rocks with some good friends on Old Year’s Night that makes the 365 days to come look a lot less challenging.

feel free to post what you drink to welcome the new year. i'd like to know. and don't forget to get yourself a newsday on sunday december 27th to see who else drinks what else while the ball drops.

leh we bubble

LAWRENCE OF THE GROCERY?

while doing the mundane task of purchasing goods, i stumbled across this:


pita bread made by one of my favourite spots, lawrence of arabia... of shops of maraval. though pita bread wasn't on my scientifically calculated google map of a grocery list, i couldn't resist bringing it home.



and with a classic line like this one, how could i put this down?



like the pack says, it is soft and tasty. and it tasted good out of the pack. i was curious about that considering it wasn't in any sort of chiller-like unit. it was just out there chillin' with the kiss loafs and such. anyway, it didn't have that powdery taste you get from some of the frozen ones. and though the sizes in the bag varied from piece to piece, the pieces were of a decent size.



luckily for me, the lawrance pita was just right to deal with the after supermarket hunger. quick and easy, taste good... not too much to clean up. to me that meant slap two pieces of smoked ham on there, grate some cheese, then throw on some ketchup, chow chow and pepper.



wrapped it and placed it in this. what is this? hmm.


de george forman. real handy piece of equipment.



about 3 minutes later, i had this hot, crispy wrap. not bad at all. i want to use it with a stew something or a curry sometime and just dip it like a sada roti. until that though, this wrap will do. who say seconds?

CHICKEN RUN (part 1) - JAPS FRIED CHICKEN

been hearing about "the best fried chicken in the country" for quite some time now. jap's fried chicken. you can find this spot in st helena (thanks randy). it's quite easy to find. from piarco side, you pass the new airport, pass the old airport, make a right when the road leads to the major road, then make another right at the first traffic light. look for the red, white and green japs sign on your right hand side.




the sign is similar to the custom box. i found the illustration to be quite amusing, but with a claim like "...de best taste around!" right next to it, it was wise for a first timer like me to save the laughs for after the tasting. the first thing of note was the number of cars. this place was obviously scoring. but i soon realized that the cars were a small tell tale sign compared to the line of people coming out of the door. i endured said line (which actually looked more intimidating than it was) and purchased the coveted product.

impressive:
clean surroundings
price!! 2 piece and fries = $20. up sized fries = $3. fish and fries = $25. quite affordable
hearty portion sizes... even without up sizing
efficient system... it cut down the long lines in no time
an ok looking chinese food place next door just in case you end up feeling for a beef fried rice instead of fried chicken, but already made the trek
the branded stuff like the bag and boxes take it out of hole-in-the-wall realm and gives it that franchise look we love
the prep area is visible from the front, so you can see what's going on. no behind the scenes

not so impressive:
the parking sucks... but there's a yard for some sort of business a little further up that can be of service if you don't mind a very short walk back
there are a few tables for dining there, but with lines of people crowding the space the experience can't be that great
the funny illustration of that chef. the design was ok with the logo alone man!



but how did it taste though?
it has that home flavour as opposed to the mass produced, oily big franchise product the big boys pedal. i'm guessing it's because the oil in their deep fryers does less work, so the product is fresher. maybe. the meat was well cooked straight to the bone though. commendable. there was some seasoning, but not as much as i anticipated, proving once again that anticipation is a dangerous thing. the crust was crispy and tasty with a spicy kick, but the meat itself was just passable. not bad, not great... passable. all in all, i disagree. i don't think japs is the best fried chicken in the country. they make an ok chicken that looks as though the taste is consistent, which is a good thing. i was at least hoping for some hole-in-the-wall-secret-sauce, but that wish didn't come to pass. just the regular mass market condiments with a nice pepper sauce.

i'd buy it again providing i'm on that side, but i won't leave home to get it, unlike some other options that i'll bring to the table soon.

peace

QUICK FIX

sooooooo... after a long while of not blogging, i ummmm... not blogged some more. but i did send some email to a few friends, just to show them the strange quick fixes i was making during this busy time. (yeah, that's a smart way of saying i've been too busy to blog.) check out the email dem:

BOREDOM & HUNGER

tried something. just a lil snack. you will have to eat about 300 to get full. but you might get fed up of crunching before you reach 100.

minced beef done up with the usuals:
lime juice, onion, all purpose, black pepper, paprika, garlic powder, ginger powder, italian seasoning. i also used some of the crusting mixes that ms mar-fan kindly supplied to me. i use it like a seasoning sometimes because it has a nice french onion kinda flavour.

i left it to marinate, then cooked it in a deep frying pan.
after it browned up and sprung all its juices, i added some olives and a mixture of ketchup and some left over salsa i had (a regular saucy salsa with chunks of tomatoes, peppers, onions etc.) cooked it down with a little touch of cooking butter. just a tip.

i had some wanton skins, so i cut them in half and fried them up to make some triangular chips. tortilla inspired.

this was the end result. it was nice. a little too salty i think because of the all purpose. i added some more after putting the sauce in because it looked a bit watery. but i misjudged. however, i thought you all might have been interested in the concept.

ABOUT THAT CHIPOTLE MARINADE

happy to report that i tried something that turned out kinda nice. don't know what to call it, but let me tell you what i did:

started out by putting some minced beef into the trusty slow cooker. tossed in some roughly chopped onions and sprinkled black pepper, garlic powder, paprika and just a little salt into it. i also crushed and sprinkled 1 beef and 1 vegetable maggie cube into it. i let that cook for about half hour. it basically seasoned right in there.

next i added the chipotle marinade. (you will notice by now, i didn't use any of the seasonings the way they were intended to be used. that's no fun anyway.) i followed the directions, but not the measurements. the pack of powder, some water and some olive oil. mixed it up and poured that into the beef. i let that cook for about 15 more minutes.

by this time of course the place is fragrant and i am sitting still so that the neighbors don't figure out that i'm cooking and come beggin for a plate.

next i added some white rice. mixed it up so everything was evenly distributed.

force of habit, i put a little piece of cooking butter in. can't help myself. but i don't think this dish really needed any more oil. no probs. is not health food.

after letting that cook for just a bit, i poured in about 2 cups of water (which was just enuff to cover the ingredients)

added some coconut milk powder to the mix, then a tin of green peas.

covered and let it cook until the rice was cooked and the water boiled out. took about another 30 to 40 minutes.

the end result was a cross between a pelau and a jambalaya rice. the heat from the chipotle gave it a spicy kick, while the coconut milk made it nice and rich. knock yourself out with it just so, or treat it like a pelau with a lil cole slaw on the side.


and thus were my activities in the off times. things should clear up soon and i'll be blogging again.

until such times, leh we bubble.