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Immigrant’s American Turkey

Wednesday, November 16th, 2011

On the fourth Thursday of every November, everyone who believe themselves to be Americans celebrate nature’s bounty by feasting with their loved ones. Traditional thanksgiving food is simple baked, boiled, and/or mashed, and served with minimum spices to ensure soft texture and mild flavor that cater to anyone from children to elderly.

Partaking in this meal is a symbolic gesture for every immigrant who becomes an allegorical descendant to the generation of pilgrims who first ventured out to the New World with a hope of a better life. Essentially, the fourth Thursday of November is more American than the fourth day of July celebrated with barbecues.

Most immigrants celebrate thanksgiving meal interwoven with culinary tradition of their heritage. North American bird, turkey, symbolizes their new home in America, while the additional spices and dishes represent their contribution to the melting pot.

How was Thanksgiving started by immigrants?
The overtly rehashed story of Thanksgiving starts with the new immigrants, Pilgrims and their native American Wampanoag neighbors feasted together in October of 1621 as a gesture of gratitude for having food on the table. Coincidentally, Canada started celebrating its thanksgiving in second Monday of October since 1950s.

George Washington, John Adams, and James Madison issued proclamations of a thanksgiving holidays. However at that time states celebrated thanksgiving at different times with its popularity remaining limited to New England with lukewarm celebration in the Southern states.

Lincoln and Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving was not a national holiday until the proclamation by Abe Lincoln in 1863. Ironically, Lincoln got his inspiration from Sarah Josepha Hale, famous for writing nursery rhyme “Mary had a little lamb”, who championed the cause for a unifying national holiday that would foster unity in a nation at the brink of a civil war. Lincoln envisioned “a day of Thanksgiving and Praise” for “these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come”  as said by Lincoln in his proclamation.

History of the Immigrant’s Thanksgiving Turkey
The tradition of having turkey for Thanksgiving may have start in nineteenth century New England, where men took aim at a wild turkey in the fields with the winner usually winning a turkey as his prize for marksmanship.

Most immigrants celebrate thanksgiving meal interwoven with culinary tradition of their heritage. North American bird, turkey, symbolizes their new home in America, while the additional spices and dishes represent their contribution to the melting pot. They add spices or dish distinct to their thanksgiving meal. This practice of bringing culinary heritage to a foreign tradition continues as immigrants from all over the world embrace the United States as their new home. Pakistani families may add garam masala in their turkey, their Thai friends may flavor side dishes with coconut milk, while their Norwegian neighbor may bring smoked salmon appetizer.

Likewise, my thanksgiving turkey would be tandoori turkey with saffron gravy.

Tandoori Turkey
for tandoori spice paste (for 10 lb turkey), mix together following*
ghee (1 cup, substitute with re-solidified melted butter)
tandoori spice mix (1 tablespoon,  substitute with any curry powder)
fresh ginger and garlic paste (2 tablespoons)
chicken stock (2 tablespoons)
salt (2 teaspoons)

on the roasting pan for gravy
can of low sodium chicken stock
red onion (1 sliced, large)

* traditional tandoori marinade is yogurt based

After removing packaging materials and other organs (gizzards etc.,) coat the inside cavity of turkey with spice paste. Pour ½ of chicken stock in there. Stuffing a turkey is not recommended for both food safety as well as taste safety. Make stuffing in a pan as casserole instead.

My favorite tip for moist turkey breast comes from Harold McGee. Few hours before the end of thawing the turkey, selectively put ice-packs on its breast. Due to the difference in temperature between breast meat and turkey, the turkey breast will cook slower than the rest of turkey. This will prevent drying of turkey. Be sure to remove the ice-packs before baking.

With your fingers and/or flat plastic spatula separate the skin from the breast meat. Be gentle and don’t tear the skin. Rub the spice mix in between turkey skin and the breast meat.

Rub the spice mix outside the entire turkey.

Add chicken stock and sliced onions to the roasting pan.

Cover the breast with a sheet of aluminum foil. Roast in 325 °F oven. Remove the foil ½ an hour before the roasting ends. Covering the breast with a foil sheet also helps in preventing the breast from drying.

USDA recommends (see USDA’s turkey cooking recommendations) the minimum internal temperature of 165 °F for food safety. Nowadays, many turkeys come up with “pop-up” temperature indicators. However, just to be safe, use instant read thermometer to check temperatures of innermost parts of the turkey, such as thigh, wings, thickest part of the breast.

Check doneness of turkey early and often.

Timetables for Roasting Turkey  (USDA)

Unstuffed Turkey Roasted at 325 °F Oven Temperature
4 to 8 pounds (breast) 1½ to 3¼ hours
8 to 12 pounds 2¾ to 3 hours
12 to 14 pounds 3 to 3¾ hours
14 to 18 pounds 3¾ to 4¼ hours
18 to 20 pounds 4¼ to 4½ hours
20 to 24 pounds 4½ to 5 hours

Saffron Gravy

for 1 cup of dripping from roasted turkey
saffron (dozen inch long strands)
whole milk (¼ cup, use half and half for richer gravy)
corn starch (1 tablespoon)

Leave a dozen inch long strands in milk sometime after putting the roast turkey. The amount of saffron depends on its quality.

After removing turkey, pour out the dripping from turkey. Blend mushy roasted onion with other liquid drippings.

Mix corn starch with the saffron milk and pour over blended turkey drippings. Reheat until thickens. Gravy done.

Thanksgiving is an American celebration of sharing the ample of wholesome, often simple, foods any way you like it.

All the Illustrations by: Sumayal Shrestha

Bibliography
Elizabeth Pleck, “The Making of the Domestic Occasion: The History of Thanksgiving in the United States,” Journal of Social History Vol. 32, No. 4, Summer, 1999, Page 773-789.

Janet Siskind, “The Invention of Thanksgiving: A ritual of American nationality”, Critique of Anthropology, Vol. 12, No. 2, June 1992, Page 167-191.

Melanie Wallendorf and Eric J. Arnould, “We Gather Together”: Consumption Rituals of Thanksgiving Day,” Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 18, No. 1, June 1991, Page 13-31

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Posted in American Food, Food Culture, Food Science, Food Techniques, Indian food, Meat | 6 Comments »

Chakki – millstones from Indian subcontinent

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

My first pragmatic instinct nags me that baking bread or freshly grinding spices or knitting are rather indulgence celebrating a romanticized past. I later realize that those who bake bread can eat it warm, or those who knit can choose eccentric designs, or those who grind pepper can get wholesome flavor off the fresh pepper oils. One of those archaic relics of not so distant past is grinding up flour for bread – which is something I have never seen anyone do now.

Woman using chakki in rural India by Jarnail Singh

Prior to the mass proliferation of cheap electric grinder in early 1980s, every household in the Indian subcontinent used these stone grinders. Chakki, the traditional millstones or mill stones from Indian subcontinent, grind wheat into Atta flour or split legumes in half for making Dal or ground up fresh roasted spices.  For most people who know about Chakki, it evokes either idyllic image of female members of grinding up floor for roti, such as shown in the painting. For others, Chakki reminds them of backbreaking work often comically referred to as default job inside jail in Bollywood movies.

Chakki consists of two stone cylinders. An upper stone cylinder rotates on top of another stationary stone cylinder, which is generally larger than the lower cylinder. Grains are fed in between the two cylinders from a hole in the middle of the top cylinder. When the cylinder rotates, the grains squeezed between the cylinders are grounded, split or separated from husk. Generally, in the home version of a Chakki is the top stone rotated by placing a wooden club as the handle inside a smaller hole on a side. The home version is operated by one or two people. The larger Chakki uses livestock to rotate the upper cylinder. Chakkis are made from stones but one can find other variants made from wood, which are believed to better at separating husk from the grain.

Finding someone using Chakki in a city is rarity nowadays. I was lucky to find a local grocery vendor using it split daal. In the video, the local vendor puts whole urad beans on a hole on the top cylinder and as cylinder is rotated the urad beans is split into half in between the two cylinders to give urad daal. See my earlier post on urad (kalo) daal  and jimbu. The posted video shows Chakki splitting whole urad bean was shot in Kathmandu, Nepal. Newars in Kathmandu call this millstone Gha, while rest of Nepal calls it Janto and more recently by its Pan-Indian name Chakki.

I am not sure if grinding flour and splitting bean by Chakki make them taste better. However, I am sure that freshly grounded flour and split beans do taste different. Ask any coffee connoisseur if freshly ground beans are necessary for their morning espresso.

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Posted in Food, Food Techniques, Indian food | 7 Comments »

The best Jalebi in the world

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

If above Jalebi video does not play, click here.

Everyday in Delhi, I ate Jalebi from a roadside stall close to where I was staying. Jalebi is a thin pretzel shaped pastry made from leavened fried dough dipped in sugar syrup. Similar are dessert are also found in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya and is known as Zlabia.

Delhi Jalebi

The Jalebi stand was setup in front of a local mithaiwala’s (pastry chef) dessert store selling hundreds of Indian desserts – most shinny silver wrap and all made from flour, butter, milk, sugar, and pinch of spices. The video clip shows making of Delhi Jalebi.

Zlabia (Image adapted from photo by Amekinfo)

Jalebi is an evening time snack in Delhi, India. In Kathmandu Nepal, where it is known as Jeri, it is considered a breakfast food often served with a thin deep fried flatbread called swari. Both go well so together that people normally get them together and referred to the dish as Jeri Swari. Most of Kathmandu roadside Jeri (Jalebi) stalls serve a simple Jeri. While in India, there is tendency of serving spiced up Jeri.

Jeri (Jalebi) from Kathmnadu Nepal

Often one can even find a pretty good quality Indian dessert in the United States – thanks to huge exodus of talented Indian pastry chefs. However, I have yet to find even edible Jalebi in the United States. There is a simple reason behind it – Jalebi is not served fresh in the United States.  Jalebi is a fresh dessert – fry batter, soak in sugar syrup and bite into crispy warm dessert – all done within a few minutes.

Often many mithaiwalas (pastry chefs) prefer serving cold Jalebi made in a big batch since it is cheaper to make. They try to beat the flavors of fresh Jalebi by adding other flavors such as saffron, cardamom or adding bright food coloring. Here’s the news for them – a simple Jalebi fresh off the fryer beats any of stale concoction any day.

Jalebi (Jeri here) made with adding food coloring in streets of Kathmandu

The small Jalebi stall in a regular neighborhood of Delhi served the best Jalebi I ever ate in my life. The stall was not in a famous tourist or commercial district or had decades of history behind it. They simply made fresh Jalebi.

The flour batter for Jalebi was fermented few hours before in morning. Jalebis were fried to order. The batter was put in cheesecloth and dispensed through a small hole to make a desired shapes (see video). After fried golden brown, it was dipped in sugar syrup for few seconds and put in colander to remove excess syrup. The resulting Jalebi was thin crusted goodness – such a simple thing in life can bring such a big joy.

After nearly two weeks of eating Jalebi everyday, the Jalebiwala (Jalebi maker) gave me his recipe for what I consider the best Jalebi in world. Many us will disagree on where is the best Jalebi in the world. However, those who disagree also have a easy consensus  that a good Jalebi or Jeri or Zlabia is always fresh and often simple.

Here’s the  simple recipe for Jalebi from the Delhi Jalebiwala.

Maida (substitute all purpose flour) 300
Yogurt 200 g
Besan (chickpea flour) 100 g

Let it stay for at least ½ hour to few hours.

Fry in medium heat.

Dunk in sugar syrup.

Eat warm.

To see more photos including photos of the same Delhi Jalebi with the flash, go to DesiGrub’s Facebook Page.

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Posted in Asian food, Indian desserts, Indian food, Indian street food, Kathmandu food, Nepali food, Newari food | 7 Comments »

The dinner that made me respect my sister’s cooking

Thursday, January 6th, 2011

The story of how I started respecting my sister’s cooking dates back to our college days.  My younger sister and I went to the same college. I started cooking at that time. Most of the cooking I learned was either by self-experimenting or by talking to my parents on the phone.

Being the older brother and a foodie, I instructed her on how to cook everything. At first, I was helpful. Later, when she became a decent cook, I was probably a nagging voice in the background. For example, I was someone who kept on telling her when to flip her food or what to add or substitute to enhance the flavors of the dish.

After years of living apart, she often brought a few things she made – usually desserts. Slowly, I started accepting the fact that she was a better baker than me.

I still considered myself a better cook – after all I had a food blog and I knew more about food.

The belief lasted until the last time I visited her. She made the most amazing dinner from the Indian subcontinent. I was genuinely pleased – I was not surprised.

The Nepali/Indian themed dinner started with mango lassi, a mango yogurt smoothie.

Her main course included the spicy chicken curry recipe published at DesiGrub by Minnat. The chicken curry was nearly as good as the one Minnat made.

Among all of her dishes my favorite was the paneer tikka masala or shahi paneer. This dish, made from Indian cottage cheese and paneer in a creamy tomato based sauce, was one of the best I ever had. It was rich without being too greasy. It was a perfect balance of savory and spicy. Paneer tikka masala was the dish that made me respect her cooking. She made it better than I could have ever done.

Mushroom curry made with button mushrooms was simple and reminded me of mushrooms my mom makes.

Kielbasa chili was made in a similar fashion as chicken chili. Instead of using chicken she used spicy kielbasa. This kielbasa dish is a perfect example of fusion cooking. She made a classic dish from home with with an influence from her current home in northeastern United States.

The other dish was lentil stew/soup, dal (see my best lentil soup).  She made a rich and thick dal, which was the favorite of one of the dinner guests.

Alongside everything, she served perfectly cooked basmati rice. She also served chopped onions and fresh green chilies, which are often served as the salad/condiment with the meal throughout the Indian subcontinent.

From now on, I accept that my little sister is better at making Indian/Nepali food than I am – although I still know more about beer and liquor.

Next post: Grand Marnier Tiramisu made by my sister

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Posted in Indian food, Nepali food, Pakistani food | 3 Comments »

My journey for Pongal with coconut chutney

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

Pongal was my morning ritual every day before I went to my college on a small town located in southern India. A while back someone asked me what my favorite south Indian dish was. I paused and answered “Pongal”. Technically, I like Ven Pongal or spicy pongal not the Sakarai Pongal or sweet pongal.

Pongal with coconut chutney

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Pongal is made of rice and mung bean cooked into porridge like consistency. Ven pongal is eaten with either sambar or chutney as a common breakfast food. I am not a big fan of breakfast food but Pongal tops this very narrow list of my favorite breakfasts.

Pongal and Pongal Festival

Pongal is usually a main dish consumed in Pongal festival celebrated by Tamils in state of Tamilnadu in India and Sir Lanka. Pongal festival marks the end of cold winter and dawn of spring harvest. Interestingly it falls close to festival of Makara Sankranthi celebrated in my home country of Nepal and throughout India. Pongal festival is dedicated to the Sun because the sun is considered as a deity for the good harvest and baptizing the first grain to the sun is appropriate. Pongal is celebrated for four days in the mid-January with celebrations of drawing Kolam, swinging and cooking of delicious Pongal.

Kolam with sakari pongal in the middle (Photo based on Sowri)

Sweet pongal (Sakarai Pongal) with generous amount of sugar, jaggery (gudh), coconut, on earthen pots are served in temples as a Prasad, a Hindu communion or offering to god.

Sakarai Pongal (Phot based on Kuttibalu)

Pongal brunch

On one Saturday, after wondering what to eat for brunch, we finally settled on making pongal with coconut chutney. I have never made pongal in my life so I was excited, confused, and at the same time nostalgic about my college days. We started by getting groceries at an Indian grocery store, Krishna Grocery in Springfield, Virginia. While shopping, my wife found a ready-to-eat Pongal from MTR. Indeed, we had to buy that pongal for the comparison later.

Here are the necessary ingredients for making ven pongal;

Pongal base:
1 cup rice
¼ cup mung dal
5 cups of water
2 tablespoons ghee or butter

Pongal spice:
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
½ teaspoon peppercorn
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
10 pieces of whole cashew nuts
¼ teaspoon turmeric
5 curry leaves
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1¼ teaspoon salt or according to taste

Spices for pongal

Steps for making delicious Pongal:

Take 1 cup of rice and ¼ cup of mung dal. Mix and wash.

Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in utensils, lightly pan fry rice and moong dal until it becomes light brown.

Add 5 cups of water and let the rice and dal cook in medium heat until you get thick porridge like consistency.

Cooking rice and mung for pongal

After rice gets right consistency, we can make necessary steps to add spices for pongal. The right consistency is somewhat difficult to define. Rice and transfers into one uniform porridge without trace of their individual grains. It has to be thick enough to hold its shape but creamy enough to melt in your mouth. The beauty of Pongal lies in its perfect texture.

Heat a frying pan at a medium heat with 1½ of vegetable oil. When oil is hot, add following spices; cumin, peppercorn, powdered pepper, cashew nuts, turmeric, ginger, curry leaves, salt in this order.

Frying spices for pongal

Turn off heat and add rice and mung pongal base and mix.

Cooked pongal

Sculpt pongal into semisphere (half of sphere) shape by putting it in a bowl and transferring it on a plate.

Homemade ven pongal

Coconut Chutney

Ven pongal is usually served with sweet and spicy coconut chutney. Lightly spiced creamy warm ven pongal is balanced perfectly by cooling spicy coconut chutney.

Coconut Chutney base:
1 cup grated coconut
¼ cups roasted chickpeas
5 pieces whole cashew nuts
¼ cup cilantro (or mint)
2 cups water (add more for consistency)

Base ingredients for coconut chutney

Chutney spice tempering (Tadka):
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
2 pieces red dry chilies
1 tablespoon skinless urad dal (soaked in water for ½ hour)
¼ tablespoon hing or asafetida
2 green chilies
4 fresh curry leaves
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Spices for coconut chutney

Steps for making mouthwatering coconut chutney:

Lightly grind all ingredients listed under the coconut chutney base in a blender.

Heat oil. Successively fry following ingredients in this order with few seconds of interval; mustard seeds, cumin seeds, red dry chilies, soaked urad dal (without water), hing, curry leaves.

Carefully (without splattering) add the fried spices on top of blended coconut chutney base. Let it sit for few minutes and mix. This spice tempering method is called Tadka.

Tempering fried spices on coconut chutney
Coconut chutney with cilantro

Ready-to-eat Pongal by MTR

MTR Pongal box

Ready-to-eat pongal made by MTR was very easy to make. You can microwave or just immerse in hot water bath. MTR’s pongal was slightly more watery. The flavor was off. Since it might had more turmeric, it tasted a bit like another Indian dish called Khichadi or similar Nepali version called Jaula. Everyone at the table found my first time Pongal far better than the packaged version.

Pongal from MTR

Pongal at Saravana Palace Restaurant

Even after sampling a ready-to-eat Pongal, I was still wanted eat authentic pongal in an restaurant. I knew my Pongal was decent but I wanted others, who never had Pongal in their life, to try a professionally made or homemade Pongal for a comparison.

Not to my surprise, many Indian restaurants don’t serve Pongal. Even among vegetarian restaurants, a few of them served Pongal.

In Tamilnadu India, I had the good fortune of eating in chain of restaurants called Saravana Palace. When I saw a restaurant with same name in the greater Washington DC area, I had to go there and try their Pongal.

Sarvana Palace

Service at Sarvana Palace in Virginia was friendly, but the Pongal was disappointing. I am sad to say that more than an hour of driving was fruitless. Pongal at the restaurant was worse than the Pongal packaged by MTR. Pongal was very watery and flavor was blander. Avial, a vegetable curry made with coconut from Kerala, was barely acceptable. Three of us barely finished a serving of Pongal. If I had told a newbie to try Pongal at Saravana Palace, I would not be surprised they come out hating it.

Pongal with Avial, Coconut chutney and Sambhar at Sarvana Palace

After trying ready-go Pongal and Pongal at Saravana Palace, I am proud to say that my home made Pongal was able to freshen warm memories of my college days.

My homemade Pongal with coconut chutney
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Posted in Breakfast, Indian food, Vegetarian | 7 Comments »

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