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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.

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 »

Counting Calories in Momo

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

Generally momos, curried dumplings, are steamed and consumed during cold winter evenings in Nepal. Hot steam used for cooking momos keeps the rooms warm between the batches (pakh) of momos, which also warms the body of the eater, in turn giving warmth to their hungry souls.

Momos are steamed in multiple batches every 15 minutes or so at the home in small steamer consisting of 2 or 3 levels/floors. Everyone ends up with only a few momos couple of times in an hour. So momo party usually takes a shape of a slow snacking all evening long usually resulting in bloated stomachs caused by the shared gluttony.

How many calories are in momo?

Nutritional analysis of momo meal to find calories per serving is an approximation at the best because there is no standard recipe for momo and there is no data on numbers of momo people consume per serving.

Nutritional Analysis on published Momo Recipes

The initial sets of nutritional values were calculated the four meat based momo recipes selected from published momo recipes. The first recipe chosen was the turkey momo recipe published on the DesiGrub by Anita (my favorite American momo recipe). The next recipe was khasi (lamb) momo recipe from the book Asian Dumplings by Andrea Nguyen. The final two recipes were lamb momo and chicken momo from the most comprehensive Nepali cookbook, The Taste of Nepal by Jyoti Pathak.  The size of momo was based on what was suggested by the author.

Publications DesiGrub Asian Dumpling Taste of Nepal Taste of Nepal
Momo Description Turkey Momo Lamb Momo Chicken Momo Lamb Momo
Total Calories (kcl)
57
92
71
150
Total Calories from Fats (kcl)
19
32
22
53
Total Fat (g)
2
4
3
6
Total Saturated Fat (g)
0
1
1
2
Total Transfat (g)
0
0
1
1
Cholestrol (mg)
5
8
20
17
Sodium (mg)
314
225
223
223
Carbohydrate (g)
7
11
7
8
Dietary Fiber (g)
1
1
0
0
Sugar (g)
0
0
0
0
Protein (g)
3
3
5
5
Vitamin A (i.u.)
5
44
15
76
Vitamin C (mg)
2
4
0
7
Calcium (mg)
12
7
4
9
Iron (mg)
1
1
1
1

All these values are calculated based on the USDA estimates. The quality of ingredients may change these values slightly.

Nutritional Analysis on the Same Momo Recipe – Different Meat

All those four momo recipes are inherently different. Many ingredients change from one momo recipe to another. What would happen if we just change the meat? Thus, keeping everything else same, we calculated nutritional value for the DesiGrub momo recipe by changing the type of meat. For this nutritional analysis, the size of a momo was about 28-32 grams each, which we found was about an average size for momo based on our quick measurements.

Meat>>
Turkey
Lamb
Chicken
Buffalo
Beef
Total Calories (kcl)
57
58
58
64
59
Total Calories from Fats (kcl)
19
21
23
28
22
Total Fat (g)
2
2
3
3
3
Total Saturated Fat (g)
0
0
0
1
0
Total Transfat (g)
0
0
0
0
0
Cholestrol (mg)
5
5
6
5
4
Sodium (mg)
314
314
313
314
313
Carbohydrate (g)
7
7
7
7
7
Dietary Fiber (g)
1
1
1
1
1
Sugar (g)
0
0
0
0
0
Protein (g)
3
2
2
2
3
Vitamin A (i.u.)
5
5
5
5
5
Vitamin C (mg)
2
2
2
2
2
Calcium (mg)
12
12
11
12
12
Iron (mg)
1
1
1
1
1
Weight
32
32
32
32
32

We found an average number of standard (generic) size momo has 59 calories. We can safely assume each momo is ~ 60 calories depending on the recipe and exact size.

Average Number of Momo Consumed per Person

After getting average calories per momo, we still need to know how many momo an average person eats to calculated the total calories of momo dinner. Momos sold as a fast/street food is served usually in a plate of 10 momos. However, during “steamout” with friends and family, who is really counting? We performed a quick survey on the Facebook (Join DesiGrub @ Facebook!) and got 37 responses up to the point of writing.

The average numbers of momo per person per meal is 18±13. However we found these averages changed depending on national origin and sex of the respondent. The highest average was for a male of Nepali origin, who typically consumes 27±10 momos per meal. The lowest number of momo eating group was non-Nepali female with just 10±3 momos per meal.

Both male & female Female Male
Non-Nepali 12±6 10±3 15±11
Nepali 24±14 21±16 27±10
Average for Everyone 18±13

Average Number of Calories Consumed per Person During Momo Dinner

Here are average calories we are consuming per momo dinner. This estimate still underestimates the total caloric value of momo meal because we don’t account for the sauce (achaar) consumed with momos.

Both male & female Female Male
Non-Nepali 686±377 612±192 907±627
Nepali 1389±841 1255±935 1608±598
Average for Everyone 1085±764

Hopefully, we have not deterred you for eating momos. In next blog post, we will talk about lesson one of the authors learned by being on all momo diet for a week.

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Posted in Indian fast food, Indian food, Kathmandu food, Nepali food, Newari food, Tibetan food | No 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 »

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