Some Musings on Thanksgiving Dinner 2012

Thanksgiving Dinner 2012

Deconstructed Malaysian Style

Appetizer

Cranberry Juice

Main Course

Tandoori Chicken Ala Jeffrey Saad

With Basmati Rice and Spicy Tomato Chutney

Vegetables

Matar Paneer

Oven Roasted Pumpkin with pumpkin pie spicing

Dessert

Crème Brulee Ice Cream with Chocolate Cookies

Beverages

Cold Water

Rolf Binder Hale’s 2010
Shiraz Barossa Valley (Australia)

The Back Story

Until recently, we hosted the annual extended family Thanksgiving Gathering.  Over the years up to 46 people gathered at our home in Raleigh, NC, USA.  The gathering included family, friends, and casual acquaintances.  Some of the friends and acquaintances became family.

A traditional Thanksgiving dinner in the USA varies greatly depending upon where you lived and your ethnic heritage.  My mother's family was originally of Swiss/German extraction and the dinner included sauerkraut, and horseradish infused Lime jello salad.  In our Thanksgiving tradition we quickly dropped the sauerkraut and jello salad, but added other items: matar paneer (adopted during one son's vegetarian phase), cranberry sauce with horseradish (sounded like a great NPR recipe), green bean curry (because it tasted so good), and homemade salsa (adopted from a friend's recipe while we were living in Arizona).  But the center piece of the dinner was always the turkey.  As our economic situation changed we migrated from frozen turkey to fresh, from one large to multiple small sized birds.  We always had a stuffing (and it was always stuffed in the bird, not cooked on the side).  Liz baked a pumpkin pie (which became less popular over the years as tastes (and waistlines) changed).  

Various friends and relatives contributed to the dinner:  some made yams cooked in a sweet sauce with marshmallows melted on top, others brought cookies, apple pies, a minced meat pie, various Chinese dishes, and other Asian dishes.  Everything was labeled so people with dietary restrictions could partake.  We always had peanut butter on hand for the occasional child whose palate did not include new and strange foods.

In later years, I learned to make Ice Cream (an obsession learned when visiting Hanoi early in the 21st century).  So ginger ice cream, coffee ice cream and East India Company spiced ice cream joined the mix. 

This all came to an end in 2010 with the last Thanksgiving Meal at the O'Sullivan-Hale household in Raleigh.  We retired shortly later and moved to Malaysia.  The USA dinner continued at a new venue a year later, but the geographical dispersion of the family  members with new nuclear families forming caused the tradition to end.  This is not sad, but the natural order of things.  Over the years five generations of family members celebrated with us.  

Uncle Brendan

Dad (Colin)

However in the new venue's some traditions continue.  Family members in Texas, USA are now making their own "strange cheese", and a grandson in Rochester, NY (USA) is learning the fine art of paneer making in the arms of his doting Uncle.  Other members of the family celebrate in Alexandria, VA, USA, Laurel, MD, USA, London, UK, and in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Bangsar, Malaysia 2012

In 2011, we invited my niece who was doing a gap semester in Seoul, Korea to come to Kuala Lumpur.  It was a busy time and we celebrate Thanksgiving by Skyping to Oregon and the family gathering in Maryland.  We ate at a local restaurant.  

This year I began looking for a method to make a Thanksgiving dinner.  We first looked for restaurants serving a Thanksgiving dinner.  We found one which would include a suite of rooms and a room service provided meal (it was only USD 600 for four people).  I wondered whom we could include who would share the room with us.  Another hotel offered a "Southern Thanksgiving Dinner" buffet.  The thought somewhat scared me, especially when one son opined that it probably included "Cream of Mushroom soup".

So I decided to evaluate my kitchen and determine how I could create a satisfying Thanksgiving Dinner.  I have an oven (a counter top overgrown toaster oven), and a small, work surface challenged environment.

My Oven

My Kitchen

My first choice was looking for a turkey breast.  All turkey in Malaysia comes from Australia, and are "liquid infused" birds.  However, they are "halal".  But the birds were too large for my limited baking environment.  I was not interested in deep frying my turkey, and potentially setting fire to my condo building.  Then I looked for turkey parts.  Frozen drumsticks are available, but no turkey breast.  This is somewhat puzzling, since no sliced meat  pork free substitutes (pastrami, salami, ham, and bacon are made from turkey) and freshly ground turkey meat is similarly unavailable.  What has happened to the missing breasts, thighs, wings, necks, and turkey feet?  Mystified, I decided to abandon turkey as the centerpiece of our dinner.

Using a roast chicken did not resonate with me.  If I was going to make a change it was going to be an Asian homage to a Thanksgiving dinner.  What were the elements I needed to include:  a meat centerpiece, a starch dish, a vegetable dish (matar paneer was the easy choice but its implementation is controversial within the family), a tomato salsa dish and a pumpkin pie dish.   So what did I come up with?

My spice infused mortar and pestle

The meat centerpiece was replaced with the Tandoori-style Chicken, basmati rice and spiced tomato chutney adopted from Jeffrey Saar's  Global Kitchen: Recipes Without Borders: 2012, Ballantine Books Trade Paperback Originals, New York, USA.  The rice is a beautiful yellow in colour, courtesy of turmeric (I used some turmeric produced by a woman's collective in Bhutan).  It did not have the sharp taste of the powder turmeric distributed in the USA.  Maybe I am overly critical as I have become accustomed to using fresh turmeric ground in my mortar and pestle.  The tomato chutney replaced the Arizona based tomato salsa.  It is sweet with a nice vinegar kick.  I used the red wine vinegar specified in the recipe, but an Asian rice wine would be nice substitute. 

A healthier and economic choice

The featured part of his dish was the chicken.  I do not like the chicken parts the local stores package.  The chicken meat is heavily infused with water.  Instead I chose a Japanese style of chicken, which is antibiotic free, and air dried.  I cut the chicken into  parts myself.  It is amazing how some little things are so different.  Butchering of chicken parts is different, with the thigh parts containing part of the back, and of course the feet are included.  I substituted "Gheeblend" for ghee.  It was both an economic and well as a health choice.  Real Ghee in Malaysia, at least at my "expensive" neighborhood store is exorbitantly priced, and the substitute must be better for my arteries.  Otherwise I followed the recipe.  Of course I had to transfer the chicken from the frying pan into a baking dish because I oven was too small.

The matar paneer was a violation of the family tradition.  I used a prepackaged version.  It was an adequate substitute but not the real thing.  Maybe next year.

I apologize to to Matar Paneer purists.

The roasted pumpkin was my own creation.  I had a half butternut squash in the refrigerator and had roasted pumpkin in an earlier recipe for pumpkin and potato curry.  As I was cutting up the pumpkin using my "Vietnamese peeler" I was thinking "what about dessert".  I added some butter, a stick of cinnamon, some freshly ground nutmeg (I needed to find a hammer to crack the shell before grating the nice interior nut), and some whole cloves. It was put into the oven while the chicken was resting.  About 20 minutes at 200 (375) was about right.

The final part of the meal were the nicely caramelized onions and red bell peppers in Jeffrey Saal's recipe.  They added both a colourful and a flavourful touch.  Again, I learned that colour and flavour can go hand in hand.

For service, I made a bed of the caramelized onion/pepper mixture, reconstructed the chicken from the parts, and added some fresh coriander.  A spritzer of fresh lime would have added some brightness to the dish.  Garlic coated Naan were originally included, but for the two of us it would have been overkill.

The wine was nice, and it got better as it breathed.  I always forget that step in serving wine, it really mellows with the exposure to air.  It probably could have used a few minutes in the fridge to take a bit of the warmth out of the wine.  A short note about wine in Malaysia. According to a report on the local news this AM, Malaysian excise taxes on alcoholic products is the second highest in the world: following Norway.  Given that "two-buck Chuck" would cost USD 10 here.

A nice cheap wine.

The dessert was nothing to write about.  Just straight out the store freezer and a bag of cookies.  I have given up on making ice cream here in Malaysia.  One we don't need the calories or cholesterol, the ingredients are expensive and UHT heat treated, and many of our friends to whom we would serve the ice cream are lactose intolerant.  Besides, the pricing of a compressor ice cream maker is 5 times that of the USA or UK.

The Aftermath

I am now reflecting on what I miss.  The deconstructed dinner does not easily lead to:  cold turkey sandwiches with Susan Stanberg's Mother's cranberry sauce,  Left over pan fried mashed potato cakes, nibbling on left over stuffing, and matar paneer at its best, a day later.  I miss cooking breakfast the next morning when I can serve pancakes without Liz objecting.  I miss walking with family on cool autumn days, and either organizing shopping trips to local potteries, visiting museums, going to the symphony, or attending ice hockey games with a group of 20.  I miss the hordes of people and actually I miss the feeling of solitude when everybody goes home.