We forgot to eat the stuffing

It took a cleaver and a mallet to cut through the bones of our 13-pound heritage turkey yesterday, but we managed to finish most of the half  that we roasted with white sweet potatoes, yams and dried apricots. With only one drumstick, though, I ended up eating the white meat, which was juicy and flavorful.

I seasoned the bird with salt, cinnamon, allspice, cumin and Aleppo red pepper. I put the apricots in right away and they burned, so next time they'll go in with the boiled potatoes after an hour or so. And the sausage-apple stuffing, which I bought at Abma's Farm, was on a rack below the big enamelware pot with the turkey, and I completely forgot about it until we finished our meal.

We started the meal with lobster bisque from Costco after I found a container of it in the freezer. It was a delicious meal, with a few glasses of new beaujolais wine, and my wife and son didn't have room for the pumpkin pie. I had a few slices of Spanish fig cake, cheese and almonds a few hours later.

See earlier post: "Our half-turkey Thanksgiving"

Our half-turkey Thanksgiving

Faced with a 13-pound heritage turkey and the inevitable leftovers of mostly white meat (not our favorite), I've decided to cut our fresh bird in half and roast it with Middle Eastern spices, sweet white potatoes and yams, and dried apricots. The other half will go into the freezer. Next year, we'll invite relatives or friends or go back to preparing only turkey drumsticks, thighs and wings from Goffle Road Poultry Farm in Wyckoff.

I got into this mess because I wanted to try one of those sleek turkey breeds that were around for hundreds of years before the industrial white broad-breasted turkey was developed and pumped full of antibiotics and butter and who knows what else. When I was growing up in Brooklyn, my Sephardic Jewish mother would roast a turkey for Thanksgiving, but always prepare side dishes of  white rice, sour sauce with kibbe, stuffed grape leaves and other specialties.

Here is the rest of this afternoon's menu in Hackensack:


Sausage-apple stuffing and cranberry relish form Abma's Farm
Quick collard greens with garlic
Pumpkin pie from Mazur's Bakery in Lyndhurst
Spanish fig cake served with Manchego cheese and almonds
New beuajolais wine

Happy holiday to all.

Back to the Wyckoff turkey farm

It took two phone calls and an 18-mile round trip to exchange the bird that was standing in for the heritage turkey I had reserved for our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.

The Narragansett turkey I brought home today from Goffle Road Poultry Farm in Wyckoff  (a cooked one is shown in the photo)  weighs 13 pounds and cost $90.50 -- about $40 less than if  I had mail-ordered it from Heritage Foods USA, but its bigger than the 8-10 pound bird I asked for in a conversation with the owner yesterday afternoon.

It turns out the original order taker didn't hear me say "heritage turkey" and put me down in the computer for one of the farm's broad-breasted white turkeys, which are raised on vegetarian feed and without antibiotics. That's the one I picked up Tuesday.

I heard an employee refer to the heritage turkey as a "wild turkey" with a gamier taste, and in fact, my turkey is labeled "wild turkey," but it's farm raised and not one of the really wild turkeys I have seen near the Palisades. The label also says it's free range and raised without steroids, antibiotics or animal by-products.

Still, that's a lot of turkey for our family of three. Just this week, we argued over why my wife wanted to prepare another dinner, rather than eat leftover whole fried whiting and parts from a 5.6 pound chicken we roasted with fingerling potatoes and dried apricots. Stay tuned.

See earlier post, "Thanksgiving food and wine run."

Getting my ducks in a row for Thanksgiving

We love Thanksgiving and we're already planning for the holiday, the first time in several years that we're going to roast a whole bird. But we won't be having one of those industrial broad-breasted turkeys, bred to have acres of white meat. (See earlier post, "What do people see in white meat?")

We usually go to the Goffle Road Poultry Farm in Wyckoff a week before the holiday and pick up turkey drum sticks, thighs and wings, plus a bottle of Uncle Dougie's spicy, Chicago-style wing marinade. The turkeys, ducks, quail, geese, and chickens and capons (both up to 8 pounds) are raised on a vegetarian diet without antibiotics. I also like the fresh duck eggs sold there.

This year, we plan to buy a heritage turkey, which was developed in the United States and Europe over hundreds of years. The Narragansett variety sold in Wyckoff will be going for $5.95 a pound (live weight) and the bird we get will weigh 8-10 pounds after gutting and cleaning. Compared to the ungainly, tasteless, broad-breasted white turkey, the Narragansett is an athlete with flavorful meat.

This week, I received a roasting pan large enough to accommodate a 25-pounder. I ordered the rectangular  Graniteware black-and-white enameled roaster and cover from Cooking.com.


I plan to roast the turkey with spaghetti, Syrian-style. The bird will be seasoned with salt, allspice, cinnamon and Aleppo pepper and baked in the oven, covered, for about 45 minutes. Then I'll remove the turkey and mix the spaghetti, boiled separately, with bottled sauce and the turkey juices (fat), and season it with allspice and cinnamon. The pan then goes back into the oven, uncovered, until the turkey is done and the pasta has a little crust on top.

I'll probably serve it with a big salad, mixed vegetables, baked or mashed sweet potatoes and a nice red wine, such as malbec from Argentina or pinot noir from California.

Here is the link to the poultry farm's Web site:
http://www.gofflepoultry.com/