感恩節 Thanksgiving special

text.Stephanie Yuen

Like Christmas, Thanksgiving is observed by almost everyone.
Same as the Lunar Moon Festival, it is a harvest celebration.
Thanksgiving is when families and friends gather around a tableful of food, prepared with joy and special attention.

Let’s take a look at the dinner table: Turkey, potatoes, vegetables, casseroles and pies, dressed up nicely to please every body. But in the early days, menu for Thanksgiving was quite different. You could find lobsters, swan and seal meats amongst piles of vegetables and fruits. They were later replaced by venison, corns and fish.

Come modern times, turkey is often the centre piece on the dining table, amongst all the other scrumptious dishes. But maybe for once, you want to via away from the traditional stuffed turkey, what about a bird barbequed with oriental herbs and sauces, cooked in a conventional Chinese vault-like oven?

Hon’s Chinese Barbequed style TURKEY

Thanksgiving celebration is not an Asian celebration; the delivery of a beautifully dressed turkey onto the dinner table may well be something they experience through television or silver screen.

“That’s exactly how and why Hon’s created a Chinese-style BBQ turkey.” Recalls Simon Lee, Hon’s Executive Manager. It was in the early 1990’s when Hon’s was approached by regular customers to come up with a turkey that appealed to the oriental palates. ”The response was good enough for us to keep that a regular item. The demand is of course much stronger during festival seasons.”

Hon’s BBQ turkey averages about 10-lb. each and can be ordered two ways: A la carte or party style. Please order 3 days ahead.

A la carte turkey is around $7 per pound, but it’s the party turkey meal that is popularized by Asian customers. For less than $10 per person, the turkey party meal comes with choices of fried rice, chow mein and other entrée dishes.

A simple turkey recipe

Provided by Henry Yuen

Ingredients:
15-20 lbs turkey, thawed, cleaned and dried
6 oz. melted butter
1 tsp. each black pepper, sea salt
2 tbsp. Maggie sauce
1 tbsp. all spice

Method:
-Mix all seasonings together.
-Brush evenly onto turkey, in and out.
-Marinate for 2 - 4 hours.
-Preheat oven to 350F.
-Place turkey in a large baking pan, brush turkey with seasoning one more time before putting into oven. Lightly cover turkey with a piece of foil for the first 90 minutes.
-Baking time: 1 lb = 15 minutes, if turkey is stuffed, allow more time.
-Remove turkey from oven every 60 minutes, brush with seasoning.
Lightly cover turkey with a piece of foil for the first 90 minutes.
-Put a knife into the breast; remove turkey from oven only when knife comes out clear. Place turkey onto a platter. Wait for at least 20 minutes before carving.
-Pour remaining jus from the pan onto a saucepan, add ½ cup of water and bring to a boil. Add salt, pepper and sugar to the taste. Make a cornstarch mix and slowly stir into the jus to make the graving.
-Optional: Pan-fried onion and mushrooms slices can be added into the
Jus before mixing in the cornstarch.

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