Christmas Dinner - Turkey

Here is what Christmas Dinner looks like in Canada.

Ever Canadian Family has this meal, exactly, almost, as shown here, maybe.

This meal was invented by my ancestors when they arrived in Canada in 1604 at Port Royal in Nova Scotia. There were plenty of wild turkeys to be had and the sage used in the stuffing was growing naturally in the wild.

The recipe calls for a turkey, some bread, some sage, an onion, roast or mashed potatoes and a few other items. Read this story and prepare for your next turkey dinner. Did you know that in Portuguese a turkey is called Peru? Turkey and Peru. What a coincidence.

Christmas Dinner in Brasil, 2007.




To begin, a few days in advance buy a turkey. If it is frozen thaw it out inside the fridge for three days and then wash it off before you start preparations at 8 a.m. Christmas morning.

The secret to success is to get a loaf of bread and dry it over night.





Cover it to keep flying guests off it.





Next morning gather the essentials and start cutting the bread into small cubes.





Put them in the turkey roasting pan. Every Canadian home has one!





Chop or cut an onion (or two to taste) in small pieces and put them into the pan.





Now cut an apple in small pieces and throw them in the pan. Peel the apple but do not throw away the peel. We will use it later for a very special purpose,





Some people even add sausage to the mix. We added two today.





Now we add spices that we enjoy, especially sage. In Brasil use Maggi Fondor. We also added some black pepper.





Now we use the apple peels. We feed them to the poor starving chef! Hahahaha!





Now, as suggested in other recipes, it is a good idea to start by washing your hands because now you have to dig in and mix all ingredients by hand.





Now you takes hands full of the dressing and push it hard into all cavities in the bird.





If you were lucky the butcher who cleaned the turkey for you left decent skin flaps to close the cavities that are full of dressing.

Tie up the bird and put it on a rack in the turkey roasting pan.





Preheat the oven t0 325° F or 175° C then put the bird in the oven.





This one has one of those red popups that tells you when it is cooked.





OOOOPS! We forgot to cover it with aluminum foil.

Cook for about an hour per kilo. or 1/2 hour per pound. Uncover the bird for the last half hour to give it that rich golden colour.





By the way. We went a little overboard on the dressing. We had a little left over.





We put it in the fry pan with some margarine and cooked for about 20 minutes and ended up with a good supply of delicious Stove Top Stuffing. So never worry that you made too much.





Here comes the Master with his Masterpiece!





Now his next task is to carve the turkey for the assembled guests.



We had roasted potatoes, potato salad (Mayonnaise in Brasil), peas, rice, turkey gravy, and a host of other traditional Brasilian foods to go with this Traditional Canadian-Brasilian Christmas Dinner.

It all turned out to be a perfect meal. Now you try it. MMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmm!



Photos by Urso Branco

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