The Wind Attack

Between 2008’s multi-course Vegetarian Thanksgiving and 2009’s Farmhouse Dinner in Maine, I had a lot to live up to in 2010. But because Tgives is my favorite holiday, I was up to the challenge.

Meet Alaina, a friend of mine who I’ve known for 6 years. She recently abandoned her life in Los Angeles to go to school in Amsterdam.

I think everyone needs at least one friend who’s a bit of wild card. Alaina’s mine.

Meet Amsterdam. A magical city where people vastly prefer bikes to cars. I think I could fit in here.

And that’s how I decided to go to Amsterdam for Thanksgiving.

During my week’s stay, fun adventures were in abundance, none more fun than the epic Thanksgiving party that Alaina and I put together for nearly 20 international students! Despite a number of challenges, it was one of the funnest time’s I’ve ever had in the kitchen.

Alaina wanted traditional Thanksgiving foods on the menu: turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, sweet potatoes.

Turkey was the first challenge, as it’s not readily available in Amsterdam. Fortunately, Alaina found a Farmer’s market with a specialty poultry butcher with high quality turkey cuts at a premium (€€!) price.

To our surprise, we also found fresh cranberries at the market too. Because we didn’t anticipate this, I had brought a couple bags from The States in my suitcase. We stocked up on other fruits and vegetables and walked back to Alaina’s apartment in the cool, overcast Wednesday morning.

The student apartment kitchen presented the biggest challenges. Tiny refrigerator,electric cooktop and NO OVEN. Roasting the turkey was out of the question. Fortunately, in anticipation of this, I also packed my Dutch Oven (how appropriate) in my suitcase. I figured braising would be a good approach for cooking the turkey.

Alaina handed me a can of dutch beer and we started to chop vegetables. I seared the pieces of turkey two minutes on each side and then realized that I hadn’t really thought about what I was going to use as a braising liquid. For a hot second I thought about just using water, but then I realized the answer was in the palm of my hand. Dutch beer in a dutch oven? Makes sense to me!

That night after a cold bike ride home from a bar through the winding streets of the city, Alaina and I ran up the stairs to the kitchen. We had a hunger that only the 2 am beer-braised turkey sandwiches we made could satisfy.

The turkey and its braising liquid was still slightly warm even after several hours in the refrigerator. We ravenously grabbed pieces of the tender dark meat and ladled spoonfuls of the rich braising liquid over toasted slices of bread, letting all the complex flavors soak in.

Pre-leftovers rule!

On Thanksgiving morning, both Alaina and I were sound asleep as the sun rose above the canals of Amsterdam. No doubt an effect of the previous night’s dose of Tryptophan.

Even though we slept past the crack of noon, I didn’t feel a sense of urgency that I often feel at the start of a big day of cooking. I felt an uncanny confidence and I had a few creative ideas brewing.

This is my friend pig fat. Unlike most home cooks, I don’t think of lard as a four-letter word. Properly raised, home-rendered lard is a flavorful and well-performing kitchen fat.

The lard was the crucial ingredient in my twist on the traditional Thanksgiving feast. That twist being deep frying!

Sweet potatoes were rendered into sweet potato fries and served with a lovely tzatziki sauce made by Alaina’s Greek friend. The lard made for extra crisp fries, quickly devoured by the crowd hot from the fryer.

As for the turkey, I took a page from Chef Ludo’s book and attempted to create his fried chicken balls, only using turkey instead. Working off only the idea, I had some fear that perhaps the balls would fall apart during frying… but really, I didn’t sweat it. If it didn’t work, then the turkey would still be plenty tasty on its own.

But it did work. It worked really well. Topped with cranberry-pear sauce, mustard and mayo, this handheld treat served our unique dinner situation well. We didn’t have enough plates for everyone, so people would share or simply grab a halved turkey ball and snack away.

When everyone had ate their fill, there was not a lethargic feeling like a typical Thanksgiving dinner. In fact, quite the opposite: the party wanted to go on.

And so we hopped on our bikes and went off to a local bar.

I was surprised that I wasn’t exhausted from cooking the meal. I was up to go along for the ride; biking through the cold air reenergized me.

And when that bar closed, off we went to another bar.

And then this is what the bike ride home looked like.

I slept well knowing that it had been a very good Thanksgiving.