For many of us foodies (and if you're reading this, you qualify as a foodie), Thanksgiving is the most enjoyable holiday of the year. Unburdened by any religious connotations or capitalist obligations, we are free to focus on the things we value most: getting together with the people we care about and sitting down to a fabulous meal. The third Thursday in November is also the one night of the year when many professional chefs don't go near a stove.
When I was cooking in restaurants I was shocked by how many of my (mostly male) colleagues had no plans, nor any desire to make Thanksgiving dinner. They were planning to eat at their moms' and grandmas' houses, where they could scarf down sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top, and planks of overcooked Butterball slathered with red chile.
Cooks tend to feed off of the feeling of satisfaction they get from seeing the happy, satisfied faces of their guests, but sometimes they just want to be guests, to be catered to and spoiled and have third helpings pushed onto their plates by an aunt who thinks they're still too skinny.
As a girl, I helped make the meal every year, holding the salt and pepper shakers ready as my mom wrestled a slippery bird under the faucet and induced the birth of its papery bag of giblets. Later I would stare in awe as she turned a pan full of stuck-on turkey bits into a boat full of dark, glistening gravy. I've been doing it on my own for a decade now and my mom usually comes, but when she doesn't, the gravy is nowhere near as good.
And speaking of turkey, here are some turkey carving tips courtesy of Wild Oats Markets. First, place the bird on a carving board with the breast side up. With a carving fork, secure the bird firmly. Locate the thigh joint and slice the skin with the knife. Press down on the leg with your hand and find the natural separation in the joint. Cut through it, removing the leg and thigh. Cut between the drumstick and the thigh with a sharp knife or poultry shears and set the legs aside.
Don't worry about removing the wing right now. Make one long cut into the turkey just above the wing joint. Now go back to the top of the breast and cut down to the cut above the wing joint. The slices will fall neatly off the bird.
Turn the bird around and carve the other side. Don't be intimidated; this is not precision work.
Place portions onto a hot platter with some of the turkey broth. Plan on one pound of turkey for every person at the table.
Last year at Thanksgiving we roasted an heirloom bird I bought from Tom Delehanty, the owner of Pollo Real in Socorro. I had ordered one of the biggest birds he had and Delehanty warned me that the biggest (and therefore oldest) of his lean-breasted birds could be a little tough. I brined the bird overnight and it was the most delicious turkey I've ever had.
When I called Delehanty a few weeks ago to see about getting another one of those skinny-breasted birds, he told me that although he did have a few turkeys left, he wouldn't be supplying local, organic chickens to grocery stores the way he has been for years.
"I have young kids and in the past few years it's just been too much to manage at that scale, selling 1,000 meat chickens a week," Delehanty told me. "To do the nine things that all matter, it really takes all of my time-80 hours a week-and there's no money to put management at every level," he said. Although there will be no more Pollo Real at retail outlets (like Kaune's and La Montañita Co-op), Delehanty told me he will continue to supply the many restaurants that serve his poultry.
What he wants to do is take a break from big-time, fast-paced chicken production and start what he describes as a subscription service, something like a community-supported agriculture (CSA) project. Customers would pay a set fee for a season's worth of produce, meat and eggs. On his Socorro farm, Delehanty raises chickens, turkeys and ducks, but also grows potatoes, garlic, onions, sweet corn and other crops. The details aren't worked out yet, but when they are, I'll let you know.
In the meantime, from now until the end of the year, you can find Delehanty at the Santa Fe Farmer's Market, selling chicken, duck and maybe a few turkeys (ask now if you want one for Christmas or New Year's; he will certainly have a waiting list).
After the first of the year, Pollo Real will take a break for a few months and concentrate on breeding. (I know! Sounds like fun, doesn't it?) "One hundred years ago," Delehanty told me, "we all raised up our own animals and kept the best ones for breeding stock." Today, most poultry farmers buy their hatchlings only a few days old, raise them and sell them all. But Pollo Real has been breeding chickens for nine years, and that's something Delehanty would like to focus on more. From January to May, he'll be raising birds from his own stock, and hopes to return to the market with chicken by May.
For information on Pollo Real's retail availability or CSA project, contact Tom Delehanty at 838-0345 or e-mail
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