Asian Mama Journal

2021 is a very special year. It is the first time our family is celebrating an American tradition without being physically in America. And yes, you got it right, it is Thanksgiving I am talking about it.

I will have to be honest, finding ingredients for the Thanksgiving meal was no easy task. Our family traveled to more than four grocery stores to find what we needed. We didn’t want to give up the Thanksgiving’s signature dishes, namely the turkey and also pumpkin pie. And boy oh boy, the turkeys and pumpkin pie ingredients take some effort to find. Pumpkin puree is not a thing here in Sweden and we eventually had to give up and try our luck at the American grocery store (at a high price of course).

Gradual improvement is a goal that I have for myself when it comes to cooking. So this year, I have decided to make some modifications on the recipes for the Thanksgiving meal based on our experiences last year. We found out from our Thanksgiving meal last year that we like:

• Tender, juicy turkey instead of dry ones
• Big marshmallows on the yam instead of small ones, with a bit of browning on top; and
• Brussel sprouts over green beans

With these family preferences (well mainly me and Ray at that time as Little Ray had not started on solids at that time) in mind, I modified the way I cooked Thanksgiving meal this year. Fortunately, they all turned out really well this year! And I want to make a note on how I made the dishes this year so I can use it as a reference next year! I would say the turkey is the biggest win for me this year, so let’s start with that.

The conventional way of baking turkey seems to be putting it directly into the oven without having it tented in foil. However, I have found that it usually dries out the juices of the meat really early on and thus making the Turkey dry and grumpy. Using the same trick from baking salmon (how we would tent it in foil while baking to keep all the juices in), I decided to start cooking the turkey with it tented in foil.

Every pound of turkey requires 13-15 minutes of baking in 325 degrees. We had a 11 pound turkey so assuming 15 minutes per pound, the total baking time required was 165 minutes (2.75 hrs). I ended up baking the turkey tented in foil for 150 minutes, and then took out the foil and had the oven in broil for another 30 minutes just to make sure the turkey is properly browning and cooked.

And the end result? AMAZING. The juices of the turkey were well-locked in it doesn’t taste dry at all. Too bad we were too busy eating once we started carving the turkey, because otherwise I would have taken a picture of the inside of the turkey and also another picture of a slice of the turkey…

So a note for myself for 2022’s Thanksgiving? Tent the turkey in foil when baking it please.