Cooked Christmas Turkey

Buy a turkey (a list of suppliers was published around US Thanksgiving) then haul it down to ChoLon and let the BBG/roast meat experts cook it for you.

Annam will likely claim it's a holistic, organic, vegetarian turkey!

Actually, 130K for a seven kilo turkey cooked is not a bad price.

Will they provide gravy too ?

no it's actually 130 K per kilo but you have to buy the whole bird which is 7 kilos so you're looking at close to 1 million for the bird, and no gravy, just cranberry sauce.

Rom.Em wrote:

no it's actually 130 K per kilo but you have to buy the whole bird which is 7 kilos so you're looking at close to 1 million for the bird, and no gravy, just cranberry sauce.

I realize that it's per kilo but still not a bad price. We payed 144K per kilo and had to cook ours ourselves for Thanksgiving, but was a great turkey imported from Utah, and we were able to make a good thick gravy thanks to my wives great culinary skills.
You simply cannot have turkey dinner without gravy.

The expat food stores on 60 Ham Nghi street were selling turkeys at 210K per Kilo and they came with stuffing.  I assume that they come cooked at that price. I make my own stuffing however I cannot find poultry spice in Vietnam.

yes An Nam market raised their price to 355K per kilo with stuffing and cranberry sauce. They are making a killing lol I'll find a turkey and try to make some gravy, mash, veggies and we'll see what else

I was attracted to this posting in the "Most Recent" list on the main forum page and after reading it decided to send this as my Christmas gift to all of you, especially a certain Calgary Flames and Stamps fan among you. As a fellow Canadian I thought he'd find this comedy skit by Stuart McLean - "Dave cooks the turkey" appropriate for the season. Listen and enjoy, it's hysterical.

Vinyl Cafe - Dave cooks the turkey

Merry Christmas to all...... enjoy the turkey and think of poor Dave.

Cheers,
James        Expat-blog Experts Team

What's with gravy? Having spent many pre-dinner periods stirring gravy made from 'drippings' for my Mother - a prize winning Euro cook - this is my method.

Essentials (These can be doubled without hassles)
Pan drippings from roast turkey
1/4  cup all-purpose flour
Chicken broth or water

Method
A. Strain pan drippings into decent sized measuring cup. If you like 'crunchy' gravy with the bits and pieces of meat that fell off during cooking, skip the straining part.

B. After standing a a couple of minutes remove/reduce the fats that have separated. HOLD in separate container.

C. Add sufficient BROTH or WATER to DRIPPINGS in the measuring cup to make up 2 cups.

D. Place 1/4 cup of the fat in a medium sized saucepan. Add flour, SLOWLY, whilst CONTINUOUSLY stirring. Stir in flour. I personally prefer a FRYING PAN for this - more stirring space.

E. Add all at one time to the pan [D]. Continue to cook and [b]STIR CONTINUOUSLY until thickened and slightly bubbling. Stop stirring and you get lumpy gravy!

F. After ONE MINUTE kill the heat. KEEP STIRRING! Add SALT and PEPPER to taste (sea salt and DakLak pepper are best).

Good for 2 cups of gravy. Obviously you need gravy for the left-overs so double the measurements!

WATCH YOUR HYGIENE - wash utensils/work area carefully after handling poultry. Use bleach if necessary.


Poultry Seasoning (My wife's made in VN version)(all ingredients available in HCM)

Ingredients Metric (US)
9.9 ml (2 teaspoons) ground sage
7.4 ml (1 1/2) ground thyme
5 ml (1 teaspoon) ground marjoram
3.7 ml (3/4 teaspoon) ground rosemary
2.5 ml (1/2 teaspoon) nutmeg
2.5 ml (1/2 teaspoon) finely ground black DakLak pepper

(Note: If you can't find ground use a blender or a Mortar & Pestle from a local market. I also have an electronic scale!)

Method (Some people may want to use a mask)
Using a small bowl carefully mix all the spices together thoroughly.

Store in an airtight container in a dry, cool, location.

As the ingredients tend to 'settle' - shake before use.

Bon Appétit!

James wrote:

I was attracted to this posting in the "Most Recent" list on the main forum page and after reading it decided to send this as my Christmas gift to all of you, especially a certain Calgary Flames and Stamps fan among you. As a fellow Canadian I thought he'd find this comedy skit by Stuart McLean - "Dave cooks the turkey" appropriate for the season. Listen and enjoy, it's hysterical.

Vinyl Cafe - Dave cooks the turkey

Merry Christmas to all...... enjoy the turkey and think of poor Dave.

Cheers,
James        Expat-blog Experts Team

Poor Dave is right, Newfoundland is lucky, I would hard pressed to expect Alberta food banks to hand out Turkeys.
Thanks for the link, I miss CBC radio.
Merry Christmas to you too James.

Jaitch wrote:

What's with gravy?

Poultry Seasoning (My wife's made in VN version)(all ingredients available in HCM)

Thanks Jaitch, I'll give this a try,

If any of you are adventurous enough to want to try cooking a Brazilian Christmas Feast, you may want to check out my recipes

My Traditional Brazilian Recipes for your Christmas Dinner