table talk / By Bob Doran

Alt. Turkey

Dimitra Zalarvis-Chase, owner/operator of Café Nooner, proved instrumental in the feast. When she’s not running the Old Town restaurant with her husband Tommy Chase, or working on her masters at HSU, she’s advisor for a 4-H group that raises poultry. She helped with slaughtering and dressing the Kokte Ranch turkeys.

Tommy prepared the Creole-style braised turkey and gravy she brought in. “He braised it and baked the turkey, leaving lots of liquid in the pan, then took the meat off the bone for ease of serving,” said Dimitra. “And he made a dark roux gravy using the Creole Holy Trinity: peppers, onions and a touch of celery. There’s stuffing with andouille sausage and I’m not sure what else. He also made some Farmers’ Market habanero hot sauce to put over it and kick it up a notch if you like.” (It had a real kick and I liked it.)

Cory Smith from Hotel Carter’s Restaurant301 brought a gorgeous mushroom-stuffed turkey with turkey demi-glace. “What I did was de-bone the whole turkey separating the breast and the legs,” he explained. “I filled the breast with porcini mushrooms and butter, tied it and roasted it, then did the same with the legs [with thighs attached].

“For the demi-glace, I made stock from the turkey bones, added some pinot noir and a little bit of beef stock and reduced it. I basted the turkey with the demi, then when it was finished, poured it in a pot and reduced it some more. It’s very intense.” And, he added, “We have a Madagascar vanilla bean cranberry jam,” to serve on the side. Smith will be working on Thanksgiving Day preparing a five-course prix fix meal, which, of course, will include turkey.

Ricardo Contreras from Jambalaya and his brother-in-law Joe Maxey (the Jam’s head cook) came in with a couple of pans. “The turkey was so big, we didn’t have time to cook it traditionally, so we cooked it part way, then broke it down,” said Ricardo. “We coated the skin with [Louisiana-style] blackening seasoning and finished it uncovered.”

The breast and legs were presented on a bed of jambalaya littered with prawns. Joe and Matt Gomes made the spicy jambalaya. “On the menu, it’s vegetarian or you can add bay shrimp and chicken,” noted Ricardo. “We left those out and added some turkey meat and prawns and clams sautéed with white wine, garlic and shallots. It’s pretty simple, but it’s good.”

That still left them with a pair of oversized turkey wings; Joe had an idea for those. “I took the wings and deep-fried them, then put them in our Buffalo wings sauce and put some blue cheese crumbles on top. They’re pretty much the biggest hot wings I’ve ever seen. But there’s only two.”

Owner/Chef Dan McHugh of F Street Café went a totally different route with his bird. “What I made was a non-traditional lasagna,” he said as he removed several pans from a catering hot box. “I took the turkey and butchered it — it was huge — and I used it to make turkey sausage: ground it with some sautéed mushrooms and caramelized onions, all run through a meat grinder. Then I puréed some butternut squash and sautéed some porcini mushrooms. I layered those with fresh pasta sheets, the turkey sausage, caramelized onions, basil béchamel, mozzarella and parmesan.

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