RECIPE - Polenta with Turkey Ragu and Mushrooms

Capixaba chef Sylvia Lis, using the Italian traditions of the mountainous interior of the state of Espírito Santo, combines left-over roast turkey with polenta and mushrooms to create an unusual and delicious lunch or dinner main course. The dish is based on Italian-immigrant traditions and is often served on December 25th (in Brazil, that's the day after the Christmas meal - not the 26th). Our previous post on Flavors of Brazil details the traditions surrounding this dish, this post will provide the recipe.
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RECIPE - Polenta with Turkey Ragu and Mushrooms (Polenta com Ragu de Peru e Cogumelos)
Serves 6

For the ragu:
3/4 lb (300 gr) left-over turkey meat, shredded
1/3 lb (150 gr) mushrooms, shitake if possible, sliced
2 Tbsp finely chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 to 3 cups combined turkey broth (made from roast-turkey carcass) and left-over turkey gravy
2 sprigs fresh thyme
extra-virgin olive oil
salt to taste
finely chopped Italian parsley (for garnish)

For the polenta:
2 cups polenta
1 cup cold water
3 cups boiling water
1 Tbsp cream cheese
salt to taste
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Prepare the ragu:
In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil, then add the chopped onion and garlic. Cook for a minute or two, until the onion softens but doesn't brown. Add the sliced mushrooms and saute for a few minutes, tossing the mushroom slices frequently. Add the shredded turkey and the white wine. Bring the wine to a boil and cook for a few minutes, or until the wine thickens a bit. Add the turkey broth and gravy bit by bit, until you have a medium-thick rich sauce. Season to taste with salt if necessary. Reserve, keeping warm.

Prepare the polenta:
In a large saucepan, combine the polenta and the cold water, stirring and mixing until all the polenta becomes moistened. Add the boiling water and cook, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens and pulls away slightly from the edges of the pan. If necessary add more boiling water, in small amounts, to make sure the mixture doesn't become too thick - you want it to be just slightly soupy. It should be just pourable. Stir in the cream cheese, making sure it's completely mixed in, then season for salt.

Mounting the dish:
In a large deep rectangular or round serving dish, pour out the polenta. Using a ladle, spoon the turkey and mushroom ragu over the surface of the polenta, starting in the middle of the pan and working your way out to both ends. Sprinkle the ragu with chopped parsley and serve.

Brazil's Christmas Meal - Regional Variations

Just like North Americans do, most Brazilians eat turkey for their big Christmas celebration meal. That makes sense - after all the turkey is native to the Americas. In certain European cultures, goose is favored, or even salt cod - which also makes sense, as these foods have a long European tradition, but in the New World, turkey reigns supreme.

However, Brazilian Christmas isn't just about turkey. There are some other dishes that are equally traditional in Brazil, and which either are served alongside a turkey or instead of one. These traditional dishes vary from region to region in Brazil, which makes sense considering the huge geographical, climatic and cultural differences from region to region in this, the world's fifth largest and fifth most-populous nation.

This week, in the food section of the nationally-distributed newspaper Estado de S. Paulo, a number of well-known chefs from regions all around the country discussed what is traditional in their city, state or region, and provided recipes for some of the most popular regional Christmas dishes. In our next few posts, leading up to Christmas day, we'll detail some of these dishes and pass on the recipes to our readers. It's Flavors of Brazil's way of wishing our readers, who come from 220 different countries, a very Brazilian FELIZ NATAL!

Getting to Know your Christmas Turkey

Just like in most North American homes, we'll be having turkey for our Christmas feast at my place in Fortaleza this year. Christmas dinner in Brazil is an event for December 24, not Christmas Day , and the meal is served very late, often at midnight. Christmas presents are exchanged before the feast begins, and it's often 4 am before things wrap up. December 25 is a day of R&R, and if this year is like most it will find me, along with most everyone else, at the beach.

One thing will make this Christmas feast just a little different from others I've celebrated in various corners of the world, is that the centerpiece of the meal, the roast turkey, will have a known provenance and history, and perhaps even a portrait at the dining table. I personally didn't meet the turkey prior to his demise, but one of the guests at the feast knew him when he was alive and kicking, and even took some photos of him. He he is in all his turkeyish glory:

Last week this friend took a trip with his mother to the village where she grew up in the central backlands of Ceará, about 500 kms. from Fortaleza. One of the things he wanted to do while he was there was to buy a peru caipira (a free-range turkey) for Christmas dinner. Walking down a country lane near his mother's ancestral home, he heard the distinctive "gobble-gobble" of a turkey from behind a fence. Seeing that there was not only a few turkeys in the yard, but a man who appeared to be their owner, he asked if the turkeys were for sale. The fellow replied that he hadn't thought about it, but yes they probably were. A deal was soon done for the tom turkey for R$50 (USD$30), and after the obligatory photoshoot the bird was dispatched and dressed within 30 minutes. He currently resides in my freezer awaiting roasting on the 24th.

I won't, however, be popping the bird in the oven, and spending the day savoring the aroma of roasting turkey filling the house. My oven, like most Brazilian home ovens, is quite small, and the bird would be a very tight fit indeed. So on the morning of the 24th, I'll take the turkey, all prepared for roasting and sitting in his roasting pan, down the street to the bakery where I buy bread every morning. There he, and many more of his ilk, will go into the large bread baking ovens which for that one day only become turkey roasting ovens. I'll return later in the afternoon to pick him up and bring him home. The rest of the meal will be cooked here, and at midnight, we'll put the bird out on the table in all his glory.

I hope he knows we appreciate his sacrifice. It's so easy to disassociate meat on the buffet table from the animal which gave its life to provide it. I think it's an instructive lesson to have participated, even if by second-hand association, in a bit of the life and death of an animal that graces our plate. It makes me, at least, just a bit more appreciative of the food I'll be eating, and where it came from, come December 24th.

Thanksgiving Turkey - Peru do Dia de Ação de Graças

Flavors of Brazil wishes our American readers a very happy "turkey day" today, and a great long weekend.

Although Thanksgiving isn't a holiday that's celebrated in Brazil, most Brazilians are familiar with the day and with the American tradition of eating turkey. (Not to worry, Brazil has plenty of statutory holidays, so the country is not suffering by missing one!) And Brazilians are certainly familiar with the traditional main course for the Thanksgiving feast - roast turkey.

Eating turkey is associated with holidays here in Brazil too, primarily with Christmas (Natal). I would guess that it's the size of a roast turkey that first linked it to large feasts and holiday celebrations, but the connection seems to be universal. Although it's not clear whether turkey was, in fact, served at the first Pilgrim Thanksgiving in Massachusetts, the bird is one of the many culinary gifts of the New World, as it comes originally from Mexico and North America, and was eaten throughout the Americas before the arrival of Europeans in 1492.

The Portuguese word for the turkey is peru (just like the country). In 16th century Portugal, when turkeys were first brought to Europe, there was some confusion as to exactly where in the Americas they originated, and they were named after the Spanish colony of Peru. It's very interesting that the word for this bird in at least three languages, English, French and Portuguese, comes from its supposed country of origin and that none of these languages gets it right.

Portuguese certainly has it wrong with peru. In French, the word is dinde, which is a shortened form of poulet d'inde (meaning "chicken from India"). Wrong again. And of course, the English name, turkey, also points to the wrong country. I'm not a linguistic expert, but I don't think the bird is called "mexico" in any language, which is should be by geographic standards. I don't know if there are other languages in which the common turkey has a toponym, but I'm curious as to other geographical mistakes in naming the animal.

Enjoy your turkey today, or your peru or your dinde or whatever else you choose to call it. And save some leftovers for me.

(PS... I've looked around the internet a bit more since this article was published, and it turns out that in fact other languages have chosen a toponym when naming this bird, and they too get it wrong. In Turkish the word for turkey is hindi and in Hebrew it's hodu. Both of these words mean "India" in the respective tongues.)