Thursday, November 26, 2009

Fauna of the Biritsh Isles

Let me tell you the megillah (that's yiddish for a very long story) of locating the bird for today. In the states I would normally cook a 25 lb bird but monsters of that size are almost unknown here and if you really, really want one you need to pre-order it months in advance. For Xmas. Not for Thanksgiving.

Now I know that the Waitrose at Canary Wharf gets a few fresh birds in for the American contingent so I trotted over there last week. They couldn't take an order for Thanksgiving - only Xmas. Ordering for Xmas is no good to me. For one thing it's too late and for another I already have a 7 kilo goose ordered for THAT holiday.

But they told me not to worry, they would be getting in plenty of fresh birds on Tuesday, they just couldn't take an order. So Tuesday I rocked up nice and early to inspect the flesh on offer. Hah! The biggest one they had just brushed 5 kilos. Good thing I checked. So I bought the biggest frozen bird they had and even THAT was only 6.8 kilos. Mind you, the ovens and roasting pans available here don't really accommodate anything bigger.

So the turkey has been defrosting since Tuesday, mostly in my fridge because otherwise I have to valiantly defend it from my cat, Princess Glinda. My mother has been defrosting another bird at her place and Richard has also bought a fresh turkey crown which is 2 kilos of pure turkey goodness.

Right then, time to brush my teeth and then get the slowcooker out of the garage for the beans.

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