So I get a little email last week, alerting me to something clever someone’s concocted re: Thanksgiving.
This doesn’t happen all the time, but it happens just enough for me to assume it’s some tedious PR thingy. But I scan it, I click the link, and…oh yes. Someone seems to be living my fantasy over in Oregon. (What is it about Oregon these days? Must be the wine?)
See, it’s these genius bohemian types running a secret restaurant. And listening to groovy music. And carving stone. And making wine. And having naked barbecues!!! (OK, the carving stone part I’ve never really fantasized about, but everything else fits like a glove.)
Here’s what they are planning for Thanksgiving:
At Sub Rosa we’re always turning ideas inside out just to see how they look from a different angle. Take Thanksgiving for instance.
The American Indians had held harvest celebrations for centuries before the Pilgrims showed up. America’s early settlers had a rough go of it and ended up ill and starving. The generosity and compassion of the First People saved our ancestral butts. Let’s take it back just a little further in time to find the real inspiration for this idea – no, not to Leif Erickson, but to Christopher Columbus.
Chris was looking for India and spices when he ran into the outer shoals of the Bahamas. Spice wise, it is not that hard to make the bridge from our traditional Thanksgiving dinner to an East Indian Thanksgiving meal.
Pumpkin pie leads the way to India – nutmeg, ginger, allspice, cinnamon, cloves and baked pumpkin. If you know your Indian food, you instantly recognize these as staples in the Indian kitchen and key ingredients in your mom’s favorite pumpkin pie.
So you jack that up with crystalized ginger and a cardamon whipped cream and you are sailing straight towards Kerala, a province at the tip of India. Cumin rub on the bird; stuffing with dried fruits and cinnamon; Horseradish mashed potatoes; Cranberry chutneys gone to Bombay and back all help turn your American standards into East Indian delicacies.
The Dinner Recipes:
Appetizer: Curried Nuts
Greens: Gujarat Green Beans
Starch: Horseradish Mashed Potatoes
Curried Yams with coconut milk
Turkey: Cumin and Coriander spice rub
Condiments: Cranberry Chutney
Cucumber Raita
Stuffing: With raisins, cinnamon, almonds, celery and of course, bread
Dessert: Chiffon Pumpkin Pie with crystallized ginger galore
Garam Masala – Classic Indian spice mixture
Here’s a little Indian music to listen to while you prepare the meal and feast on the dinner. Click to play.
Prep Music:
Ashwin Batish – Bombay Boogie
Ashwin Batish – New Delhi Vice
Habib Kahn – Indian Blues
State of Bengal – Walking On
Bally Sagoo – Indian Dub
Yerida Gunginalli – The Drink That Has Gone Up
Zakir Hussain and the Rhythem Experience – Rap-anagatum
Dinner Music:
Ravi Shankar – Vilambit Gat in Teental
Ry Cooder & V.M. Bhatt – Meeting By The River [needs volume]
Thievery Corporation – Lebanese Blonde
Talvin Singh – Light
Habib Kahn – Triangle
Habib Kahn – Raindrops
Ustad Sultan Khan – Rag Bhupali
Sounds good to me.