Los Matadores de Pajaros (the murders of birds). From left to right: Vergil, Alvin, Dan, and Dave. Only Vergil smiles on, the rest of us too hardened.
Turducken: Noun. An abhorration of nature created by stuffing a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey. The dressings between the birds frequently include sausages, shrimps, and oysters, further descrating mother nature and/or good sense. The origin of such a "bird" is somewhere in the southern states (probably Louisiana), although both the British and the French have documented multi-bird roasts at various points, usually attributed to the spirit of EXCESS. The French apparently did one with 17 birds, most species now considered endangered or extinct, the last so small it could be stuffed with a single olive.
As some of you know, Meg (or Megazilla or Megatron), and Alvin and the chipmunks (Karin and Yasmine) came down to Guatemala to visit Dave and I. Meg and Yasmine left early, but Karin and Alvin stayed to make a Turducken. This is Karin, Dave and my third Turducken together. And in the spirit of excess, this time we decided to go a little more hardcore...
We went to the market to find "un chompipe [Guatemalan word for turkey, normally un pavo], un pato y un gallina, por favor" (a turkey, a duck, and a chicken, please). After searching three markets, we found a lady selling such birds. She was amused that us gringos would want to buy these live birds ("can we get a discount for buying three birds?"), and possibly even more amused when our next questions were "how do we kill them?" and "how do we feather them?". The three birds were stuffed into a costale (large bag) and we brought them back by motorbike.
Chompipe (Turkey)
Pato (Duck)
Gallina (Chicken)
Mama Cony (a Guatemalan woman who has taken a particular liking to me) was also supportive of our decision to kill the birds ourselves: "Va estar una experiencia, Danielito" ("it will be an experience, little Daniel"). Boy was she right...
Karin, sharpening the knives like only an Arikushi knows how.
We split up the killings so we would all have a turn. Neither Vergil nor Karin were particularly keen on the killing, so Alvin did the chicken, I did the duck and Dave did the turkey. To be more humane, we tried rinsing the board and floor between killings. We also kept the other birds out of sight of the one being killed. I'm sure any local Guatemalans would have laughed at us.
Alvin decapitating the chicken, while Dave holds on.
Dan decapitates the duck, while Vergil holds on.
Dave prepares to chop the turkey. Karin holds the wings while I hold the legs. I look pretty stoked.
The chompipe pesadilla (turkey nightmare) began with that first stroke of Dave's cleaver. Karin was supposed to be holding the wings, but she got startled. I've used all my computer and internet prowess to figure out how to add music to a movie and then upload it, so you better watch it! Kudos to Vergil for the soundtrack, it was meant to be. Keep paying attention at least until 1:21 in the movie. That bird has been decapitated and dead for over a minute...
The Turkey Pesadilla.
Each bird was hung to let more blood drip out. We figured this would make the gutting and deboning much easier.
First bird successfully hung.
Then came the more time-consuming part: de-feathering the birds. The duck was particularly bothersome because of all the really fine feathers it had which prevented the hot water from reaching the skin. The hot water really makes de-feathering much easier.
Feathering time. We have a pot of hot water to help nurse the feathers out.
Karin finished de-feathering her bird first.
The next step was gutting, which was like a hands-on anatomy lesson with much conjecturing as to which parts were worth eating and which were not. We tried to be as careful as we could to not pierce any of the intestines or bile sacks to avoid contaminating the meat. Alvin and Dave looked up some videos on youtube first to learn how to do it. Apparently the two minute video they watched was sufficient, as shown below (it took closer to half an hour to gut the first bird):
Alvin and Dave with the first successful gutting.
Dave and I gut the turkey and duck, while Karin washes some dishes.
We deboned the birds to make serving them much easier, and Karin and I made the dressings:
- Camarone (shrimp) dressing for inside the chicken.
- Longaniza (beef sausage) dressing for between the chicken and duck.
- Chorizo (spicey pork sausage) dressing for between the duck and turkey.
These dressings were roughly based on Paul Prudhomme's recipe, which we had made before, but modified heavily for local ingredients. Karin had the great idea of making empanadas (fried bread with stuffing inside), which were awesome. The Taiwanese empanada place in Xela is famous worldwide for its tasty treats. We served them with soy sauce and balsamic vinegar.
To complement our turducken feast, various other people brought food. Vergil had slaved away making loaf after loaf of tasty bread in our oven (you've seen photos in previous posts). Some of the flavours included: tasty white bread, olive bread, rosemary bread, and sweet dried pepper bread. We splurged and bought butter. Vergil also made an awesome chutney that sparked a rash of conversations in East Indian accents. Laura made a delicious salad. Ryan brought some homebrew and cranberry sauce. Mama Cony brought rice and strawberry and papaya/carrot helados (icecream-like tasty deserts). Quite possibly there was more, wine and other alcohols at the very least.
It's feast time!
After dinner we sat around our fire pit and sung kombaya (or maybe weezer).
Dave had been working on some coffee roasters as a side project for AIDG after some community gave him 15lbs of raw coffee. He decided to test his prototype later that night.
Dave's first or second prototype coffee roaster, roasting some fresh coffee over the embers.
1 comment:
Amazing. Extra points for bird gore.
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