Mom and daughter to tackle turkey dinner
Hina Yousuf knew about the annual turkey giveaway at her new job in the head office of Park ‘N Fly. She just assumed she wouldn’t be part of the tradition. Yousuf eats halal meat, and she had never heard of halal turkey.
“I personally have never seen a halal turkey. We’ve never cooked it at home or had it at any friend’s home or other family gatherings. Whenever I go to the halal butcher shop I see chicken, beef, lamb, but never turkey.”
She admits she also made a judgment. “There aren’t a lot of Muslims in my office, and I wasn’t sure how aware they would be of different dietary requirements.”
So when Yousuf was presented with a halal turkey at the head office holiday lunch, she was surprised. “At the Christmas lunch they said, ‘we have a turkey for you.’ I told them I can’t eat it, but they told me that someone had done the research and it was halal. I was so surprised — someone had thought about me, and thought it important that I was included. I’ve worked in a lot of corporate offices and no one has ever done this before. I never expected anything different.”
The turkey, Zabiha brand from Maple Lodge Farms, weighs 4.5 kg but Yousuf is undaunted, and excited to cook her first holiday feast. “The minute I got the turkey I started googling recipes. I’ve always seen it on TV and I feel like maybe I’ve been missing out all these years.”
While Yousuf was born in Canada, her parents are from the Punjab province in Pakistan, and the family is accustomed to spicy food. After extensive consultation with her mom, Yousuf decided that her very first turkey will be a little bit like her — a fusion of Canada and Pakistan.
“My mom and I are going to tackle it together. We found a recipe online for a tandoori-flavoured turkey. So the outside will be a tandoori masala, and on the inside we’re going to make a stuffing of rice, celery, onions, dried apricots. We plan to use basmati rice, and flavour it like we would at home. We have a large roasting pan and baster, but I do have to buy a meat thermometer.”
Though the Yousuf family does not observe Christmas, it’s still a special time for family to gather and spend time together.
“The plan is to cook the turkey for my family. There are five of us. My brother works in North Bay and he will be joining us, also some other family and friends. We’re going to have gravy, cranberry sauce, sweet potato and mashed potato. For dessert my mom will make her famous cheesecake and I’m going to make egg pudding, a family tradition.”
“I’m hoping if this goes well, turkey will become a tradition during the Christmas holidays, and maybe Thanksgiving. One of my colleagues told me: flowers make other people happy but for you it’s turkey.” Uzma Jalaluddin, Special to the Star