Daily Log of
a Cruising Sailor’s Thanksgiving,
Portuguese Style
Lisa removes turkey from the oven on Thanksgiving Day, 2007.
11/25/2007
Preparations for Thanksgiving in
Portugal
began weeks ago when we returned from
Lisbon
after
a medical emergency -- we
had much to be thankful for.We
rented a car for a few days to settle back into life here in the
Algarve
.While we had wheels, we scanned
every supermarket for turkey.
A week before, we found a tutor to help us learn
Portuguese.Anna, a petite, 30-year
old librarian from northern
Portugal
, agreed to help us for two to three one-hour sessions a week.We thought it would be fun to learn Portuguese while we’re here.In one of our first lessons, we learned that the name for turkey in
Portuguese is ‘
peru
’ and how to say, “I am looking for a turkey.”In the huge Carrefour store in Portimão, I attempted, “Eu vi o
peru
.”The helpful meat counter
attendant started to gobble, and so I knew I was on the right track.I went on to say, “Integra?” This was the best word that I could find
in my little dictionary for “whole.”She
showed me to a meat case with several huge turkeys and also a few boneless
turkey breasts – not too inspiring.Right
then and there we revised our plans for finding a whole turkey that was small
enough to fit into our shipmate oven.In
the end we found the best selection of turkey options at the Pingo Doce, our
favorite supermercado which is just a short walk down the road from the
Marina de Lagos.Its name translates
as “A little cup of coffee and a sweet.”
On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, we set out for the
Pingo Doce with oven measurements in-hand and a tape measurer in our pocket.At 6.3 kilograms, the smallest bird might just fit inside the oven, but
the drumsticks would actually be touching the oven wall.We noticed nice turkey meat, cut into manageable parts behind the meat
counter.Before leaving the store,
we selected the last turkey leg with the skin still on and a 1.2 kg (2.4 pound)
boneless breast, for a total of about 6 pounds of turkey, a third of what we
usually cook at home.
David
also selected lots of wine for the feast.One
of his favorite things about living here is that we can get really great wine
for under three euros a bottle.
The next step was to procure a proper roasting pan.Last year, we avoided this problem by roasting several small Cornish game
hens as a substitute for our turkey day meal.They were delicious, but this year, we were determined to prepare the
meal as traditionally as was possible.There
were no cranberries to be found in
Portugal
, but just about everything else was easy to get at the excellent local markets
– that is, if you consider fresh pumpkin easier than the canned variety.On Wednesday, armed again with the oven measurements, a tape measurer and
also newly acquired Portuguese language skills,
David
went directly to a small kitchen supply store in the city center.The shop keeper does not speak any English, so he must be doing pretty
well in Portuguese because he returned a short while later with a perfect
roasting pan.We nested our broiling
rack in the pan, and the two pieces of turkey fit perfectly.
Like a lot of things here, our Thanksgiving didn’t work
out as we expected. The gas system we had been using for our stove up
until now was the standard
US
propane tank, which cannot legally be refilled in the EU (including
Portugal
) because it is a different size from what is used here. So we knew that
it would eventually run out, having been last filled in the
Caribbean
. And, sure enough, it ran out in the middle of baking pumpkin pie.
Not to worry,
David
was ready with the standard EU system, which is called “camping gaz”
because it was apparently originally developed for campers. It runs on
butane, rather than propane. The stove can take either, but all of the
fittings are different. To make a
long story short, we had to bring a technician from the gas company to make the
changeover, and he couldn’t come until Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.Since Lisa had just finished pre-baking the crust and mixing the pie
filling, both could wait for a day or two.So,
we went out to dinner instead and had our traditional Thanksgiving feast a day
late.
Our Austrian friends, Peter and Annmarie on the yacht Onyx
joined us for both celebrations.When
we told them about the problem with the cooking fuel, Annmarie insisted, “We
can’t leave you alone on your American holiday!”After some bubbly onboard Gyatso,
we crossed the pedestrian bridge for a typical Portuguese dinner at O Artista
restaurant.
David
and I shared a traditional dish, pork and clams cataplana,
known for the covered copper pan that it’s cooked in.The unusual combination is simmered with tomatoes, onions, red peppers,
potatoes, spices and herbs.The pork
here is famous because the pigs are fed acorns.
When hearing about our cooking gas problems, family and friends back home
assumed that we had grilled sardines as an alternate feast, but we saved
this, another of our favorite local meals, for a
few days later when we got sick of eating leftover turkey.It was nice to just kick back and have someone else cook when our own
plans evaporated with the propane in the tank.
At
noon
on Friday, the day we should have been eating leftovers, a technician made the
necessary installations and then checked the entire cooking fuel system for
leaks.Lisa gave the stove and the
oven a careful test drive before he left, and everything seemed to be working
great.The oven performed as usual
at exactly the right temperature and the stove burners were putting out the same
steady, blue flame as before.A pie
crust was rolled out and in the oven before the technician departed.
Several hours later, shouts broke the silence of the cool
afternoon outdoors and snapped Lisa from her cooking frenzy.“
David,
David! We smell cooking gas – We think you’ve got a leak!”It was our British neighbors calling over to Gyatso
from the boat in the next slip over.
David
had just returned to the boat and was in the cockpit.Lisa was in the galley below – final preparations for a turkey day
feast were well underway.She called
up, “Tell him that I am roasting a turkey in the oven and have three burners
running on the stove.”She quickly
added, “The probably just smell Thanksgiving dinner because it is almost ready!”
David
tried to explain what I was doing in the galley and to reassure them that even
our very specialized, onboard fume detector had not sounded an alarm.It lets us know even when the galley gets too hot.We both sniffed and checked around anyways, but found nothing other than
mouth-watering smells of dinner in the oven.
Despite our reassurances, the neighbor persisted, “I saw
the technician on your boat today."
Pointing at the old propane tank, he said, "Maybe
that propane tank in your cockpit is not closed properly.”Having dealt with the crisis of running out of propane two days before,
David
could be quite definitive in his answer, “I can assure you that that bottle
is completely empty." He also explained that the technician had thoroughly tested the new
system and there were no problems.
Adding to the confusion, it happened to be a very low tide right at that
moment.With the winds blowing a
steady force 5 in the opposite direction, we suspected that our neighbor was
just mistaken.It was probably the first time
in their years of living aboard at the Marina de Lagos to have a neighbor cook a full
Thanksgiving Day meal in the galley of a 37’ sailboat.Although we had done it before, it was usually with the help of other boats and never
in the confines of a large yacht basin.It
is the kind of feast that pushes our little galley to the limits.
Our dinner guests arrived moments later for part two of our Thanksgiving
celebration.We asked if their fresh
noses detected any gas smell, to which they replied, “No, all we can smell is
the wonderful aroma of turkey coming from Gyatso as we walked down the dock!”That settled it. We welcomed
them aboard for a wonderful meal of roasted turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed
potatoes and Brussels sprouts.In
addition to the usual ingredients -- sautéed onions, celery and fresh parsley
-- I used rustic bread from a bakery here in the
Algarve
for the stuffing, crunchy crust and all.We
all agreed that it was delicioso.
David made sure that the wine flowed freely.We started with sparkling wine and vinho verde, sipped vinho tinto (red
wine) with dinner, and finished with a smooth and fruity white port wine with
dessert.The pumpkin pie did not
suffer too much from its two day “pause.”Although the buttery crust was not as flaky as I would have liked, we all
agreed that it was very tasty, especially the spiced brown sugar and walnut
crumb topping.
If nothing else, we have learned to remain calm and to be
creative when problems occur while living aboard our sailboat.It’s hard not to believe in Murphy’s Law when you run out of cooking
gas on the day before Thanksgiving, but we quickly made a plan B.Although it was not quite what we expected, our extended turkey day
celebration turned out to be one of the nicest we have ever had.
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