No: Competition / Yes: Community
“I didn’t imagine when I shared my Thanksgiving recipe with Eric that it would become a blessing for his community. I couldn’t foretell that it would be the excuse for gathering. My heart is full, knowing that the meal that I have been making at my table for one, is now enriching the hearts and bodies of so many other delightful humans.”
New College alumna, Niya Bajaj (NEW ’08) reflects on the journey of her turkey recipe—Judy bird style brine, but with south asian spices (cumin, mint, dry red chili, pepper etc)—in her article No: Competition / Yes: Community, and how it inspired Eric Kim, food and cooking columnist for The New York Times. What began as Eric inviting his Instagram followers to share their favourite turkey recipes earlier this year evolved into a meaningful exchange that led to Eric crafting his own version using Niya’s unique twist on the classic dish. For Niya, the experience wasn’t just sharing a recipe but creating a moment of connection, showing how food can nourish more than just our bodies, but bring people together to build community.
Niya Bajaj graduated from the University of Toronto, New College in 2008 and is now a global conference and summit speaker on wellness centered leadership and sustainable self-care. These practices are grounded in the principles of equity, diversity, community engagement and social justice which she learned to embody through her academic and community service work here at NEW. Those core principles inform the Mindfulness for Leaders program at the Ontario Public Service Leadership Network which she co-founded. They are also foundational to the hundreds of wellness workshops she has delivered at places like U of T, City of Mississauga, the BC Public Service, RBC, Accenture, and First National. When she isn’t coaching leaders, mentoring students (for which she won a U of T Arbor Award), or sharing wellness strategies with groups, she helps women moving through menopause solve their weight struggles so they can feel healthy and confident in their skin. Learn more on her website Holistic Yoga Therapy.
Read an excerpt from No: Competition / Yes: Community below:
“When Eric asked for transformative turkey recipes in July, I responded on a whim. I doubted he’d see it, with 208,000 followers. But somehow… he did. Somehow, the words “Judy bird style brine, but with south asian spices (cumin, mint, dry red chili, pepper etc)” were enough to build a conversation on.
We went back and forth over email where I shared the origin story of the recipe:
I’ve been making this for the last 10 years or so.
I started with the classic LA Times dry brine recipe 13 years ago because my Toronto college apartment fridge did not have room for a wet brine set up, and all of the other ingredients to put together a feast for 12. And I have a reputation for excellence to maintain, so there was no way I was going to serve dry, or boring turkey. In addition to the space saving aspect, the fact that I could dry brine the bird while it thawed was a huge win for my overly scheduled self.
I got to practice it twice that year, because in addition to hosting a friendsgiving for Canadian thanksgiving, my roommate’s birthday is in November, and she asked for an American-style Thanksgiving for her birthday present. So I got to make 2 turkeys that year, and for two years after that.
For the next couple of years, I made Thanksgiving dinner for my family when my parents were still in the country. We emigrated to Canada when I was 13, so it isn’t a tradition I grew up with, but Thanksgiving tends to fall close to diwali most years, and we’re culturally Hindu, so the idea of celebrating abundance lines up nicely. Plus, we are a family of (former) restaurateurs so making food together and feeding each other is a preferred family activity/love language.
This is where the recipe shifted from the classic LA times version. Where I grew up in Bahrain, there is a Pakistani restaurant, call Paradise, which serves a dish I remember as chicken chargha (chargha is the Lahori word for chicken… so chicken chicken… but chai tea is still a thing…). I had deep fond memories of crispy charred skin, cumin, mint and chili flake. In my research of charga recipes, I realized that the flavours in my remembered version at Paradise, are quite different from the Lahori recipes.
So with no map beyond sense memory I set about adapting the basic dry brine with flavours that felt like home – ones that are better aligned for a traditional south asian spice pantry, and that my family has loved for longer than I’ve been alive.
For the last 8 years, I’ve been making this recipe just for me. My parents moved away to deal with other responsibilities and my sister moved into her own home. I spend most Thanksgiving weekends on my own now, making my favourite meal – this turkey, potatoes roasted in the drippings, air-fried brussels, cranberry apple chutney, pumpkin sour cream pie and cinnamon whiskey ice cream. It nourishes me for the weekend and I am always thankful for the luxury of time, space and memory that infuse the creative process.”
For the full story check out No: Competition / Yes: Community and to explore Eric’s take on the dish in his New York Times column visit Dry-Brined Thanksgiving Turkey with Chilies.
No: Competition / Yes: Community originally published on November 21, 2024 and Dry-Brined Thanksgiving Turkey originally published on November 27, 2024 by The New York Times.