Stuffed

-By Scott 

          As I suspect most of you Food Babies readers will agree, Thanksgiving is by far the best holiday.  I love everything about the day.  I love spending time planning out how to cook the meal.  I love shopping for ingredients.  I love the smell of the kitchen at 11 o’clock in the morning as the turkey’s skin begins to brown under the heat of the oven.  I love watching football out of the corner of one eye while chopping garlic for the mashed potatoes with the other.  I love smelling the distinct sweetness of the candied yams as they come out of the oven.  But perhaps more than anything else, I love the stuffing.  Admittedly, as many people are, I’m a sides man when it comes to Thanksgiving.  And for me, stuffing is king. 

          In general, when it comes to Thanksgiving side dishes, I’m fairly traditional.  There needs to be mashed potatoes. There needs to be sweet potatoes or yams. There needs to be cranberry sauce.  There needs to be pumpkin pie.  And there most certainly needs to be stuffing.  On a side note, for the purposes of this post, “stuffing” and “dressing” are synonymous.  I know, I know, stuffing is cooked inside the turkey and dressing outside.  But I call them both stuffing.  My apologies to all of you stuffing purists out there.

          Stuffing can be an extremely versatile dish, but I have some ingredients that I almost always include in whatever version of stuffing I make.  I like to include a protein in the mix, preferably a forcemeat.  I’m partial to a spicy sausage in particular, which I like to play against a sweet, rich, eggy bread.  I also like to include toasted nuts to add both texture and flavor.  Cheese is another ingredient I often add to my stuffing.  It isn’t always suited to the dish, depending on the other ingredients, but it can really add depth of flavor and creaminess to the combination of ingredients. 

          As a test run for the big day, I put together a batch of stuffing recently.  The stuffing I serve will probably look a little different on Thanksgiving, but my wife and I were happy with the end result of my efforts.  And the method I used is pretty translatable to most stuffing preparations. 

          Half of the battle when making stuffing, I’ve found, is being organized with your ingredients.  Stuffing can be surprisingly labor intensive depending on how many items you use.  Prepping everything before you start mixing the ingredients together can prevent a stress headache.   

Bread - Ready to be Toasted

Start by cutting your bread – here I used a nothing-special loaf of white bread from the supermarket – into ½-1” cubes, and then toasting the cubes in the oven at 400 degrees.  You can use bread that is a day or two past its prime, or even store bought croutons, but I prefer to buy bread fresh and then dry it out in the oven.   

Toasted Pecans

Along with your bread, you can make double use of the oven by toasting your nuts.  In this case, I used pecans, a nut I find works well in sausage-centric stuffing.  While the bread and nuts are toasting in the oven, sear your hot (spicy-wise) Italian sausage in a hot (temperature-wise) pan.   

Saute Sausage

You need the pan to be hot enough to caramelize the sausage chunks, which will add great flavor to your stuffing.  After setting the sausage aside, sauté a mixture of onions, celery and leeks – in that order – on medium heat until all of the vegetables are cooked through.

Saute Onions, Celery, and Leeks

Now, it’s time to assemble the stuffing for baking.  Turn the oven to 375 degrees and butter your baking dish.  In a large bowl, combine the sausage with the onions, celery, and leeks.  Next, add two beaten eggs and a drizzle of heavy cream to the mixture.  Both add a nice richness to the finished product.  After crumbling in your now toasted pecans, sharp cheddar cheese, and chopped parsley, add the toasted bread.  Make sure everything is evenly distributed in the bowl.  Finally, it’s time for the last ingredient: stock (I used turkey).  You want to add enough to the concoction that the stuffing is sufficiently moist, but you need to be careful not to over-saturate the bread.  Then, it’s time for the oven to do its work – 20-30 minutes covered and 25-30 minutes uncovered.   

Stuffing Hot Out of the Oven

The stuffing is done when it’s cooked through and the top has developed a golden brown crust.  Timing will really depend on the amount of stuffing you make and the true temperature of your oven so watch it closely.

The Finished Product

Meaty, crunchy, moist, creamy, salty, and spicy, the perfect Thanksgiving side dish.  I can’t wait to try it again on Thanksgiving, sandwiched perfectly in between a few slices of turkey and a bevy of other side dishes.

-Scott

INGREDIENTS:

Loaf of white bread

Hot Italian Sausage

Celery

Onion

Leeks

Pecans

Heavy cream

Stock

Cheddar cheese

Eggs

Parsley

Salt and pepper for seasoning

Oil for sautéing

Butter for your baking dish