Thursday, November 26, 2009

Stuffing

After a frantic email rally and hastily written report, I decided to get to work on the stuffing. Or at least the vegetarian stuffing. Which is the same as regular stuffing but I use veggie stock cubes instead of lovely fresh chicken stock.

These ingredients made enough for about 6 people...

1/2 head of celery, finely sliced
1 medium onion, diced
1 tbsp sage
1 package ready chestnuts, coarsely chopped
10 slices bread
butter to taste
Boiling water

Big lump of butter in the pot, add celery and onions and saute until onions are translucent and celery is soft. Add butter as necessary so nothing sticks or burns. Stir regularly.I add the sage about halfway through so it doesn't burn but infuses everything with its herby goodness. Add chestnuts. Add stock. Cube bread and add. Give it a good stir so the flavours coat the bread. Add water carefully - we want stuffing not soup! Keep stirring the water in so that the stuffing begins to cohere. Decant into a baking dish and cover with foil. I'll set this on the side and pop it in the oven when the final bird comes out to rest (about 30 minutes) and leave it covered in foil.

2 comments:

T Byro said...

Ready chestnuts? Not available here, as far as I know. I bake the raw chestnuts in the oven. Brings out more of their sweeteness than boiling. I then sqoosh them by hand, turning them into raggedy chunks, which is the way I like them. I had thought of using the food processor but was afraid that would turn them into chestnut meal, which I do not like. Had not thought of using sage

Asti said...

They work absolutely fine for me. You can get them in pressure sealed plastic or in cans. Just a quick whiz in the food processor for coarse chunks.