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with Lisa DeLange from the Food Network Kitchen
Q: What are you stuffing your turkey with this year?
A: I never put stuffing in the bird, partly because it's fraught with potential bacteria growth. It's very difficult for stuffing to reach 155 degrees inside the bird, because that's what the breast itself should be. Any longer in the oven and the breast will be totally dry. But mainly I bake mine in a casserole dish on the side because I like my stuffing crispy on top and moist inside.
I never seem to have stock in the house---I always make soup with it right away. So when I make stuffing, it's with dairy, not stock. Instead of actual stuffing, what I'm really doing is making a savory bread pudding. I do one with leftover cornbread and sauteed chopped onion, celery, sage, and mushroom, and I stir in whatever creamy cheese I have in the house--maybe a goat cheese, maybe feta or fontina. Or Pecorino Pepato, which is fabulous. It's a Sicilian pecorino with peppercorns in it. I like varying this stuffing with shallots or leeks instead of onion, and I moisten it with milk and egg.
I follow the proportions for bread pudding so it's pretty moist. It differs from stuffing in that it has egg and milk instead of stock, so it puffs. I dot butter on the top so the top will be crispy and the inside will be soft and moist.
Stuffings and savory bread puddings are also good made with leftover garlic bread. You can layer slices of buttery garlic bread in a casserole and pour a rich chicken stock over it until it's quite moist, maybe 3/4 of the way up the sides. Then sprinkle it with fresh parsley and oregano (or put that into the stock), and sprinkle the whole thing thickly with a dry grating cheese, like Parmesan or Pecorino, and bake until it turns golden.
One of my favorite side dishes, by the way, and something that goes very well with these savory bread puddings, is a recipe I got from the Little House on the Prairie books. In Farmer Boy, the book about the childhood of Laura's husband, Almanzo, they saute sliced tart apples, with the skins on, with sliced onions and butter. It tastes so good. You can put a little celery salt in there if you want to be fancy. Saute until it's hot and softened, but not mushy, and it's fabulous with poultry.
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