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Stuffing season…quite literally.
It’s that time of year. When that one family member’s puns fly free and your sassy aunt’s side eyes roll across the holiday dinner tables like a frozen turkey you forgot to thaw until the morning of your guests arrival. And, if you haven’t done so already, this is your cue to thaw that turkey. But if you’re on top of your Thanksgiving game, you’ve probably already menu planned and started prepping. If so, you might not need this recipe for my all time favorite Thanksgiving side dish. Stuffing.
My grandmother, Mary Lou, whom you met in last week’s a standing reservation, was the queen of Thanksgiving sides. My two favorite sides were her stuffing and her mashed turnips. (She also made a mean jello mould which my sister is insisting I make this year, stay tuned for photos in next week’s reservation). Both her stuffing and her turnips had copious amounts of butter in them, and both equally delicious. If you’re not going to use endless streams of butter on Thanksgiving, then I’m very sorry for you and your guests. It’s the one time that butter usage amounts should be counted by stick, not by tablespoon. I know, it sounds like a bit of an overkill, but trust me, Thanksgiving is, in reality, kind of a bland holiday. Most of the traditional dishes can be very plain, using minimal spices, and usually heavier on aromatic autumnal herbs like thyme.
If there’s one thing that won’t be bland of flavor on my Thanksgiving table, it will be my turkey. The recipe I’ve used over the past 5 years is the spiced and glazed roast turkey straight off the Bon Appetit website. Trust me when I say, this turkey will change the way you cook your turkey for Thanksgivings to come. The only compromise you’ll have to make is not whole roasting your turkey - which in the end leads to a better and more expertly cooked turkey anyways. Just like chicken, turkey breasts and legs cook at different times so if you roast your turkey whole, you’ll end up with a dry turkey breast, and no one likes a dry turkey.
Now that your turkey is cooked to perfection, the next side you’ll have to master is stuffing. Do not, and I repeat, do not under any circumstances stuff your turkey with stuffing and roast it. There’s a few reasons for this. The first being that if you are going to whole roast your turkey, having stuffed your turkey with stuffing will create uneven cooking times. The stuffing will not allow heat to properly circulate leading to a confusing outcome of uncooked and cooked turkey. Second, the stuffing inside the cavity of the turkey might not fully cook enough to kill the bacteria from the turkey. Just imagine, the the juices from the uncooked turkey seep into the breading of the stuffing and once you think the turkey is done being cooked, your stuffing will definitely not be cooked enough to kill the bacteria inside the bread. You thought bacteria was living on your counter? Try inside the stuffed turkey. Simply, don’t do it.
This week is a recipe for my grandmother’s stuffing, just slightly altered. Still with lots of butter but with the addition of fennel, sage, rosemary, and thyme. My grandmother used to make stuffing with the package of bread cubes (pepperidge farm or similar) which is the most delicious way to make stuffing. The no fail recipe on the back of the bag will not disappoint and your guests will be non the wiser. But over the years, I’ve learned to love a stuffing that has larger bread chunks. And the only way to get that consistency is by making your own bread cubes (which is as easy as tearing the bread into the chunk sizes that you want). The recipe my grandmother use to make will always be the baseline for my Thanksgiving memories - and when I make my own stuffing, I remember how it tasted and adjust from there. As we’ve talked about here before, food is all about a memory and a feeling. That’s how we learn to cook. We taste something we like and we try to recreate that moment all over again. Thanksgiving is like that in so many ways. We’re constantly trying to re-create memories - because after all, food becomes a part of the memories of the ones we love.
Because Thanksgiving is just two days away, I expect that you too are running around like a wild Turkey. We’re going to jump straight into this week’s recipe so I can get back into the kitchen and start prepping. Some things I plan to make today are cranberry sauce and apple sauce. I’ll leave you below with a photo of my table from last year’s Thanksgiving. The last Thanksgiving we’ll have in our little London flat.
And also few tips to help you through your Thanksgiving prep:
Cranberry sauce, always. Because there’s so much fat (butter) in the traditional Thanksgiving dinner, make sure you have something acidic on the table to cut through all that fat.
If you don’t feel comfortable butchering your turkey in order to roast it in pieces, then make sure to temp your turkey along the way. Once the breast comes to temperature, pull the turkey out and remove the legs and continue to roast the legs. Tent the breast loosely with tin foil and allow to rest.
Don’t stuff your bird. You risk the stuffing being contaminated with bad bacteria. No one needs a case of salmonella, ever.
Prep your gravy a few days in advance. Especially if you’re breaking down your turkey, you’ll be able to make turkey stock and create some really delicious gravy like the one from Bon Appetit - trust me, this gravy is drinkable (it’s that good).
Mary Lou’s stuffing, just slightly altered
This week we have more handwritten recipes from my grandmother and more interpretations. She clearly was also improvising through the years as some lists call for different ingredients which completely vary from one post-it note to the next. Some of the ingredients call for cream but we won’t be heading down that route. My recipe is heavy on the fennel and herbs - I hope you enjoy.
1 large loaf of country bread or sourdough, torn into whatever size chunks you’d like
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 large onions, finely chopped
2 fennel bulbs, finely chopped
5 stalks of celery, finely chopped
1/2 cups of dry white wine
2 sticks (1 cup) of unsalted butter
1 cup of chopped parsley
3 tbsp chopped sage
2 tbsp chopped rosemary
1 tbsp chopped thyme
2 tsp kosher salt - more to taste
2 tsp ground pepper
2 large eggs
2-3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
Pre-heat over to 250F/120C and toast your bread for 1 hour until dried out. Remove bread and place in a large bowl - allow to cool. Raise the temperature of the oven to 350F/175C
Heat oil in the pan and cook onions, fennel and celery until softened - about 10 minutes or so. Add wine and cook until evaporated. Add butter and cook until melted. Scrape the mixture into the bowl with the bread. Mix in the parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, salt, and pepper.
Whisk eggs and broth in a bowl and pour over the bread mixture. Fold to coat the bread.
Divide between two baking dishes and pack the stuffing down.
Cover with foil and bake for about 30-35 minutes or until the edges begin to bubble.
Increase the oven temperature to 425F/220C, uncover and bake until the top is brown and crisp.
Until next time at a standing reservation…
With love & snacks,
Paige
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Need a happy moment?
There’s nothing better than an autumnal sunset at the beach. I was able to jet set home for the holidays and in turn, received a warm welcome of sunshine and surf. Every time I come home to New Jersey, I make sure the sea is the first thing I see and the last. So when I was able to enjoy my morning coffee on the beach and my afternoon sunset with the surfers, it made for a very special week. I love coming home to friends, family and new additions (shout out to all the new babies in my life right now!)