Sausage Pumpkin Cornbread Stuffing

Dear Stuffing, I don’t think I would enjoy roast poultry without you. Love Fee

Every year for Christmas Ig o on a hunt for an amazing stuffing recipe. For Christmas 2009 I came across a post on Food.com that gave me the base for this recipe. I loved it so much I’ve made it twice since!

gobble gobble!

A few weeks ago some friends and I held a faux Christmas as we wouldn’t be together for real Christmas. This post actually contains turkey instructions too but to be honest, but you can find those anywhere (I didn’t do anything super special to the exterior of mine except, you know, make it delicious!) so this is primarily about AMAZING stuffing.

Fair warning, it makes quite a lot. In a medium sized turkey you will have about half left over (which I like to bake as a side dish) so if you don’t want stacks, half this recipe.

NOTE: The cornbread part of this can be made ahead of time as it is best to be well cooled before use so I suggest making the day before or the morning of your lunch/dinner.

Special props go to Nataru and Tankie for making kitchen time super fun. Go team! Also thanks for letting me be bossy and make whatever I want hehe.

What you need:

For Cornbread Muffins – makes 8

1 cup cornmeal (polenta)
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
1 egg
2 garlic cloves crushed
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 cup cooking oil

For Stuffing –

Cornbread Muffins
500g cooked and mashed pumpkin
1 cup craisins
3 shallots diced
Fresh diced sage (about 1 tbsp)
2 cups chicken stock (stock cubes and boiling water is fine)
6 sausages

A note about sausages in this recipe: it would be ideal to use beef with sage or something similar to the ingredients above but you could also use duck or chicken sausages. In the pictures below I had discovered duck sausages with pistachio and orange at my butcher so used those (amazing turduckey!). Either go plain sausages or stick to simple flavours that you may see in other stuffing i.e. no super spicy or cheesey flavours.

What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Place all cornbread muffin ingredients in a bowl and whisk together. Spoon into muffin trays, should make about 8.
3. Bake for 15 minutes until slightly risen and golden.
4. Set aside to cool.
5. Once cornbread is cool enough to work with , break up into a large bowl. It should crumble quite easily and it is ok to have some chunks.
   

   Shiny bowls don't like flashers

6. In a large frypan, heat a little olive oil and in small pieces, push the sausage meat out of their casings.
7. When cooked through, add shallots and craisins to heat through.
8. Add chicken stock to frypan to reduce slightly.
9. Pour frypan goodies in the cornbread mixture then add mashed pumpkin and sage.
10. Combine the whole lot together. It should be quite moist and holding together a little.
    

    So much goodness

11. Put your oven on 180C in preparation for the turkey.
12. Prepare your turkey (wash, remove gizzards, pat dry) then, using a spoon, stuff it with stuffing!
13. Any excess should go in a baking dish and can go in the oven for half an hour toward the end.
14. Turkey has quite a distinct flavour naturally so I don’t like to do too much to it. Rub under the skin on the breast meat with butter and lightly brush the whole turkey with some melted butter, more sage and a little salt. You may wish to wrap the legs in aluminum foil to stop them cooking too heavily.
    

    Ready for a hot time in the oven

15. Place turkey in the oven and check at 25-30 minute intervals. The whole bird should take around 25-30 minutes per 500g at a maximum.
16. Baste your turkey with the juices from the pan every time you check it. To do this, tilt the pan slightly and use a spoon to pour the pan juices back over the turkey.
17. When you are nearing the maximum cooking time, pierce a thick piece of meat with a fork. If the juices run clear, you are done!
18. Rest the turkey under aluminum foil on a chopping board and get to work on your gravy! Use all the juices from the pan and follow my I love gravy recipe.

If you are wanting roast vegetables, I would put them in the oven around the same time as you start the turkey. Because of the lower heat they shouldn’t burn. Serve these with any and all kinds of sides you like!

Pizza Base (with amazing topping suggestions)

Did you know … it is surprisingly easy to make your own pizza base! I have made it before with an old recipe that was alright but recently discovered the perfect pizza base, that was so simple to make!

Part of Fee and TJ cooking adventures, I am helping TJ master some mad kitchen skillz so what is better than pizza! Amiright!

Tasty tasty slices

OK so honestly the criteria was ‘what do we want to eat’ but anyway, amazing recipe found! We made two types of toppings which were SO GOOD so I will share those as well. These recipes come from the Philadelphia Cream Cheese Simply Heaven Volume 2 available at Coles when you buy 3 or more Philadelphia products … worth it!

What you need:

This is for the basic pizza base – topping options at the end.

1 cup of plain flour
1/2 tsp caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp dried yeast
1/3 cup water (at room temperature)
1 tbsp oil (note – I use a garlic oil for an extra bit of garlic punch)

Yield – 1 30cm thin crust pizza

What to do:

1. Sift flour into a bowl with sugar, salt and yeast. In a cup measure, combine water and oil and have on stand by.
2. Make a well in the centre of the dry mixture and add a little of the water/oil.
3. Using a wooden spoon, pull the edges of the flour well into the water/oil and mix.
4. Continue until all flour is added then mix briefly with the wooden spoon – it should be starting to form dough by now.
5. On a large flat surface, sprinkle a little flour then turn out the dough on top.
6. Keep a small pile of flour handy so you can keep your hands floury while kneading.
7. Knead the dough by taking the furthest part and pushing it into the centre with your knuckles with one hand while pulling the closest part back toward yourself with the other hand. Turn the dough slightly and repeat the process.
8. Continue kneading like this for around 5 minutes. You will notice dough on your hands, this is normal! Just keep kneading. The point is to stretch the dough slightly, push out air and activate the yeast so don’t be precious about it, you want to show that dough who’s boss.
9. Once the dough is feeling smooth and quite bouncy, create a ball and place it back into your mixing bowl.
10. Cover with cling wrap and store in a warm place for 25 minutes.
    

    Its ... quite kneady!

11. The dough should have expanded and is now ready for use.
    

    Ready to be your base!

12. On your floury surface, roll out the dough to your desired size and thickness (I recommend fairly thin but whatever will fit your baking tin).
13. Top as you please and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Topping suggestions:

Potato, Bocconcini and Chicken

Roll out pizza base and place in baking tin. Heat around 100g of Philadelphia Cream Cheese in the microwave for 30 seconds. Spread over the pizza base.  Cover with 1 thinly sliced potato, 1/2 a sliced red onion and a pre-cooked chicken breast pulled apart into small pieces (takeaway chicken style is the easiest). Dot about 6 small bocconcini balls cut in half over pizza. Sprinkle the whole pizza with some fresh rosemary and salt then put in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes.

Pumpkin, Pancetta and Pinenut Pizza

Cut approximately 12 1 cm slices of pumpkin (uses around 1/4 small pumpkin). put on baking paper and bake at 200C for 20 minutes. Adjust slices of pumpkin for how big your pizza is of course! Put your rolled out pizza base in a baking tin. Cover the pizza base with 2 tbsp of tomato paste and lay out roast pumpkin. Cut strips of 4 pancetta slices and loosely place over pizza in loops (as in, don’t lay flat). Toss over  2 -3 tablespoons of pinenuts. Using two teaspoons, dot out around 100g of Philadelphia Cream Cheese across the pizza. Bake for 20 minutes.

Pumpkin, Pancetta and Pinenut Pizza and Potato, Bocconcini and Chicken Pizza. aka YUM!