Cornbread & Sourdough Stuffing

This stuffing is very easy to make, and is absolutely delicious! I'm not sure if I just cut the cornbread & sourdough a bit too large, but this yielded a very large amount of stuffing. I stuffed my 9kg turkey, and had some to spare!

I am not sure if you can buy ready made cornbread, so I just made my own (yes, yes, I've heard it all before! :) You can find the recipe for the cornbread here.

When it comes to Thanksgiving, and anything turkey related, I tend to turn away from Australian and UK cookbooks, and head straight to the world's most authoritative source: Martha Stewart. This is her recipe.

Cornbread & Sourdough Stuffing

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium onion, in 1/4" dice
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, peeled, 1/4" dice
1/2 bulb fennel, 1/2" dice
Cornbread, cut into 1/2" cubes (isn't a dice a cube?)
10 ounces of 1 day old sourdough, cut into 1/2" cubes
3 tbs assorted herbs (rosemary, sage, thyme, parsley, marjoram etc. I wouldn't use basil)
1 cup pitted prunes, 1/2" dice
5 dried pears, 1/2" dice (you could use apricots instead)
salt + pepper
1/2 cup turkey stock (I used chicken stock)




1) Melt 2 tbsp of the butter in a large pan over med-low heat. Make sure it is a LARGE pan. Or even a saucepan if you've only small pans. Add the onions, garlic, carrots & fennel & cook until the vegetables are tender (not soggy!), around 10-15 mins. Remove from the heat.

2) In a large bowl, mix the cornbread & sourdough together, then add the vegetables, herbs, prunes & pears. Mix together well, and season.

3) Melt the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter & add to the stock, then pour the lot of the stuffing mixture. Toss to combine, and allow to cool. Cover & refrigerate until the turkey (or whatever you are using this for) is ready to be stuffed.

4) Remember, stuff your turkey just prior to putting it in the oven. If you stuff the turkey, and allow it to sit, bacteria could develop.

 

Skillet Cornbread!

I just love cornbread. I know it is Not My Friend (the carbs! the carbs!), but who am I kidding - I make my own ice-cream!

This is the only recipe I have ever used to make it, and it always turns out very well, and is very quick to make. If you whip up a batch of this, and pop it into the oven, then get cooking on your meat & capsicum, you will have a fantastic Mexican meal ready to roll in around half an hour! How Good Is That!

FYI - corn 'flour' and corn 'meal are confusing terms. Cornflour as sold in the supermarkets is a thickening agent. If you make cornbread with this stuff it would quite possible be the most revolting thing you have ever eaten.

What they mean in the recipe below is what is often called 'Miaze Flower' here. You can find it in healthfood stores, and it has a lovely yellow colour to it.

This is the brand I used. I have no association with the company, and I only use this brand because it is what my local healthfood shop stocks. But I thought a link might be helpful, so here it is:  http://www.organicsaustraliaonline.com.au/prod415.htm

Finally, this is called 'Skillet Cornbread'. I just cook it in a solid based (i.e. not springform) pie tin. By melting the butter per the instructions, the cornbread turns out of the pan perfectly.

Skillet Cornbread
1.25 cups yellow cornmeal (see above re: cornflour)
1.25 cups plain flour
2 tbs sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp baking soda
1.25 tsp coarse salt
1 large egg
1.75 cups buttermilk (or same quantity of full cream w/ a squeeze of lemon juice)
4tbs unsalted butter

I apologise for the tablespoon butter measurement. This is an American thing and for the life of me I can't see how it is easy to measure something like butter in tablespoons! Give us a weight Martha!!

I just kind of roughly figure it out, lopping tablespoons out of room temp block of butter.

1) Preheat the oven to 220'c. Whisk together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl & set aside. Whisk together the egg & buttermilk, then stir into the flour mixture.

2) Melt the butter (!!) in a 10-inch skillet or baking dish in the oven. remove the skillet, and swirl the butter all over to coat the bottom & sides. Pour in the batter, and bake until a tester comes out clean, around 20 - 25 minutes. Cut into wedges & serve.