Alrighty then, back to the uncharted territory. This was the first successful attempt at homemade stuffing that I'd ever made. All of my previous attempts were horrible. I kept trying to make my grandmother's stuffing with the pork sausage, or my mother-in -law's with the hard boiled eggs. And it just was awful! I think the reason is that none of these were my own creation. Now once again, if you are looking for relevance to the plight of the homeless in this in depth study, than this is not the blog for you! (smile) It's just cooking nothing more, nothing less. But if you can feel confident in the kitchen, who knows what it might do for other areas of the house!(HAHAHA!) Oh my dear!Back to the stuffing. So you now have the recipe for how to feed a vegan stuffing. Now for me I make mine totally different. Since I'm a meat eater who occasionally grazes on veggies I used leftover chicken soup in my stuffing. (well i never..well you're going to today!) You know me, no rules only guidelines. Ready?
You will need:
Bread crumbs- no boxed bread crumbs, or bagged stuffing please. Use leftover french bread or rolls. Toast them in the oven, put them in a large plastic bag and crush them.
Now your stuffing will only be as good as your breadcrumbs. So if you use hamburger buns, or 3 for a dollar bread..well..do we really need to go into this? I am a cooking dweeb so I make rolls and bread at my house to keep the carb junkies at bay. Which means I always have homemade bread around. So I take my trusty mini food processor and grind them up. (Have I mentioned the fact that you need a mini food processor? well..I'm mentioning it.. mention mention ahem.. ) OK, back to the stuffing.Leftover chicken soup, (yes, it's homemade!!) but you can just use chicken broth, no cubes please.
2 eggs beaten
Celery
Onions
Garlic
(And whatever else you want to put in to make this yours. Make it Latin with Sofrito and spices, Make it Indian with Garam Marsala, tumeric and cumin ( get Garam Marsala online, check links to the right) or make it Asian with Oyster sauce and green onions and ginger. Man, talk about uncharted territory! Go for it. I'm just giving you the bones you flesh them out any way you like.)
Alright now where was I?
Oh yes, so you have bread crumbs, broth, eggs beaten and veggies,and seasoning. Season this well. Salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder are four of the basics I use. Now put it all together in a bowl. Here is where you add enough moisture to make it moist. The secret to moist stuffing is liquid. Too much and you have soup, too little and it's like oatmeal. This should not be soupy and it should not be dry, Use your instincts. Remember, if you make this watery you will have to add more bread crumbs and adjust the seasoning.
Once you have this all incorporated, pour it into a buttered, not margerined...casserole (pyrex works well here) Cover it and bake it at 350 for about 40 minutes. The eggs will make it puff up nicely. After the 40 minutes take the top off and give it another 5-7 minutes to let it brown.
There, you've made homemade stuffing! You are so incredible, you rock!
Ideas:
-Make your own instant stuffing mix ( which is nothing more than bread crumbs and seasoning) Take some of your homemade bread crumbs and toast them in the oven with a little buttah. In a plastic bag add a teaspoon of dried parsley,some onion powder, garlic powder, pepper and 2 crushed to smithereens chicken stock cubes and what ever else you want to put in) Anyway mix it well. and after your crumbs have cooled toss them with the seasoning. I would keep this in the freezer because of the butter. Try it and let me know how it comes out.
-Mix your bread crumbs,with leftover beef stew. Whut?! Oh yes why not? Why does poultry get all the fancy treatment? Tell me if you put stuffing on a plate with mashed potatoes, buttered corn, baked meatloaf and gravy you wouldn't get some LOVE? You would! True undying love and accolades!! Switch out your chicken broth for beef broth, go ahead and add the celery and onion etc.
Let me know how it comes out.
-Add a little sweet to your savory. I used whole wheat ,cinnamon raisin rolls for my vegan stuffing. Yes that means there were bits of raisin in my mushroom stuffing. It was wonderful! If you've ever had cranberry sauce on the same plate as your turkey you get the connection. You can use raisin bread, the good kind from the bakery section of the grocery store. Anything from the bread isle might be a little too sweet and processed. (but whatever works for you ) Try this and let me know how it comes out. :-)
