Potato and Bread Stuffing

This stuffing is the stuffing my mom always made and my ex mil always made and through the years it has been the one I always make.   It's simple and it's easy.   A tiny bit different than the usual stuffing, in that it uses potatoes, which makes it a bit heavier, but that's how we like it.



Of course I have made some changed and adaptations to it through the years  . . . making it my own. My mil and mother never really used celery.  I like the extra colour, crunch and flavour of celery.

 

My mother never really cooked hers for that long, it was more or less just heated through  . . .  the onion was always had a bit of a bite, which I do like, but not a of people are that fond of the harshness of raw onion.   She also used torn bread instead of crumbs.  I do sometimes long for hers . . . but somehow mine never ever does taste like hers anyways.  No matter what.  I don't know why that is.



My MIL always cooked hers in the chicken.  I prefer to cook mine in a buttered casserole dish.  That way you get some crispy bits, which I really like.  I dot it with butter which adds more flavour.   This is my stuffing of choice every year.   I love it, I really do.  I am betting you will too.  For a turkey, I double or triple it.   Of course that all depends on how many I have sitting around my table. ☺

  

*Potato and Bread Stuffing*
Makes enough to stuff one large roasting chicken
Printable Recipe

This was my ex mother in law's recipe for stuffing.  I always doubled and tripled the recipe as the stuffing was always my family's favourite part of the meal.  You can use it to stuff a chicken or a small turkey, or you can do as I normally did and bake it in a casserole dish.

2 cups fine dry bread crumbs (245g)
1 1/2 cups mashed potatoes (use no butter or milk) (about 4 large potatoes, peeled, cooked and mashed)
1/4 cup melted butter (60g)
1 small onion, peeled and chopped finely
1 stalk of celery, chopped finely
1 tsp poultry seasoning (see side column for recipe)
1 tsp summer savoury (can use a mix of sage, parsley and marjoram)
salt and black pepper to taste

Place the butter, onion and celery in a plastic container.  Cover with cling film and then cook on high in the microwave for 1 1/2 minutes.  Place the mashed potatoes in a bowl.   Stir in the onion/butter mixture and the bread crumbs, along with the poultry seasoning, summer savoury and some salt and pepper.  Taste and adjust as necessary.  You may need more of the herbs or seasoning according to your own individual taste.  The dressing is now done and ready to cook as you wish.

If you wish to, you may use it to stuff a large chicken or a small turkey, cooking as per the instructions for cooking a chicken or turkey.  If you wish to cook it separately then do as follows.

Butter a casserole dish well.  Crumble the stuffing into the casserole.  Spoon a little warm chicken broth over top and dot with butter.  Cover and bake in a moderate oven (160*C/350*F) for 30 to 40 minutes.  You can uncover the last 10 minutes of baking if you want some crunchy bits.

Note - if you are baking it in a buttered casserole dish, dot it with some butter before baking.

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Hot Turkey Poutine

   

If you were to ask any Canadian what one of their favorite indulgent dishes is . . .  and hands down . . .  you are sure to come up with more than one answer of Poutine!  Poutine, that Canadian dish of hot chips (french fries) topped with squeaky cheese curds, and hot gravy . . . the chips and the gravy melting the cheese so that every forkful is a mix of oozy gravy, hot chip goodness!     

Another favourite diner meal would be the Hot Turkey Sandwich.   I know I ate a fair few of these in my lifetime!   Canadians love to embrace turkey any way they can get it and a hot sandwich with two slices of bread layered with hot turkey and slathered in gravy, and served along french fries, peas and carrots and a pot of homemade coleslaw are up there on the list of favourites as well!  

This tasty dish today combines two of those favourite indulgences into something you are going to find yourself asking . . . now, why didn't "I" think of that!  DOH!  Don't worry about it, I've done all the thinking for you.  

What you have here is hot chips (french fries) . . . you can make your own from scratch, or you can use a good oven chip . . . topped with two scoops of poultry stuffing, and some chunks of roasted turkey . . . slathered in hot turkey gravy . . . and then doused with a combination of both cheddar and mozzarella cheeses.  

What you have here is a bit of a wicked indulgence perhaps . . . but oh well . . . you don't really have to eat the whole thing do you???     

Ok, I'll admit it . . .  it's pretty hard not to.   ☺  By the way, you have to make my stuffing with this . . . it's really the best, if I don't say so myself, and I know . . . I just did.  

  

*Hot Turkey Poutine*

Serves 4  

Printable Recipe

It's your favourite sandwich, but it's not a sandwich.  It's poutine!  Chips, cheese, gravy, stuffing and turkey!  This is soooo good, I often just buy a small turkey breast roast to cook just so we can have it.  Why wait for Christmas and Thanksgiving!  

1 family sized bag of oven chips

(I like the Aunt Bessies Gorgeous ones, because well,
they're gorgeous!)

2 cups of leftover turkey, cut into chunks

leftover turkey gravy (or from a turkey gravy mix)

4 ounces grated cheddar cheese (about 1 cup)

4 ounces grated mozzarella cheese (about 1 cup

leftover stuffing

(Or you can use my recipe, see next)

Cook your oven chips according to package directions. Mix the cheeses together.  Heat your turkey, and your gravy.   I take the stuffing and I stick it into the oven with the chips for the last 10 minutes, then it is nice and hot.  Divide your chips amongst 4 hot plates.  Top each with a quantity of stuffing,  Scatter with the turkey chunks.  Spoon the hot gravy over all and scatter on the cheese.  The hot gravy will melt the cheese and everybody's happy!   Serve immediately, with or without cranberry sauce!    




*Poultry Stuffing*

Makes 12 servings

Printable Recipe

This is delicious.  Don't balk at the ingredients.  They absolutely work.  Just open your mind and go with it.  This is the most delicious stuffing.   It freezes well.   I pack it into a loaf tin and chill.  I then dump it out, slice and then wrap each slice individually and freeze.  When we are ready to eat it, I just take out what I want and cook it (frozen) in some hot butter, browning it on both sides.  Delicious!  Alternately you can spoon it into a baking dish, cover and bake at 160*C/325*F/ gas mark 3 for about 25 minutes.

6 potatoes, peeled and cubed

4 TBS butter

2 slices white bread, crumbled

1 medium onion, peeled and chopped

1 TBS white sugar

1 TBS soft light brown sugar

1 TBS mild molasses

1 tsp white vinegar

1 tsp dried powdered sage

1 TBS dried summer savory

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Cook your potatoes until soft in a pot of lightly salted water.  Drain well and mash along with the butter until smooth.   Add the crumbled bread to the mashed potatoes along with the onion, sugars, herbs, molasses, vinegar, salt and pepper.  Mix together well.   Pack into a buttered 9 by 5 inch loaf pan.  Cover and chill for several hours.   This can be frozen at this point.   When ready to serve, melt some butter in a pan.  Slice the dressing and lightly brown for about 5 minutes per side.   This blows stove top stuffing out of the water!  

  

Go on . . . make it, you know you really want to!

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Baked Top Hat Pork Chops

I found some really lovely rack pork chops in the freezer the other day and decided to cook a real treat up for the Toddster. He does love himself a good pork chop.



This is a recipe I have had for many years. I got it out of an old cookbook of my mother's, called Martha Logan's Meat Cookery Book. It's a book that she got when she was first married, back in 1954. When I was about 17, I copied down, in hand writing, every recipe in the book that I found interesting, and this particular one has become a real favourite of ours through the years.



When I first moved over to the UK, Creamed Corn was not something that I could very easily find. It's quite readily available now though, which pleases me to no end. I just couldn't make my corn chowder without Creamed Corn and this delicious recipe wouldn't be possible without it either.



Imagine delicious tender meaty pork chops, baked beneath an herby corn and bread stuffing. Nom Nom!! We love this. You can use either ready made stuffing crumbs for the bread stuffing or dried bread crumbs. If you are using plain dried bread crumbs, do add some herbs as they give it a lovely flavour. I would suggest 1/2 tsp of dried sage and 1/2 tsp of dried thyme. A bit of onion would also be a nice addition.



With some potatoes on the side and a vegetable or two, it goes down a real treat with the men in the house . . . and I confess . . . this woman is mighty fond of it as well!




*Baked Top Hat Pork Chops*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

Moist and delcious pork chops baked beneath a delicious corn stuffing. Quick, easy, economical and very tasty.

4 thick centre loin pork chops, fat and rind trimmed off and discarded.
1/2 of a 418g tin of creamed corn (1 cup)
2 ounces of dried bread crumbs, or seasoned stuffing mix (1/2 cup)
1 stalk of celery, washed, trimmed and chopped
1 TBS finely chopped parsley
salt and black pepper to taste
butter

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter a shallow baking dish. Set aside.

Dust the pork chops lightly with some salt and black pepper. Place into the baking dish. Combine the bread crumbs, creamed corn, celery and parsley. Mound an equal portion on top of each pork chop. Dot with butter.

Cover lightly with aluminium foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for 15 minutes longer, until lightly browned. Serve hot, with your favourite side dishes.

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