Bazilian Recipes: Stuffing

A Bazilian Turkey Stuffing

Whys and Wherefores:

As I have mentioned in various places, I’m allergic to lots of things. I can just barely get away with leeks, if I don’t do them too often. Regular turkey stuffing, much as I love it, is right out. I had to come up with a suitable substitute, and this is it.

Ingredients:

(You think I’m kidding, don’t you? Well, I’m not.)

Method:

Cook the rice & wild rice as you normally would. Sometimes I use broth instead of salted water. I always screw up the wild rice and burn it to the bottom of the pan just a little, which makes it ever-so-slightly smoky and actually rather nice. (I say always; I mean whenever I try to cook wild rice. I’ve only made this stuffing twice.)

Slice the bottoms and tops off the leeks. Slice the long lovely leek legs into half-inch rounds, and then halve each round into "C" shapes so the layers can separate easily in the pan. Try to be sure you are not including any sand... After you get the leeks off the board and into a holding bowl, drain and chop the oysters. (I also hack the artichoke hearts to bits if they aren’t already.)

Saute the leeks in a small amount of extra-virgin olive oil. When they are beginning to become a wee bit translucent, add the artichoke hearts. When this mixture gets to chuckling gently in the pan, season with a bit of salt and a fair wad of fresh-grated nutmeg. (Now’s the time to add pepper or long pepper & galingale [lesser! see notes] if you’re going to.)

Decant the stuff to a largish bowl and mix in appropriate quantities of rice and wild rice. Don’t overdo it -- you don’t want the other things to get lost. (I tend to use up all the wild rice, but only half to maybe 2/3 of the white rice. I always have uses for rice, so I don’t mind having some left.)

Stuff both ends of the bird as usual (unless you are concerned about salmonella, in which case do whatever you regularly do), and reserve the rest of the stuffing until perhaps an hour before the bird comes out of the oven. If you can deal with it, pour the rest of the stuffing into the roasting pan around the bird at the T-minus-one-hour mark or a wee bit later. If not, just put it in a baking dish & put that in the oven. Voici la.

Serves N people, where N is the usual number of turkey-eaters in a modest-size family. (This depends so heavily upon how hungry people are that I’m reluctant to put a firm number on it. I’d guess 4 to 6, with possible leftovers, but don’t quote me.)



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Last modified: Fri Dec 9 12:52:29 EST 2005