Saturday, October 9, 2010

Stuffing, Three Ways

So it's Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend and I am FAR from home, but the Canucks around me are throwing a dinner and asked me to prep the stuffing. I couldn't do my traditional stuffing because I can't get some of the ingredients here... so I had to get creative and I had a blast doing it!!




This first one has a flavour base of mushrooms, dill, onions, garlic and hot peppers. I wanted to do something a little spicy and fun. I tried to do lots of dill to balance out the pepper as the ones here are quite hot. I also threw in some thyme, salt and crushed red chillies. Then I added the bread crumbs, chicken stock and an egg to mix it before putting it in the oven.


This one might be a flavour favourite. I chopped up onions and apples (2 apples) and threw in some dried cranberries. I also used thyme, salt and a little pepper here, but the secret is a dash of sumac to bring that citrus flavour in. When I added the breadcrumbs, I used eggs and chicken stock again to moisten it all. At the end, I poured melted butter over the whole thing before throwing it in the oven.


I think this might be the one I am most proud of. At least one of the guests tonight will be vegetarian and I wanted her to be able to enjoy a really good, flavourful stuffing as well. So I decided to do a fruit and vegetable based stuffing. It could be a meal in itself with so much robust and hearty veggies: there is 1/3 of an eggplant, 1/2 a zuccini, 1 full onion, 1 cup or so of diced mushrooms, 1/4 cup of chopped dried appricots, 2 cups or so of quartered grapes and then I tossed in a bunch of pine nuts. To round out the flavours and bring out the best of them, I used a little curry powder and cumin with some salt. I tried to keep it simple but really fun. To moisten it (although with the veggies and fruits that I chose, it won't need much once it hits the heat of the oven), I used some melted butter. It smelled like heaven!!

Anyway, for those of you waiting to cook your big meal tomorrow or on Monday... maybe a less traditional stuffing is in order, or if you are American... you can get a jump on what you might like to do for November!

Happy Eating!

1 comment:

  1. Yum!This looks delicious.I saw your blog from the foodie blog roll and I like what you have here.if you won't mind I'd love to guide Foodista readers to this post.Just add the foodista widget at the end of this post and it's all set, Thanks!

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