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Last Updated: Jul 2nd, 2008 - 21:15:22 |
Here is a wonderful recipe for fresh chestnut stuffing for your holiday turkey. It is very easy to make, and delicious to eat. What a wonderful treat for your family.
For the Stuffing:
½ cup whole chestnuts or dried if you can't find whole
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, peeled and minced
2 celery ribs, chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 teaspoon dried sage
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 cooking apple, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
1 egg, lightly beaten
5 cups stale bread, cubed
1 ¼ cups chicken broth
¼ cup butter, melted
Olive oil
Salt (sea salt is preferable)
Pepper
1 10 lb. turkey
For the Gravy:
2 carrots, roughly chopped
1 onion, diced
2 celery stalks, roughly chopped
Corn flour
Chicken stock
Butter (if necessary)
Directions:
The Night Before:
The night before your dinner, or at least one hour before you begin to roast, prepare your turkey for stuffing. Remove the giblets and rise well both on the inside and outside with cold water. Then dry the bird with paper towels. Rub the turkey generously with the oil and apply the salt and pepper. Keep your turkey covered and refrigerated until it is time for you to put it in the oven.
The Next Day
Prepare Your Stuffing:
First you must roast the chestnuts. Here is how to do that. Cut a slash or an X in each chestnut on the flat side, then bake from 15 to 20 minutes with the oven set at 375F. Remove them from the oven, and let them cool for about 10 minutes. Then you can peel and chop them.
Keep the oven on when you remove the chestnuts and it will be already preheated for your turkey.
Put the olive oil in a large pot, keeping the flame low, then add your onions and celery. Saute these vegetables for 3 to 5 minutes until they are soft. Then you can stir in the sage, rosemary thyme, garlic, and the apple. Saute for another 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and mix in the eggs, chestnuts and bread. Make sure to mix this up. Pour in the broth and sprinkle with some salt and pepper to your taste. Let it cool.
Prepare Your Turkey:
Take the turkey and begin to stuff the cavity with your stuffing, don't over fill it. You can also fill the neck cavity, and flap the skin back over it, you can seal it by sewing it or use a toothpick.
You will need a large roasting pan. You can layer the bottom of the pan with chopped carrots, onions and celery. Put the rack in the pan over the vegetables. Put your turkey on the rack with the breast of the turkey up, and rub it with melted butter.
Bake your turkey, uncovered, at 375F for the first 30 minutes, baste it and reduce the temperature to 325F. Make sure to baste the turkey every 30 minutes or so. You should cook the turkey 20 minutes for each pound. For a ten pound turkey, you should cook it for about Continue basting turkey every 25 to 30 minutes. For a 10 pound turkey you should cook it about 3.5 hours. If you want to check the bird to see if its done, pierce the thigh bone. The juices should be clear with no sign of pinkness. You can also use a meat thermometer placed in the thickest part of the thigh. Cook until the temperature is 180F. By that time your turkey should be golden brown and crispy.
Remove the turkey from the oven, and take the bird out of the roasting pan. Save the juices for gravy.
Making Your Gravy:
Puree or mash all the vegetables from the bottom of your roasting pan, and put them through a sieve or a food processor. Through out any extra vegetables or fat. Place the sieved liquid in your roasting pan, and simmer it over a very low heat. Take the juices you saved from the pan and put it in the pan also. You can always add chicken stock if you need more liquids.
In a bowl or cup pour in a half a cup of water and slowly add two tablespoons of corn flour slowly, stirring or whisking as you put the flour in. Keep stirring till there are no lumps. Very slowly add a little of this mixture to the roast pan with the juices that has been heating on the stove. Pur the mix in while continuously stirring it. Pureeing it in slowly allows you to see how thick your making it, make sure you pour a little, and stir for a while, you don't want your gravy too thick.
Pour your gravy into a gravy bowl, and then you can bring your meal to the dinner table and cut the turkey.
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