Consuming The Harvest

. . . . and the new mag is out   Well, has been for a while.

A die hard JamieO fan, I had to buy the first issue and enjoyed it enough to purchase the second one too!

This recipe is from his Ministry Of Food cookbook, the stuffing was delicious if a bit too ‘moist’ on this first try – I’m thinking that I probably didn’t squeeze the bread quite enough.  It was the first time I’ve ever dunked and squeezed chunks of bread, so I’m giving myself a little leeway, lol.  Next time I’ll try using a little more strength

Slight changes I made/did I’ve put into italics.

Delicious Sage And Onion Stuffing

Ingredients

• 3 medium onions
• a bunch of fresh sage (I used dried from last years herbs)
• 1/2 a large loaf of stale bread
• olive oil
• 750g good quality sausage meat (I used good quality butcher sausages and removed the meat from the skins)
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• optional – a handful of roasted, peeled chestnuts or a handful of dried fruit such as sour cherries or apricots.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas 6.  Peel, halve and roughly chop your onions.  Pick sage leaves from the stalks and roughly slice.  Cut the crusts off of the bread and discard (I kept mine for breadcrumbs).  Tear the bread into chunks and fill a bowl with cold water.
2. Put a large pan on a medium heat and add 2 lugs of olive oil.  Add onions and cook gently for 7 to 10 minutes until soft and golden.  Stir in the sage leaves.
3. Take handfuls of the bread and dip into the bowl of water.  Squeeze the water out well and then add the wet bread to the pan, stirring and breaking up any large chunks with a spoon.  Let cook for a few minutes and add any of the optional extras you wish.
4. Remove the pan from the heat and spoon the contents into a large bowl and put aside to cool completely.
5. Once thoroughly cooled, mix the sausage meat into the bread mixture and season well with salt and pepper.
6. Put the stuffing into an oil rubbed dish and bake at the bottom (I used the middle) of the preheated oven for 50 minutes until really golden and crispy on top.  Serve .

This recipe freezes very well, just put meal size helpings into bags or containers and freeze, which I did.

And the finished and cooked product, plated up.  Yummy!