Turkey Stuffing OR Stuffing Casserole

Check out the YouTube video!

https://youtu.be/17R0eRBIsUI

How to Make Stuffing

for Stuffing a Turkey or for Stuffing Casserole

Medium Difficulty

Prep Time: 20 min * Cook Time: 45 min

Ingredients:

15 cups chopped bread (about 1 loaf)

3 eggs

2 cups milk

1 cup each, chopped: onions, celery, bell pepper

(red and green for color)

1/2 cup: corn and chopped carrots

2 cups: cheese cubes and sliced sausages

2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp: salt and white pepper

1 bouillion cube OR 2 tsp chicken seasoning

Kitchen Prep:

Preheat the oven to 325F.

Chop all your vegetables.

Measure out the rest of the ingredients.

Add wet ingredients and spices in a large mixing bowl, stir well to incorporate all the ingredients.

Place the vegetables in a stove pan for cooking.

Chop your bread and evenly distribute the pieces onto an ungreased baking pan.

Step 1:

Toast your chopped bread for about 10-15 min in the oven. You can add the bread to the oven while it is preheating; just keep an eye on the pieces. The toasting helps the bread keep its form when added to the wet ingredients, instead of turning to mush and then baking into a brick.

Step 2:

Saute the vegetebles in a Tbl of oil on the stove while the bread is toasting. Once the onions start to turn clear take them off the stove and put aside for later.

Step 3:

Once the vegetables are done cooking, put the sausages into the same pan and cook them through. Take them off the stove and allow them to cool to the touch so that you can slice them into pieces.

Remember to check your bread in the oven. You don't want it to burn!

Step 4:

Take your toasted bread out of the oven and stir it into the wet ingredients and spices.

Then add in the vegetables and the sausage.

Mix in the cheese cubes once the ingredients have cooled a bit. You want the cheese to melt in the oven or the turkey, not while assembling the stuffing.

Step 5:

Take half the mix and put aside for stuffing the turkey. Put aside only one third if you are stuffing chicken or other smaller poultry.

Bake the other half for about 30-45 min. to make the casserole. Cover the dish with foil for the first 20 min to keep the stuffing moist. The last 15 min or so take the foil off so that it can brown. If you want to be really decadent, add some grated cheese on top when you take the foil off so that the bread stuffing will brown and the grated cheese will get all crispy and crunchy.

The stuffing is done when you can stick a knife in the middle and it comes out "clean". Meaning, that the knife will not come out coated in the liquid ingredients, just a few bread crumbs and moisture from the heat.

Allow the casserole to cool a bit before serving. You can precook the casserole the day before and leave it in the refrigerator until the day of the meal. Reheat for 20 min before serving.

How to: Chopping Vegetables

Here are some quick and easy steps to minimize prep time in the kitchen and allow you to get on the best parts of cooking: the eating!

Most importantly: Choose a knife that you are comfortable using. There are a variety of knives that "should" be used for specific purposes. I've never held to this belief, although to some extent using a thin boning knife is easier to filet a fish and using a shorter paring knife is easier to carve and peel. In general though, I recommend that you find a knife that you are comfortable using. If you are comfortable with your knife there will be less mistakes and the possibility of accidents in the kitchen. I prefer to use a knife with a heavy handle and a long and smooth blade for chopping.

Step 1: Slice the vegetables into manageable pieces. I like to chop everything in half first, which keeps the pieces from rolling around the cutting board. Keep in mind that all vegetables are made a bit differently, for example, bell peppers must be cored and de-stemmed and onions grow in layers.

Step 2: Slice your pieces into strips roughly the size that you want the final pieces to be. The wider the strips, the larger the final pieces. The thinner the strips the smaller the final pieces.

Step 3: Chop across your strips to dice into final pieces. Don't worry about making each piece the same as the last, your goal is to eat the vegetables, not show them in an art gallery. This is key to minimizing prep time in the kitchen. Just let your OCD go and chop!

Southern Louisiana Gumbo

https://youtu.be/kpWblmmeGww

Check out the YouTube video!

Medium Difficulty,

a simple recipe, but the difficulty lies in the amount of cook time.

Prep Time: 15 min

Cook Time: 4 hours

Ingredients:

8-10 Sausages
1 whole Chicken, quartered
1 medium Red Bell Pepper, chopped
1 medium Green Bell Pepper, chopped
2 medium Onions, chopped
2 large stalks of Celery, chopped
1 cup Parsley, chopped
4 cups of Dry Roux (link to recipe) OR 2 cups of Wet Roux (link to recipe)
1 Tbl Gumbo File powder
1 Tbl White Pepper powder
1 Tbl Cayenne Pepper powder
3 Tbl Salt

Served over rice. I recommend 4-6 cups of rice made, depending on your usual rice serving. 

Step 1: Saute the Vegetables, set them aside to add in later.

Step 2: Brown the Meats, add them to to largest pot you have and cover in water, leaving a couple of inches from the rim of the pot free of water. Keep in mind that the gumbo needs to cook for several hours, so either cover the pot or be prepared to add in more water a couple hours in.

Step 3: Add Water, Roux and Spices, stirring occasionally.

Step 4: Add Sauted Vegetables and Put Rice on to Cook, once the meat has begun to fall off the chicken bones. This is the determining factor for the gumbo. The reason it cooks for so long is so that the ingredients are all very tender and have the maximum amount of time to absorb the roux and spicing flavors. The vegetables cook very quickly in comparison to the other ingredients
so they should go in very last. After the rice is done, the gumbo should be ready to eat!

Serve over rice and enjoy!