Favourite Christmas Stuffing Recipes - Tasty Turkey Nut Roast Cranberries & Goose Fat

Is preparing Christmas dinner a chore that you may have once enjoyed doing on Christmas day, but now find you have no heart in what you do in the kitchen when you once smiled and sang a happy tune while stuffing the turkey? Did you ever stop to think at any time that it may have something to do with habit?  Christmas day only comes once a year, however doing the same thing year in, year out, becomes tedious. What you need is change. Selecting another choice of flavoured stuffing can make all the difference, not just in the way you feel, but in the way the turkey tastes, after it`s been stuffed and roasted..

Let us say over the past years it has always been sage and onion stuffing, not through choice, but because this is all you knew. If this is the case then let us look at some delicious "sorts" of stuffing to compliment the bird and leave you drooling at the mouth. They say change is good as a rest, now let's put it to the test. As with most things when we look to its origin, it is nearly always connected to Roman times, and stuffing poultry being one of those things.

Things to know

• Your stuffing mix is best left to cool before stuffing the turkey
• You need to begin roasting the stuffed poultry as soon as stuffed.
• Once the turkey is cooked remove the stuffing

Some folk prefer to make their stuffing mix separate, I being one of those people that leave the turkey naked so as to speak. When choosing ingredients for any specific mix, make sure those who sit down to eat are partial to them particular foods. Satisfy everyone`s hunger and fill their belly by making a few different sorts of stuffing; it will not go to waste because over the Christmas period you have Boxing Day and New Year when you feast well also.

Bread and Celery Stuffing

1 sliced white loaf, laid out on cookie sheets and dried for 2 hours. Once dried then cut in squares (cube size).

• ¾ cup butter
• 1 large onion
• 4 to 5 stalks celery
• 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
• 1 teaspoon dried sage
• Salt and pepper  
• 1 cup chicken broth

Celery is a unique vegetable with a distinctive taste, however one you may like, or one that has you throw a Wobblier, so be careful on what you include in your stuffing.

 In a Dutch oven melt butter. Add onion and celery and sauté until soft.  (A Dutch oven is normally an enamel-covered cast iron large, heavy casserole pot. It has a tight fitting lid and mainly used for braising and stewing tough meats.) Remove from heat and add a pinch of salt and pepper.  Mix in dried bread cubes and toss till coated.. Add chicken broth. Cool first before you stuff the turkey or place into a buttered dish and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 to 40 minutes.

Christmas poultry other than goose and duck are normally large birds i.e. capon and turkey. This recipe will stuff a small turkey or large chicken, if your bird weighs over a 12ib double the ingredients.

Cranberry Pecan Stuffing

• 1 cup chopped celery
• ½ cup onion shredded
•  ½ cup butter
• 1 teaspoon dried sage
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme
• ¼ teaspoon pepper and salt
• 6 cups dry diced bread squares  
• ½ cup near to ground pecans
• ¾ cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup chicken broth

In butter sauté the celery and onion until tender. Remove from heat and salt and pepper. Add bread cubes and celery mixture. Mix in pecans and cranberries. Add cup of chicken broth. Chill and place in a prepared casserole dish and bake about 30 to 35 minutes.

Does any change involve making nut roast, good because now you can give the family the best tasting stuffing this Christmas?

Nut Roast Ingredients

2 tablespoons Olive Oil
2 large onions, finely chopped
5 cloves of crushed garlic
3 cups mashed unsalted cashew nuts
1½ cups bread, cut into ½ inch cubes, toasted
1 cup vegetable broth
½ teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Salt and pepper to season

Stuffing Ingredients

Cornbread and Sausage Stuffing

• 2ibs pork sausage
• 2 cups shredded onions
•  1 – ½ cup celery chopped
•  8 cups corn bread diced
• 8 cups usual bread squares (wheat or white)
• 3 eggs, whisked
• 1 tablespoon fresh sage, chopped
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• seasoning
• chicken broth, if necessary

In a large skillet crumble the sausage and cook until brown. Drain fat and  add onion and celery. Using a large bowl add cornbread and bread squares then add sausage mix. Add whisked eggs and seasoning. Chill and then bake in casserole dish at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

Are your dinner guests this Christmas to be served another meat instead of turkey i.e. duck or goose. Roasting a goose is as easy as roasting a turkey. A roast goose Christmas dinner is more prevalent in Germany, Goose can be fatty. As with other fowl, the fat is between the skin and the flesh, so depending on how the bird is roasted, the stuffing doesn't have to be fat-laden. Wild geese don't have as much fat as domestic geese

Thoroughly defrost the goose before cooking, goose has lots of flavor and also lots of fat too.
Cook 200c about 25 minutes per kilo covering the legs for best part of cooking time.  Insert an onion or quartered lemon if you like. Roast goose on a grill over a deep pan and empty when necessary.  Pierce the area under the wings and around the parson`s nose as this will help drain excess fat. No need to baste goose. Keep goose fat to make roast potatoes or freeze for a later eating.
Let the goose stand after it's cooked for about 30 minutes. You don`t get much cutting off goose like that of chicken or turkey, so keep this in mind if you have invited a lot of people over for dinner. "I so suppose you could un-invite."

Watch Your Weight this Christmas