|
This was
my Grandmother Stewart's favorite Thanksgiving recipe. In the
early 1970's, I was a new bride and eager for all the family treasury
of good cooking. I diligently wrote down what I thought she meant
when she said, 'do this, then that'. Years later, I ran across
the recipe and had to smile. Not far off, but just enough that
it never quite had her flair. I'm looking at an old photograph
of her, building a snowball, and she was in her late 80's then.
She's gone now (at 92) but her recipes still live on in the family
memories, and in each Thanksgiving when I make her great cornbread
dressing.
Follow
your favorite cornbread recipe or try mine. Don't use those instant
Corn 'Kits' if you intend to make dressing, they're good, but
they have quite a bit of sugar in them, and your poultry seasonings
will taste sharp and bitter. MEGA HINT: If you want cornbread
and don't have a handy recipe, just figure however many cups of
cornmeal, (say 2), then you know you need that much liquid and
that many eggs. The rest is all 'window dressing! The flour binds
the cornmeal together while it's cooking, and the salt and herbs
lend flavor to a bland bread. You can add whole canned corn, diced
jalapenos and pimentos to it for Mexican cornbread, you can dip
ladles into simmering broth for spoonbread or another version
on Polenta. BUT, this one is a traditional recipe for cornbread
dressing. I leave out the spicy stuff when I know my cornbread
is for dressing.
Another
hint, to preserve your sanity, make the cornbread a day or so
ahead of turkey day. Traditionally, the dressing is made from
the stock from the turkey, so it's not a do-ahead item.
Read the
recipes, and don't be alarmed, it looks long and complicated but
I'm long-winded and the actual method and ingredients are fairly
simple.
Heat your
oven to 425* F
1/4 cup
vegetable shortening, oil, or drippings
2 cups
yellow corn meal
1 cup
all purpose flour
1 tablespoon
baking powder
1- 2 teaspoons
salt
2 cups
milk or buttermilk
2 eggs,
beaten
2 teaspoons
baking soda if you use buttermilk. (Never understood this, I usually
add both b powder and b soda regardless of whether I have sweet
milk or buttermilk.) I think the clabber action makes a lighter
cornbread, and the baking soda aids the slight fermentation process
somewhat.
Heat the
shortening or oil in a heavy large skillet. (The bread will rise
up to about double the wet batter size.)
Mix the
dry ingredients together and add the milk and beaten eggs. Don't
overmix this, just until everything is all blended well.
(*) If
this is for dressing, pour about 1/4 cup of the raw batter out
and reserve for the giblet gravy.
When oil
is hot, pour the batter into it and let it 'fry' a minute or two
to form a good crust. When air pockets form on top and bubbles
come to the surface, (a minute or two on high heat) take off the
heat and put into the oven to bake.
This will
take from 30 to 40 minutes to bake (uncovered).
If this
is designated for dressing, I add generous
shakes of poultry seasoning and extra powdered sage.
Also,
I heat the oil until hot, but not sizzling, then add it to the
batter and put into the oven without forming a crust on the cornbread,
if I'm going to use it for dressing. (If you get the oil too hot,
it will scramble the eggs in the batter!) If you make a large
bread as this recipe makes, you can follow the above directions,
then slice some off the bottom of the finished cornbread with
no harm done to the proportions. (I don't like the cornbread's
bottom crust in my dressing.)
For dressing:
Please
realize I usually just pull out every big pot, stockpot and sauce
pan I own and start something in them on the stove. Eventually,
amazingly enough, it all comes together! Oh, yes, this is dressing
not stuffing. The only difference I can tell is I don't pack the
turkey with cornbread 'filler'. It makes the cooking time for
the meat unreliable, and can make the stuffing greasy. Cook this
separately and serve around the turkey if you want the presentation
effect.
2 eggs
4 (about)
cups of stock or broth from the turkey (I keep canned chicken
stock on hand, but I like to boil bones from steaks, chickens,
etc during the year, and freeze this for even better stock.) In
the complete meal, you'll end up using a couple of quarts of stock.
1 bunch
celery stalks, tough parts removed
2 bunches
green onions plus a medium onion plus chives or green tops for
garnish
several
cloves of garlic (smashed) if you enjoy it
same for
a big bell pepper, minced finely
rough
chopped mushrooms, if desired (Mushrooms are great flavor extenders,
adding bulk without adding 'nuisance flavorings' to dishes like
this.)
bunch
of fresh parsley
fresh
or dried sage
poultry
seasoning
salt
pepper
oil or
butter to saute` the vegetables
(also,
see variation at the bottom of the instructions)
Heat the
oil and clean and chop the celery and parsley. To chop celery
well, break the heavy white coarse ends off, and peel out the
heavier ribs. Slide a sharp knife the length of the stalks and
divide each stalk into 2 - 3 long, thin stalks. then chop across
the stalks finely. Chop the onions very finely, and if you love
bell peppers, you can add one or two of them chopped finely here,
also.
Add the
vegetables to the oil and saute until they're limp and cooked
through. Don't fry them! Add the herbs and seasonings to the skillet,
and it doesn't hurt to have a heavy hand here. Just before they're
limp and clear, I like to add about a cup of chopped portobello
mushrooms to the skillet. (Reserve a couple of tablespoons of
vegetables for the giblet gravy).
Break
or mash the cornbread into small chunks and bite sized pieces
and put into your biggest mixing bowl. (I use the plastic lid
off of a cake cover.) Add a few cups of stock or broth and blend
well. Add the cooked vegetables. You want this 'soupy', because
it's going to cook and bake and generally dry out again. Add the
beaten eggs and I usually ladle some more turkey stock over just
to make sure it bakes moist. Don't drown it, but have it quite
moist.
I put
it in the oven at whatever temperature the turkey is set on. (It's
usually a juggle to get both big pots in at the same time.) But,
the turkey should be about done, and just waiting around for someone
to attend to it by this point. I've hauled the turkey out, used
the juice out of the pan for my cooking, then put the turk back
into the oven after everything else is done, just to warm back
up again. Holding up a hot roasting pan with a 15 (+) pound hot
turkey in it, trying to drain the juices off can be very tricky.
Get help, or don't tell anyone when your Thanksgiving Dinner ends
up on the floor. (Not that this has happened to me.....)
Bake the
dressing in a large roasting pan for at least 45 minutes if you've
made it as moist as I do. You can tent with foil for the first
1/2 of baking, but if it doesn't seem to be absorbing much of
the liquid, bake uncovered for the last half of the time. Those
foil turkey roasting pans are lousy for the turks, but great for
the dressing!
Start
the Giblet Gravy
Everyone
says I make great giblet gravy, but I don't like it, and I have
no idea why mine turns out well every time!
Boil 2-3
eggs and peel and let cool. You also can have this done before
the event, if you're more organized than I am.
The
'innards' out of the turkey, the neck, the liver, kidneys, (dare
I say gizzards?) heart, etc. If I happen on chicken livers in
the store while I'm shopping for Thanksgiving, I'll get an extra
package and add them to the gravy-making.
In a separate
sauce pan, boil all this stuff up (in stock of course) with some
salt and pepper.Save the liquid it simmered in. If it cooks down,
add more stock.
Let cool
(just enough so you can handle the meat) and pick the meat out
of the neck, and chop the liver and other meats up finely. Gizzards
are rather tough, so I just slit them and peel the meats out of
the tough skin and discard the skins. (My dogs hate me, they chew
on them for days.)
Add the
reserved cooked vegetables to the chopped meats.
Bring
the liquid back to a boil, and add more turkey stock if it doesn't
almost fill a large saucepan.
When it's
boiling, add the batter you reserved from the original cornbread.
(forgot about that, didn't you!) But, this binds the meat and
liquid and is what actually creates the 'gravy'.
Add the
meat and vegetables and simmer until they're rewarmed again. slice
the peeled hard-boiled eggs into thin rings and 'garnish' with
them. If it's too thin (watery) and soupy for your tastes, you
can add some cornstarch to cool broth and add back to the rest
of the gravy. Cook and stir until it's thickened up. Cornstarch
is a wonderful thickener, so a teaspoon or so to a 1/4 cup of
water, added back to the stock will be plenty. Don't sprinkle
it over the hot stock, you'll have white lumps in the gravy you
worked so hard for.
If you're
not too frazzled and have more green onions, you can chop a few
raw ones up very finely and top the giblet gravy with them, too.
By now, I've wandered outside to commune with the llamas, had
a drink, and harvested some garlic chives to top my glorious creations
with.
By now,
everyone is ravenous, and anything I dish up looks like the 'real'
Martha Stewart prepared it all!
NOTE:
If you think ahead, you can actually make this fairly low fat.
Use fresh herbs and go lightly on the salty seasonings. Use egg
substitutes and make your own broths ahead of time and skim off
the fats. (You also can open a can of stock and stick it in the
refrigerator and spoon off the fat.) Use canola oil to cook the
vegetables and cornbread batter in, and other innovative ideas
to substitute along the way. Liver and organ meats are very rich
and calorie laden, so you might buy extra chicken necks and skin
them out before boiling them for the giblet gravy. The gravy is
traditionally dressed with sliced hard boiled eggs, but thinly
sliced sauteed Portobello mushrooms would look great and probably
taste better.
Stand
back! This feeds an army!
MMM, mushrooms,
remind me to tell you about the time...
Anyway,
enjoy your friends and family and whatever you cook will be just
fine. I can't believe the disasters I've served up, and everyone
raved over. 'My best yet', etc, etc..
The dressing
is pretty easy to create great variations. This year, I'm going
to add lots of Portobello mushrooms, and at least a pint of oysters.
I usually make a small dish of 'oyster something' (wild rice and
oysters make a good dressing combination).. But, omit some of
the stock and use the liquid out of the oysters and add at least
a pint of oysters to the dressing before baking. If they're large,
cut them into half before adding to the dressing.
HAPPY
1998 THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!
Text
and images copyright 1998 Martha
Wells
|
