Christmas Stuffing Cake

Christmas Day can be a hectic day of cooking. I like to take some of the pressure off by doing some of the prep work the day before.  This year I asked ICA president Liz Wall for some tips on how she prepares her stuffing. Liz introduced me to the stuffing cake, a recipe she picked up at a cookery demonstration in An Grianán in 2006.

Ingredients

• 200g fresh breadcrumbs
• 200g sausage meat
• 1 small chopped onion
• 2 stalks chopped celery
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh sage
• 1 tsp  chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
• 1 apple cored and chopped
• 75g cranberries
• 1 tbsp parsley
• 180g turkey stock. (I used homemade chicken stock here)
• 50g unsalted butter

Method

• Melt the butter and fry off the onions until soft
• Pour the onions into a bowl and add all the other ingredients
• Knead well to thoroughly mix
• Press mixture into a 8-9 inch dish and cover with tinfoil.
• Bake at 180° for 15 mins, then remove the tinfoil and bake for a further 15 min until cooked through and golden on top.
• Serve in slices to accompany turkey or other cooked meat.

This mixture can also be used to stuff the bird if you don’t want to serve it separately.  The flavour combination of the cranberries, apple and, celery make this a beautiful flavoured stuffing and a wonderful addition to your Christmas feast 

For more information contact An Grianán at admin@an-grianan.ie or 041 9822119. ICA at admin@ica.ie or 01 6680002