Happy Thanksgiving - Have Some Oyster Stuffing

Normally on Thanksgiving I cook a turkey and we have people over for dinner. However, this year we received an invitation to join my friend Chris and his family and friends for our Holiday meal. Looking forward to sleeping in (I typically get up at 5am to start the bird), I was more than happy to accept. Of course, being the lover of food that I am, I could not show up empty handed. So I decided to cook up a batch of my "famous" (at least among my friends that is) Oyster Stuffing. I developed this recipe based on one that my grandmother used to make using cornbread and Oleo (rendered animal fat). It should be noted that my grandmother was from Southern stock and cooked pretty much everything in Oleo. Her food always tasted amazing, but it is a wonder we all didn't succumb to congestive heart failure at an early age. But that is another store.

To start I gathered the vegetables, including four stalks of celery, two whole leaks, one red onion, one yellow onion, green & red bell peppers, two cloves of garlic and about two cups of woodland mushrooms grown locally here in Massachusetts. First I peeled and finely chopped the garlic and set that aside. Then I coarsely chopped the other veggies and then diced them up using a food processor until they were all reduced to a consistent size (about 1/8" cubes).

Once all the veggies were diced, I mixed them up in a bowl and set them aside to be sauteed later.

I then took 3 cups of pre-shucked Chesapeake oysters. I would typically use fresh local oysters from Duxbury or Wellfleet, but prefer the Chesapeake variety when making stuffing due to their consistency and creamy texture. I also chopped approximately 1/2 of a whole proscutto end (the small fatty end of the cut) into fine pieces using my food processor.

The prosciutto and garlic were added to a stockpot with some olive oil, a little butter, some gray Celtic sea salt, coarsely ground black pepper and 3 nips (those small "airplane" bottles) of Seagram's sweet honey whiskey. This mixture was sauteed over medium heat until most of the fat in the prosciutto was rendered down and the whiskey had cooked off.

At this point I drained the extra liquid off the oysters (setting that aside for later) and quickly chopped them up using the food processor. It is important to make sure that the oyster pieces are not too small, or they will cook too quickly. Once drained & chopped, I added the oysters to the garlic/prosciutto mixture, taking the pot off of the heat immediately so that the oysters did not overcook as they would get enough heat later when the stuffing is put in the oven. The key to good oyster stuffing is making sure that you do not overcook the oysters during the oven stage.

Once the garlic/prosciutto/oyster mix was off the heat, I quickly sauteed the vegetables in some turkey stock (made earlier in the week using braised turkey thighs and a bit more of the sweet honey whiskey), adding fresh dried sage and rosemary from our garden. I combined the oyster mixture to this pot once the vegetables were lightly cooked (but not soft - keeping the veggies crunchy is another key to good stuffing). Once fully mixed I set the stock pot aside away from heat, pre-heated my over to 425 degrees and started to work on the bread mixture for the stuffing.

I took my extra large stock pot that I use for boiling lobster (any good cook in New England should have one of these for a variety of uses) and mixed together one cup of my turkey stock, one half stick of butter, some more dried sage and rosemary, a pinch of salt, some coarsely ground black pepper and the oyster juice set aside earlier. This mixture was heated over medium heat until all the butter had melted. At this point I added enough water to the mixture to account for the amount of bread that I planned to use for my stuffing. Since I knew that I wanted enough stuffing to take for my friends' gathering, some to take to work tomorrow plus a batch for my fiancee & I to have at home, I planned to use 8 cups of bread to make my stuff. Typically I try to start with a 1:1 ratio of bread to liquid and then hold back about 20% of the liquid to make sure that I don't over saturate the mixture, which would result in a soggy stuffing mix. Making allowances for the liquid already in the pot (about two cups) I added an additional 4 cups of water and place the remaining two cups aside in a small pot on low heat, just in case I need a little more in a hurry. I then brought the liquid mixture to a boil and added my bread. You can use traditional stuffing mix or any day old bread that you would like, though I strongly suggest going with a type that is firmer when making stuffing. I used day-old country hearth bread from my local Whole Foods Market. Remove the liquid and bread from heat immediately and begin stirring by hand with a large spoon, making sure that you mix the contents well so that there are no overly wet or dry pockets. Having a homogenous stuffing base is key.

AT this point, I added the vegetables, oysters and prosciutto to the bread mixture and continued to stir until all ingredients were distributed evenly. I placed the stuffing into Pyrex baking dishes that had been rubbed down with a thing layer of olive oil to prevent sticking. These were placed into the preheated oven at 425 degrees and cooked for 20 - 30 minutes.

You will know when your stuffing is ready to take out of the oven when the top is a dark golden brown and the center is firm but not wet when poked with a knife. If the top of your stuffing is starting to brown but the center is still too moist, place a sheet of tin foil over the pan and put back in the oven. Keep an eye on the stuffing to make sure that you don't overcook it or it may come out too dry. If you do find that you stuffing had dried out, simply poke some holes in the top with a fork, pour some of the left over turkey stock over the entire pan and place back in the over for about 5 - 10 minutes. Every year this dish gets rave reviews from my friends, including a few praises from folks who were reluctant at first upon hearing "oyster stuffing". So give this recipe a try next Thanksgiving, or for any time that you make fowl for the family. You won't be disappointed.