Auberge Cranberry and Sausage Stuffing With Chestnuts and Orange

Description: A wonderful colourful, fruity & flavourful stuffing recipe; you can use any type of bread, but stale bread works best! I have used dried cranberries, but fresh can be used too. Likewise, I have listed vacuum packed chestnuts, but fresh, frozen or canned can also be used. This stuffing is best made upto a day before - to allow the flavours to infuse & mingle......it can also be frozen for up to a month if you want to get ahead for Christmas or Thanksgiving! I stuff some into the neck cavity & under the breast skin - this keeps the breast from drying out; I then bake the rest in an ovenproof dish. Makes a GREAT filling for post-Christmas sandwiches!

Ingredients:

• 2 ounces butter
• 6 pink shallots, peeled & roughly chopped
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary, leaves stripped
• 1 sprig fresh thyme, leaves stripped
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh celery top
• 6 ounces stale bread, cut into cubes
• 2 cooking apples, cored & chopped into cubes
• 4 ounces vacuum packed chestnuts, chopped
• 4 ounces dried cranberries
• 1 large orange, zest of
• 1 lb good quality pork sausage
• salt and black pepper

Steps:

1. Melt butter in a large pan and gently fry the chopped shallots, rosemary & thyme leaves together for about 10 minutes or until shallots are soft & golden.
2. Tip them into a large bowl & add the celery tops, bread, apples, chestnuts, cranberries & orange zest.
3. Divide the sausage meat into small balls the size of walnuts.
4. Fry in the juices from the shallots in the same pan until the pieces are golden & well cooked.
5. Add to the bowl with the other ingredients.
6. Stir to mix well, mashing all the ingredients together with the back of a fork.
7. Season with salt & black pepper.
8. Use the stuffing to stuff the neck end of a large chicken or turkey.
9. Put the remaining stuffing into a well greased ovenproof dish & cover with buttered foil.
10. Bake in a pre-heated oven 180C/360F or Gas mark 4 for about 45 minutes or until well cooked through.
11. You can remove the foil for the last 15 minutes to brown the top if you wish.
12. Makes enough stuffing to stuff a 12-14 lb turkey.