Tags
affordable Christmas, Chestnut, Chestnut recipe, Christmas, christmas chestnut recipes, Christmas day, christmas dinner, Christmas food, christmas recipes, Christmas stuffing, festive food, festive recipes, Merchant Gourmet, Merchant Gourmet Chestnuts, Merchant Gourmet Christmas, Merchant Gourmet Polenta, stuffing, turkey stuffing
Preparation time – 10 mins
Cooking time – 30-40 mins
Serves 8
Ingredients
- 700g best quality sausage meat
- 2 medium onions, peeled and finely chopped
- 200g Merchant Gourmet Whole Chestnuts
- 100g, Merchant Gourmet One Minute Polenta or fine breadcrumbs
- 150g dried cranberries
- 5 large sprigs of rosemary, spikes only, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon mixed spice (or if you can find it Mauritius Masalle)
- 2 large egg yolks
Method
Prep ahead – You can make the stuffing at least a day ahead before cooking or stuffing your bird.
- Pre-heat your oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4 upper middle shelf.
- Mix the sausage meat together with the chopped onions, Merchant Gourmet Chestnuts and Polenta, dried cranberries, rosemary, mixed spice, egg yolks and a heaped teaspoon each of salt and black pepper.
- If you are stuffing a turkey, lift the flap of skin at the top of the turkey breasts. Loosely push about 1/3 of the stuffing underneath. Fold the flap of skin back over so that it holds the stuffing in, but make sure that it is not too tightly packed or the skin will split as it roasts. Truss the turkey, making sure that you leave the skin slightly loose, but secure the neck flap well. If you don’t have a trussing needle, use a wooden skewer to do this.
- Separate the remaining stuffing into 16 pieces, dust your hands with polenta if the stuffing is sticky and roll the 16 pieces into balls. Put them in the fridge until you need them.
- Bake the stuffing balls for 20 minutes
- Alternatively, spoon the leftover mixture into an ovenproof dish, brush with olive oil and place in the oven 180C /Gas 4 for 30-40 minutes, depending on how crispy you like it on top.