Truly Scrumptious

Gwen McDonald’s Stuffing

This stuffing is so tasty, it’s like a meal in itself. It’s our much cherished recipe that my mother in law used to make. You can have it the traditional way with roast chicken or turkey, and I can guarantee that it will taste excellent the next day in leftover chicken and stuffing sandwiches. I have a friend who likes to eat it inside yorkshire puddings mixed with chicken and mayo. When you bake it, the receptacle that you bake it in depends on your preference – if you like your stuffing in big meaty slices (meatloaf style), bake it in a 1 or 2 pint pudding dish, if you like your stuffing crispy, lay it out more thinly on a greased flat baking tray, or use something in between the two – your choice. It needs baking for approximately 40 minutes at 170-180 deg C, but if you spread it more thinly it will need less time, maybe 30 minutes. The quantities are very rough too because it is a home grown recipe. You can add extra ingredients if you like, or take away ingredients that you don’t like to suit your taste.

These are the rough quantities that I use:

1 medium onion diced

2 large flat mushrooms chopped into small pieces

3-4 rashers of bacon chopped into small pieces

85g packet of Paxo Sage and Onion stuffing mixed up with water as directed OR 2 slices of bread, a few sage leaves and a few sprigs of thyme

1 packet of 8 pork sausages or the equivalent amount of sausagemeat (I prefer British sausages, so use the ones from the ‘British Sausage Company’ – my English friends can use their favourites such as Walls or Butcher’s Choice)

1. Fry the onion, mushrooms and bacon in a little oil until almost cooked. Cool for 5 minutes.
2. If you haven’t got Paxo ready and made up, whizz up the bread in a food processor to get breadcrumbs, and add some chopped sage and thyme (avoid the thyme stalks, just use the leaves).
3. Place the sausagemeat in a large bowl. If you are using sausages, remove the skins by running a sharp knife along one edge and separating the skin from the meat.
4. Mix all of the other ingredients together with the sausagemeat – use a wooden spoon or your hands to combine everything thoroughly.
5. Butter or lightly grease your receptacle of choice and bake in an oven as directed above.