It’s time for the Thanksgiving 2012 recipe roundup! The best cornbread stuffing I’ve made so far was from a whim 2 years ago. I modified a recipe I had seen by Michael Symon on Food Network. For some reason I had watched him make this in an episode- unusual because I don’t watch him at all but his show happened to be on and my TV still on Food Network. But, what I saw was so intriguing for a stuffing I looked it up online to print his recipe, and used that as my cornbread stuffing inspiration.
The cornbread is one that I made from a mix the day before thanks to Trader Joe’s. When it came to the smoked ham in his recipe I substituted a smoked veggie version, and of course vegetable stock for chicken stock. Meanwhile for the vegetables I replaced his call for red peppers with Thai red chilis (though in less quantity because I did want to keep my stomach lining). I used Thai red chilis because I had them in my herb garden, but you can easily substitute any other diced pepper you would like, or even spicy seasoning instead.
I also changed out the corn because I thought there was enough corn in the cornbread which had kernels already in it. I also used diced carrots, making use of a classic mirepoix as the base then of this stuffing. I’m not a fan of parsley and cilantro, so I went with dill, sage, and rosemary as my seasoning herbs.
The stuffing turned out visually quite pretty, and was even better the next day as a leftover. The “ham” even in the veggie version gave it a hint of smokiness, and the Thai red chilis a bit of extra zing of heat now and then.
Ingredients (serves 6):
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 2 cups chopped yellow onions
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 1 cup choped carrots
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 1 package of diced smoked vegetarian ham- I used Tofurky Hickory Smoked flavor deli meat, but Yves or Lightlife could work as well
- 2 eggs
- 3 cups vegetable stock
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons chopped rosemary
- 2 tablespoons chopped sage
- 2 tablespoons dill
- 2 tablespoons of diced Thai chili pepper, but you can use any other pepper but adjust based on the heat you want
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 8 cups cubed and toasted cornbread – I used Trader Joe’s cornbread mix and prepared per directions on the box. I think TJ’s mix is the best mix out there in terms of taste and texture
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Melt butter and sweat the celery, onions, and garlic until tender. Add ham and cook
over low heat for 2 more minutes. Set aside to slightly cool. - Whisk together eggs, stock, cream and herbs and chilis, and season with salt and pepper
to taste. Combine all items, including cornbread, in a 4 quart pan. - Cook covered for 30 minutes. Then uncover and cook for additional 20
minutes or until crusty on top. - Optionally, since when I picked the peppers I had some extra left I also sprinkled a bit more on top before serving the dish to make it look nice- you can do the same with extra herbs also.