Bluestem cook’s Thanksgiving dressing secret: Good bread, turkey stock
Over the past two years, Elise Landry has been a rising star at Ça Va, Kansas City’s first Champagne bar.
When it came to preparing an assortment of French nibbles — including charcuterie, mussels, caviar, tartare and a few soups, sandwiches and desserts — the bar space presented obvious challenges, but Landry made it work to her advantage.
Recently, Landry moved to Bluestem to continue her culinary education. Before Ça Va, she graduated from Broadmoor Technical Center and worked at restaurants in Massachusetts.
“It’s great to be back in Kansas City. There’s so much love here,” Landry says of the city’s fast-growing and collaborative culinary scene.
Landry loves Thanksgiving, too, but since the holiday is one of her few days off, she likes to keep the menu fairly simple: “I just want to be in my stretchy pants and eating all day.”
Last year, Landry decided to make her family a traditional homemade stuffing featuring Farm to Market Bread Co. ciabatta bread — “it’s got an awesome crust and it’s super-porous, but it doesn’t fall apart when it gets wet.” And, instead of making her own stock, she bought a quart of turkey stock from Broadway Butcher Shop and used the leftover stock for gravy.
“Growing up, we always had Stovetop dressing,” she says. The fresh, homemade stuffing, paired with her dad’s New Orleans-style deep-fried turkey, was such a hit that she wonders what took her so long to think outside the box.
Traditional Turkey Stuffing
Makes 12 servings
1 pound crusty bread, cut into 1- to 2-inch pieces
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more to grease the casserole dish
2 cups diced onions
1 cup sliced celery
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1/2 cup chopped parsley
2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
Pinch of ground nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 1/2-2 cups turkey stock
2 eggs
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Toast stale bread cubes in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown and dried through. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and set aside.
Turn oven up to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-by-13-inch casserole dish.
In a large skillet, melt butter. Add onion and celery and saute until translucent. Add chopped garlic, stir until fragrant and remove from heat. Add chopped parsley, sage and thyme, a pinch of ground nutmeg and clove, season well with salt and pepper. Add this mixture to the bread cubes.
Heat turkey stock in a small saucepan. Pour hot turkey stock over the bread and vegetable mixture. Add enough stock to moisten the bread. Whisk two eggs in a separate bowl then pour into stuffing, mixing with a spoon until well combined. (Stuffing can be made ahead to this point and stored in fridge until ready to bake.)
Transfer uncooked stuffing to buttered casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes until crispy and golden brown on top. Serve warm.
Per serving: 201 calories (44 percent from fat), 10 grams total fat (5 grams saturated), 56 milligrams cholesterol, 23 grams carbohydrates, 5 grams protein, 567 milligrams sodium, 2 grams dietary fiber.
This story was originally published November 15, 2016 at 8:00 AM with the headline "Bluestem cook’s Thanksgiving dressing secret: Good bread, turkey stock."