Meat stuffing
Sweet onions, leeks, sage, smoky bacon, chestnuts & pork shoulder
1 hr 15 mins
Not Too Tricky
serves 10
About the recipe
Everyone loves a good stuffing. The flavour from free-range pork shoulder is far more delicious than sausagemeat – any good butcher will be able to mince this up for you, and with the slow-cooked onions and leeks, it’s a total joy to eat.
Ingredients
2 onions
2 leeks
1 bunch of fresh sage (30g)
olive oil
50g unsalted butter
4 rashers of smoked streaky higher-welfare bacon
1 whole nutmeg, for grating
400g stale bread
200g vac-packed chestnuts
1kg minced higher-welfare pork shoulder
1 x 400g tin of peaches, in juice
1 clementine
Top Tip
Feel free to add some minced game to this story, or even a handful of chopped chicken livers, for a nice variation.
Method
GET AHEAD
1. Peel the onions, wash and trim the leeks, then finely chop them (saving the green leek tops for soup or stew). Pick the sage leaves, keep 2 nice big ones aside, then finely slice the rest.
2. Place a large frying pan on a medium heat with 1 tablespoon of oil and the butter. Finely slice and add the bacon, fry until lightly golden, then stir in the sliced sage, followed by the onions and leeks.
3. Finely grate in half the nutmeg, add a good pinch of sea salt and black pepper and cook for 15 minutes, or until soft, stirring occasionally. Leave to cool.
4. Toast the bread, then whiz it to crumbs in a food processor with the chestnuts and tip into a large bowl. Add the cooled onion mixture, the minced pork shoulder and drained peaches.
5. Using your hands, really squash and squidge everything until well mixed. Put 250g of the stuffing mixture aside to stuff the neck of your turkey (click here for the turkey recipe), then pack the rest into an appropriately sized oiled baking dish.
6. Flatten it down and use your hands to almost tuck the stuffing into the dish, so it mounds up in the middle.
7. Halve the clementine, then push the halves into the top of the stuffing, cut side up, placing 1 reserved sage leaf on each half and drizzle with 1 more tablespoon of oil. Cover and pop in the fridge.
ON THE DAY
8. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C/350°F/gas 4 for 45 to 50 minutes, or until golden, gnarly and cooked through.
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