The Christmas turkey stuffing

Christmas fare is very traditional in Kathy’s family and they sit down to eat their turkey with all the trimmings around 2pm. On Christmas Eve, her mum makes her never-fail pavlova and in recent years has been making Ruth Pretty’s peach and raspberry trifle. Kathy’s contribution is the Christmas pudding and more recently as well, the Christmas cake. Her dad is on turkey and uses this wonderful stuffing. Double the recipe if you have a large 9kg turkey.

Ingredients

1 Tbsp	Vegetable oil
4 stalks	Celery, strings removed with a vege peeler and chopped
1	Onion, chopped
250 g	Sausage meat, use good quality sausages and remove their casings
125 ml	Port, or brandy
1	Granny Smith apple, peeled and cut into 1cm dice
60 g	Dried pitted cherries, or 8 pitted prunes
3 cups	Breadcrumbs, made from stale bread, set aside one large crust of bread
1 tsp	Dry mixed herbs
½ tsp	Salt
125 ml	Chicken stock

Directions

1. Heat oil in a large frying pan over a low heat and add the celery and onion. Cook for 10 minutes until soft but not coloured. Transfer to a bowl.
2. Turn up the heat and add the sausage meat to the frying pan. Cook for about 10 minutes, breaking it up with a wooden spoon until it is cooked through and lightly browned.
3. Pour in the port and allow to bubble up. Remove from the heat.
4. Tip the celery and onion back into the frying pan with the apple, cherries, breadcrumbs, mixed herbs, salt and freshly ground pepper.
5. Pour in the stock to moisten and mix until well blended.
6. Stuff the cavity loosely with some of the stuffing. Use a crust of bread to close the opening.
7. Place a few rashers of bacon over the turkey breast and, using kitchen string, tie the wings and legs in so they are nestled comfortably into the turkey carcass.

For the remainder of the stuffing, place into an ovenproof dish, pour over some of the pan juices and place in the oven during the last hour of roasting the turkey.