Perhaps you have read my āDining Out with the Geezersā column, which covers one of my passions in life. Youāve probably heard the old saying that some people āEat to live, while others live to eat.ā Well, the latter describes me pretty well, except itās not complete without the cooking component. I live and love to cook and eat. Coming from an Italian tradition of cooking and eating, my heritage includes grandparents who came to the USA from a little town outside of Palermo in Sicily. I grew up surrounded by great cooks, including both parents, and with varieties of cooking components that are unique to Sicilians. If you donāt know the history of Sicily, it is not connected to Italy, and for centuries it was a strategic land that was conquered by many nations over time. Only in the last 200 years or so has it been officially part of Italy. Consequently, much of what is grown in Sicily today originally came from conquering nations. They brought plants from their land and grew them on Sicilian soil. Sicilians gradually incorporated those foods into their own cuisine. Sicilians have always been less fortunate in terms of wealth, but never in being resourceful with what they could muster up from the land and the sea. This is one of the reasons there is such a difference in the cooking between northern Italy and the southern areas, especially Sicily.
So, where am I going with all this historical stuff about cooking, and how does it relate to this column? Well, itās not going to be your typical cooking column with recipes from a magazine or some cooking show on TV. Rather, Iām after those recipes that were either handed down to you, or your own original recipes, especially if there is a story connected as to how the recipe was created or evolved. Iām especially hopeful that readers will share their recipes that demonstrate the wonderful ethnicity that so many of us have brought to Sun City, Huntley.
With that in mind, I am sharing my momās way of making turkey stuffing, which over the years I have modified slightly with some additional ingredients. This same recipe can also be used to stuff a chicken or even a pork roast. Here is Momās Turkey Stuffing recipe:
Ingredients – Turkey giblets, 2 onions, 2 carrots, 2 celery stalks, parsley, garlic, 1 sweet apple, approx. 20 seedless grapes, 1 Ā½ sticks of BUTTER, extra virgin olive oil (EVOO). I like to add a couple of strips of bacon to my stuffing, not cooked too crisp, to supplement the turkey meats and add more flavor.
1. Make a giblet soup with the neck, gizzard, and heart from the turkey. Add them to a medium-sized pan filled about 3/4 to the top with water, along with cut-up carrot, celery stalk, a small Vidalia onion, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil; then simmer until meat is soft.
2. Remove the meat from the soup, cool, and cut up. It takes some work to remove the meat from the neck bones, but is worth the time.
3. Dice another stalk of celery and small Vidalia onion, some fresh parsley, 2 ā 4 cloves of garlic, and set aside.
4. In a LARGE skillet, melt 2 Tbsp. of BUTTER, adding a Tbsp. of EVOO, then all the meats the veggies from the soup, plus the new veggies that were set aside, and the cooked bacon, if you choose. SautƩ at low heat until fresh onion is translucent.
5. Melt a stick of BUTTER separately and have it ready to pour. Add a 12 oz. bag of unseasoned stuffing to the mixture in the skillet.
6. Gradually pour the melted butter over the top of the stuffing, spreading it around. Once all the butter is in, pour a cup of the soup on top of the mixture and stir.
7. While the mixture is cooking on low heat, grate a large sweet apple and mix in. Using about 20 seedless grapes, cut them in half and stir into mixture.
8. Cook for about 10 minutes and cool.
I make the soup and the stuffing the night before cooking the turkey and refrigerate it. Do not stuff the bird until you are ready to cook it. You probably wonāt be able to fit all the stuffing in the bird, so put the remainder back into the frig until the bird comes out of the oven. At the time of serving, warm up the remainder and mix it in with the stuffing removed from the bird.
If you try this recipe, let me know how it worked out for you.
Donāt forget to send your special recipes to me so that we can share them with other residents. Send your recipes, comments, and questions to greengeezer9@comcast.net. Iām looking forward to hearing from you.
Sammy
