Chestnut Shiitake Mushroom Stuffing

I'm trying to organize my Thanksgiving and holiday recipes. In my previous post, I shared my cranberry ketchup and cranberry sauce recipe with you.

For me, the most important dishes for the Thanksgiving dinner table are cranberry sauce, gravy and stuffing. Forget the turkey. I did for years when I was a vegetarian. In those days, I often created lavish Thanksgiving dinners for friends and family. Since the stuffing was the centerpiece, I would bake it in a pumpkin or some sort of squash, using vegetable broth and making a vegetarian gravy. Now that the turkey has fallen back into grace at our table, I still make the stuffing, but most of the time I bake it in a pretty dish. So if you are a little pressed for time (who isn't these days?), use a casserole dish instead of a pumpkin.  Although If you do use a pumpkin or squash, you will most likely end up with extra stuffing that you bake in a dish.

I made the stuffing for my pre-Thanksgiving dinner in our cabin. I removed the seeds and some of the flesh from a little red Kabocha Squash and filled it with some of my stuffing. The leftover stuffing went into a greased iron casserole. The stuffing in the squash was moist while the stuffing in the casserole was crunchy and dry. I preferred the crunchier version but enjoyed the stuffed squash for leftovers. It makes a great lunch with some sauce and pieces of the squash.

I love roasted chestnuts and I think they add a wonderful flavor to the stuffing. What I don't like is getting the nuts out of the shells. It is a tedious, nasty job and I have yet to come up with a solution. If anybody knows an easy way—please, please let me know. My husband and I have tried several techniques but none of them have been easy. Perhaps the best alternative is to buy the chestnuts already cleaned.
​My husband made the croutons and peeled the chestnuts the day before.

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Ingredients 

A butternut squash or pumpkin
This recipe yields about 11 cups of stuffing.


Croutons

1 sourdough bread cut into small cubes (about 8 cups)
4 ounces of butter (one stick)
2 TBS olive oil
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp Italian herbs

Stuffing

1½ cup finely diced shallots 
8  ounces butter (2 sticks)
2 cups shiitake mushrooms, cleaned and sliced 
2 cups chestnuts, roasted, peeled and chopped
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and chopped
2  large celery stalks, chopped medium
1 TBS fresh thyme, chopped
​2 TBS fresh sage, chopped 
½ cup parsley, chopped 
2 slightly beaten eggs
1 cup of turkey or chicken broth
1 tsp dried sage 
1-2 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp ground pepper 
season with additional salt and pepper

Directions

Cut the top of the squash diagonally (see picture) and hollow out the seeds and some flesh.

Chestnuts
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Slice the chestnuts across the equator (see picture) with a sharp knife without cutting into the skin or nut beneath. Bake them in the oven for about 25 minutes. I start taking some of them out before that, removing the nutshell and the skin while they are hot. My husband prefers to put an “x” on the flat side of the chestnut and waits to peel them until they are room temperature. For me, cutting the chestnut across the equator makes for the easiest peeling after roasting. However, easy is a relative term here. 

Croutons​

There are a lot of croutons here, so I sautéed them in two batches (well, actually my hubby did.) He is the crouton maker. Melt ½ stick of butter in a large frying pan, add 1TBS olive oil  and half of the croutons, plus 1/2 of the spices and stir constantly until the croutons are slightly browned. Repeat with the second batch. 

The Stuffing

Melt 4 ounces of butter in a large frying pan, add the shallots, and sauté for five minutes. Add the mushrooms, celery, chopped thyme and chopped sage and sauté for another 5 minutes. 
In a large bowl, mix the croutons with the sautéed veggies, the chestnuts, the apple and the parsley. Add the dried sage, garlic salt and pepper. Taste for seasoning before you add the eggs and turkey stock. Fill the hollowed out squash with some of the stuffing, dot with additional butter, add the top and bake for an hour and a half at 375 degrees. I covered the bottom of the squash with foil. Spray a casserole with oil and add the rest of the stuffing. Dot with butter, cover and bake for about 30 minutes  or longer at 350 degrees. 

Guten Appetit!
©Sunnycovechef