Have a ginger Christmas

Keeping with my ginger Christmas theme, this stuffing makes a refreshing alternative to the usual sage and onion or parsley and thyme.

Gingerbread Stuffing by Nigella Lawson

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 500g onions, finely chopped
• 2 eating apples peeled, cored and finely chopped
• 750g streaky bacon, finely chopped
• 2 clementines or 1 orange, zest only
• 450g loaf gingerbread (or 2 smaller ones to give you 450g)
• 2 eggs, beaten
• ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:

1. Heat the butter and oil in a large wide saucepan. Add the onion and apple to the pan and cook until both ingredients have softened and turned golden in colour (about 10-15 minutes).
2. Add the bacon to the softened onion and apple mixture and mix well. Cook the mixture, stirring frequently, for about five minutes. Then add the clementine or orange zest and mix well.
3. Remove the pan from the heat and set a side to cool a little.
4. Roughly cut the gingerbread into clumps and crumbs and add the pieces to the stuffing and mix well.
5. Add the beaten eggs and pepper to the stuffing, and press the stuffing into a buttered baking dish. Bake the stuffing in a hot oven with your turkey for about the last 45 minutes.

To serve, let the cooked stuffing sit in its dish for a good ten minutes after it has been removed from the oven, before turning it out on to serving plate and slicing it.

Related posts:

1. Stale Bread Recipes: Bread and Butter Pudding with Jam, Old Fashioned Herb Stuffing
2. Recipe: Ginger Christmas
3. It’s Christmas pudding time!