A VIKING Thanksgiving

It was a VIKING Thanksgiving at Scrumptious Street!! No, we didn't invite any sea-faring traders, rather for the first time ever, I am cooking with a VIKING professional range 6-burner, double-wide with warming shelf.  All I can say is this stove/oven is phenomenal and made cooking a Thanksgiving meal so much easier than ever before.  But before, I get there, I'd like to introduce the real star of the meal, my "Fig and Sweet Italian Sausage Rosemary-Sage Dressing".

This dish, unanimously voted the Scrumptious favorite, was so much better than even I had anticipated.   It was full of wonderful autumn-holiday flavor, crackling with crispy edges, moist and  hearty, slightly sweet, delicately spiced.  I attribute a large part of the success to the wonderful bread I used, baked fresh by a local bakery.  If you can get a similar round or loaf, it will really produce spectacular results.  It's also wonderfully simple, so a real bonus when you're making multiple dishes. By the way, I really don't care for "stuffing", so I always make dressing.  I like the texture better, and I like the crispy bits with the moist bread.  If you want to make stuffing out of this, it would also work well.  I just stuffed my turkey with herbs, onions, carrots and apples.   Here is the recipe for the best dish of Scrumptious Thanksgiving 2007.

Ingredients
Serves 4

1 round of rosemary-olive oil Italian bread (wow, I found a recipe, next time I'll make the bread too)
2 T. extra virgin olive oil
6 leaves fresh sage, 4 minced and 2 whole
1/2 yellow onion, diced
12-18 dried mission figs, stemmed and quartered
1/2 lb. sweet Italian sausage, removed from casings or ground
3 c. low-sodium chicken stock (or homemade turkey or chicken stock)
1/2 tsp. fennel seed, crushed
Kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

Method:
1. Slice the crusts off the bread if desired and dice into cubes.  Leave out for a few hours in advance to dry out slightly.  Preheat oven to 325˚F.  Spread the bread cubes in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast for 20 minutes, stirring once.  Remove from oven when toasted and let cool.  Increase the oven temperature to 350˚F.

2. Heat the olive oil over medium-high in a medium skillet.  Add the onion and 2 whole sage leaves and sauté until the onions are translucent, about 4-6 minutes.  Add the figs and toss until coated.  Remove from heat, take out the whole sage leaves and set the onions and figs aside.

3. Add the stock to a saucepan and gently bring it up to simmer.

4. Add the sausage to the skillet and sauté, making sure to break sausage into fine chunks and cook until brown on the outside and very little pink inside.  It should be browned as you would ground beef but slightly longer. Remove from heat when cooked through.  Drain any excess fat from the sausage.

5.  Place the bread in a very large bowl.  Add the fennel seed, the minced sage, onions and figs and the sausage.  Mix gently with a spoon.  Slowly add the stock, adding one cup at a time until the bread is completely moist but not soggy.  Depending on your bread, you may need slightly more or less than 3 cups.  Make sure all sides of the bread look coated, but not too wet.  Taste and adjust seasonings with a little kosher salt and ground black pepper.

6.  Spread the dressing into a heavy, dark baking dish and cover with aluminum foil.  Bake for 35 minutes covered.  Remove the foil and bake 10 minutes more, until crispy on the top and edges.  Serve immediately!

This dressing was truly a hit, but part of the fun was using the new stove to make everything.  The entire menu was as follows: Roasted-Herb Turkey with Gravy, Fig and Sweet Italian Sausage Rosemary-Sage Dressing, Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Chestnuts with Apple Butter, Sauteéd Broccolini and Shiitake Mushrooms, Cranberry-Tangerine Compote, and for dessert Blood Orange and/or Blackberry Sorbet.

If you've been a Scrumptious reader since the blog's inception, you'll know that I started it when I moved from a tiny apartment kitchen in New York to my first real kitchen in New York.  This summer, we moved to Northern California, and now I'm in a house nearly triple the size of our apartment, with an entire room called a kitchen and this incredible stove.

Even though my Bosch in New York is very good, this stove inspires awe.  The heat is so uniform, so easy to control and it gets to temperature in the blink of an eye.  This is also true with the oven.  It's a great difference to have what I call a "double-wide" I can fit more pans in much easier without over-crowding or seriously reducing cooking temperature or increasing cooking time.  I love this thing! We will all benefit from this; you the readers, Mr. Scrumptious and I!

 

Comments

[Steve Mann]

My mouth is watering :) Now I just have to figure out a Kosher version of the Dressing and we'll be set!

[Stephanie Beack]

Steve, I also made a vegetarian version (omitted the sausage) which I believe should still be kosher. It was excellent too. I would rather in hindsight, however, go with the best-quality vegetarian sausage you can find. Two favorites are: Morningstar Farms Meal Starters Sausage-Style Recipe Crumbles http://www.seeveggiesdifferently.com/product_detail.aspx?family=366&id=343 and Tofurky Italian Sausages http://www.tofurky.com/products/sausages.htm which I would cut up and crumble finely. Either of these are good choices as substitutes. Have fun!

[Kalyn]

Very jealous of that stove, and I actually do have a pretty cool stove, but yours is better! The dressing sounds great too.

[Stephanie Beack]

Kalyn, it really is dreamy. We're renting this house so I'm only "borrowing" it but wow, is it spoiling me! Will be hard to cook on other stoves again, I'm sure.

[Yvo]

*gasp* Gorgeous... I am even more jealous of you than ever~! But what a beauty and I can't wait to benefit even more from your wonderful stove!!!

[Stephanie Beack]

Yvo, please don't be jealous, you are right and as I said above, we will ALL benefit from this stove, which is so inspiring to me. How's NYC? I'm missing it....

[Carlene]

As one of the voters for the unanimous winner of Thanksgiving dinner, do not let fancy pictures of the stove, sway you from this recipe. Only politeness kept me from eating all the dressing leftovers the following day - good even cold.

[Stephanie Beack]

Carlene, I had no idea you were restraining yourself so much. No need for politeness, you could have had them all!