Nyt Lemon Barley Stuffing Recipes

LEMON & HERB STUFFING

Steps:

• Heat oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5. Heat the oil in a large frying pan, then soften the onions for 10 mins with the pan covered. Put the bread and herbs into a food processor and pulse until you have herby breadcrumbs. Stir into the onion pan along with the lemon zest and juice and plenty of seasoning. Set aside 250g to stuff the turkey, then press the remainder into a well buttered baking tin or dish, about 20 x 30cm, or use 2 smaller tins if that's all that you have.
• Wrap half a bacon rasher around each sausage. Score the stuffing into 8 rectangles, then sit a sausage on top of each. Cover with foil and cook for 20 mins. Uncover, then roast for 20 mins more or until the sausages and bacon are golden and the stuffing golden and sizzling.

BEEF BARLEY SOUP WITH LEMON

Steps:

• Season beef with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Let mixture stand for 30 minutes to 1 hour at room temperature.
• Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add meat and cook in batches, turning occasionally, until well browned, 8 to 10 minutes per batch. Drizzle in additional oil if the pan seems dry. Transfer the browned meat to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain.
• Add leek, celery, fennel and garlic to the pan; cook until soft, about 7 minutes, adjusting the heat if necessary to prevent burning. Push the vegetables to one side, and, if the pan looks dry, add a bit more oil. Add tomato paste and spices to the cleared spot and cook until tomato paste is darkened and caramelized, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir together vegetables and tomato paste.
• Return meat to the pot. Pour in stock and 8 cups water. Using kitchen string, tie sage, rosemary and bay leaves into a bundle and drop into pot. Bring the liquid to a simmer over medium heat. Cook, partly covered, for 1 hour.
• Stir in the carrots, parsnips, turnips, barley, 1 teaspoon salt and remaining 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Simmer until barley is cooked through and meat is tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour more. Pull herb bunch from pot and discard.
• Stir spinach and parsley into pot until wilted, 2 to 3 minutes (kale may take a few minutes longer), then stir in lemon zest and juice. If soup is too thick, thin it with a little water. Taste and adjust seasonings, if necessary. Serve with chiles, if you like.

BARLEY AND HERB-STUFFED VEGETABLES

Steps:

• Cut away the tops of the peppers, then gently remove the seeds and membranes. If using squash, cut into 2-inch lengths. With a grapefruit spoon, scoop out the middle to within about 1/2 inch of the edges, leaving about 1/2 inch on the bottom.
• Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large, wide saucepan or lidded skillet. Add the onion and pine nuts. Cook, stirring, until the onion is tender and beginning to color, about eight minutes. Add the garlic. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 seconds to a minute. Stir in the currants or yellow raisins, cinnamon, allspice and sugar. Stir together, then add 1/2 cup water. Cook, stirring, until most of the liquid has evaporated, about five minutes. Add the barley, salt to taste and some pepper. Remove from the heat, and stir in the herbs. Taste and adjust salt and pepper.
• Stuff the peppers and/or squash with the barley mixture. Stand the vegetables in a wide, lidded pan. Mix together the water, olive oil and lemon juice, and pour over and around the vegetables. Bring to a simmer, and cover the pan. Simmer for 40 to 50 minutes until the vegetables are very tender and there is just a small amount of liquid and oil in the pan. Remove the lid, and allow to cool in the pan. Arrange on a platter, drizzle any liquid from the pan over the filling, garnish with lemon wedges and serve.

HOW TO MAKE STUFFING

Steps:

• Although the two terms may be used interchangeably, for the most part stuffing is cooked inside the cavity of the turkey, while dressing is baked alone in a casserole or other shallow dish. As a result, stuffing is tender and moist, suffused with the juices and any rendered fat from the bird. Dressing has a crisper top from being exposed more directly to the heat of the oven. Here are tips to get the best results whichever method you choose.If you love the brawny flavor of poultry juices mixed with your side dish, or if you're simply a traditionalist, stuffing the turkey is the way to go. Here are some best practices for both flavor and safety: • Stuff the turkey just before it goes into the oven. We know you want to do as much ahead as possible, particularly on Thanksgiving, but stuffing ahead encourages the growth of bacteria, so don't do it. This said, you can make the stuffing mix up to four days ahead and keep it in the refrigerator before stuffing the bird just before roasting. • If your stuffing recipe calls for shellfish or turkey giblets, the Agriculture Department states that these need to be fully cooked and kept hot before they are stuffed inside the bird. So stir them into the mix immediately before stuffing the turkey. • Stuffing expands as it cooks, so fill the cavity loosely. • If you're going to stuff your bird, you should truss it, or at least tie the legs together to keep the stuffing from falling out. • Bear in mind that stuffed turkeys will take longer to cook than unstuffed ones: Stuffing insulates the turkey, thereby slowing down its cooking. • Both the turkey and the stuffing need to be cooked to 165 degrees before they are safe to eat. Usually the bird gets there before the stuffing does. To avoid overcooking the turkey, pull it from the oven once the flesh hits the desired temperature. Then spoon the stuffing out of the cavity and into a baking dish and return to the oven (or stick it in the microwave). Continue cooking until the stuffing reaches 165 degrees.Dressing is baked outside the turkey, which means it can achieve an appealingly crisp, browned top - a nice textural contrast to the softer layer underneath. Plus, with your dressing out of the way, you can add aromatics including lemons, garlic and bunches of herbs to the turkey's cavity for additional flavor. (Another bonus: an unstuffed bird will roast more quickly than a stuffed one.) Here are tips for achieving outstanding dressing: • You can turn any stuffing recipe into a dressing by simply baking it outside the bird. Spread the mixture in a shallow pan and bake until the mixture reaches 165 degrees. Dressing is pretty forgiving, so feel free to bake it at whatever temperature you need for other dishes you're cooking. • Vegetarians take note: because it doesn't touch the bird, dressing can be utterly meat-free. Try lemon-ginger bread stuffing, savory cornbread stuffing or wild rice, almond and mushroom stuffing. • On the opposite side of the spectrum, you can add turkey stock or chicken stock, crisped poultry skin, schmaltz and/or diced cooked gizzards, liver and shredded turkey neck to the dressing to give to it a meatier flavor. • If you've got enough extra turkey skin, drape it over the top of the dressing before baking. The skin will turn into poultry cracklings and render its luscious fat all over the dressing. Outstanding. If the skin isn't crisp when the stuffing is done, run it under the broiler for a few minutes to finish. (You can often special-order turkey skin from your butcher - chicken skin will work, too - or trim off the extra skin at the turkey's neck when you are getting it ready for the oven.) • If you like a deeply golden top, dot the top of the dressing with butter before baking. And if the dressing cooks through before the top is brown, run it under the broiler for a minute or two before serving.
• Any bread, from soft white sandwich loaves to chewy bagels to crusty sourdough rye breads, can be turned into a stuffing or dressing.No matter what kind of bread you use in your stuffing, it will absorb more of the seasonings if it is stale and dry. You can either buy the bread several days to a week in advance and let it dry out at room temperature, or cube it and dry it out in a low oven (250 degrees) until thoroughly arid. Or consider making your own bread for stuffing. Cornbread comes together especially quickly, and you can control the amount of sugar in the recipe, depending upon whether you like it sweet or savory. Easy breads like biscuits, soda bread, no-knead bread and white sandwich bread all make great stuffing, too. Bake them several days ahead so they have a chance to get stale. Or bake them months ahead and freeze, then thaw them and let them dry out before making stuffing.
• Discord swarms around the issue of stuffing. Should it be cooked in the bird or baked alongside, as dressing? White or corn bread? Firm enough to slice or soft as pudding? Call this recipe the peacemaker, because it's adaptable enough to make everyone happy. You can use white or corn bread (and gluten-free corn bread works perfectly). The mushrooms allow vegetarians to nix the bacon without sacrificing all the flavor. We advocate baking it separately (which technically makes it dressing), but if you want to stuff the turkey, you can do that, too.
• Everything is better when you add bacon, including stuffing and dressing - and the same can be said for stirring in shrimp, oysters, sausage, nuts, cheese and the like. Most simple stuffing recipes can be embellished to suit your tastes and mood. Here are some guidelines and ideas.Oyster stuffing, which is actually a variation on bread stuffing, is a traditional 19th-century recipe that deserves a revival today. While oysters are present, they aren't usually the dominant flavor, instead adding a complex saline character that deepens the usual bread-and-onion mix. Fresh oysters will have the brightest flavor, but canned smoked oysters are reminiscent of bacon, and even regular canned oysters will work in a pinch. You can also consider other sea creatures for stuffing, including clams, shrimp and anchovy.Fresh oysters, clams, shrimp and scallops and other seafood should be lightly sautéed in butter or oil, or gently poached, before being added to the stuffing. Do this right before stuffing the turkey or baking the dressing, even if you've made the rest of the stuffing mixture ahead of time. The seafood needs to be hot when stuffed. Anchovies, which have been cured, can be chopped and stirred directly into a stuffing recipe, or sauté them with any onion or aromatics in the recipe.Cured meats and fresh sausages add depth and complexity to stuffing; use them by themselves or add them in combination. Cured hams, salamis and other hard sausages can simply be chopped up and stirred into the stuffing mix. Bacon and fresh sausages need to be sautéed beforehand. These work best when cooked and added to the stuffing mixture just before it goes into the bird or casserole dish for baking.Sautéed mushrooms, onions, peppers and other vegetables, and fruit both fresh (slivered pineapple, sautéed apples or pears) or dried (dates, raisins, figs), make a plain bread or rice stuffing a lot more interesting. Be sure to plump dried fruit in liquid before adding it to the stuffing mixture. Boiling water, hot wine or other spirits, or broth will work. Make sure to season any vegetables aggressively with salt and pepper and any desired herbs and spices so they hold their own against everything else going on in the stuffing mix.Nuts add crunchy texture to soft stuffings while cheese adds richness and flavor. Always toast nuts before adding to the stuffing mix, it gives them the deepest flavor. Cheese should be grated or cubed so it distributes easily. Use assertive aromatics sparingly so they don't overpower the stuffing.Chopped fresh herbs, garlic, ginger, chiles and even sun-dried tomatoes can make a plain stuffing a lot more interesting.Some possible combinations include:Cornbread stuffing with chiles, smoked mozzarella and cilantroChallah with blue cheese and pecansRye or whole grain bread with feta, dill and currantsSourdough bread with pine nuts, sun-dried tomatoes and olives.
• Bread stuffing is the classic choice at Thanksgiving, but you could use rice or other grains like quinoa, farro, barley. Not only are grain stuffings elegant and refined, most are also gluten-free.Grain stuffings don't need to adhere like bread stuffings do, so you don't need to bind them with egg. Basically, your aim is to make a tasty rice pilaf or grain salad, but then cook it again inside your bird, which will give it an even more complex flavor rich with drippings. You can use classic bread stuffing aromatics (sage, celery, onion), or improvise another flavor combination. Chances are that as long as it tastes good on its own, it will taste even better after taking a turn inside the bird. Wild rice goes particularly well with the earthy autumnal flavors of a Thanksgiving meal. Or try sticky rice for something unexpectedly terrific.
• If you don't stuff your turkey, you really don't need to truss it. But if you do stuff your bird, trussing helps keep the stuffing in its proper place, especially when you are moving the turkey from the roasting pan to the cutting board. Here's the simplest way to do it.Place the turkey breast side up on the rack in the roasting pan. Criss-cross the legs and use a piece of butcher's twine to tie them together at the ends, just above the joint. Wrap the twine twice around the legs to make sure they are secure. Take a long piece to twine and loop it around the body of the bird, so that the wings are pressed against the breast. Tightly tie the twine in a knot or bow at the top of the breast. The trussed turkey is now ready to roast.

HERBY BREAD-AND-BUTTER STUFFING FOR TWO

Steps:

• Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a small, shallow gratin dish, casserole dish or loaf pan with a 3- to 4-cup capacity.
• In a small skillet, melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Stir in shallots and a large pinch of salt. Cook until soft and just starting to brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in marjoram and cook for 1 minute longer.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup broth, egg, chopped herbs and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Fold in bread and shallots, letting the bread absorb the liquid. It should be very moist. (If the mixture seems dry, add more stock a little at a time, using up to another 1/4 cup.)
• Spoon stuffing into the prepared baking dish and grind some black pepper onto the top. Cut the remaining tablespoon butter into small pieces and scatter over the top. Bake until golden brown and firm, about 30 minutes. Serve hot or warm.