Oyster Stuffing with Chinese Spices

Oyster Stuffing with Chinese Spices

If you want to be sure to contribute a dish that won’t risk redundancy in a Thanksgiving spread, this Oyster Stuffing with Chinese Spices fits the bill.  In every way as approachable as a traditional stuffing, this variation swaps out the usual wintertime spices and herbs with equally warming Chinese ingredients so that the finished dish completes your holiday table without elbowing another attendee’s stuffing out of the way.

Makes enough for one large casserole of stuffing, about 12 servings.

Ingredients:

• 1 pint shucked oysters, any size, or 18 of our "grillers" in the shell, shucked and rinsed.
• 1 day-old baguette, torn into 1-inch chunks
• 3 tablespoons, vegetable oil
• 2 chinese sausages, cubed (can sub ¼ lb chorizo, uncased sausage, or spam)
• 1 leek, slices into rings (only the stalk)
• 5 chinese celery stalks, thinly sliced
• 1 fennel bulb chopped
• 5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 can water chestnuts, sliced
• 5 small shiitake mushrooms, sliced
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon sichuan peppers, ground
• 1 star anise pod, ground
• 1 teaspoon five spice
• 2 teaspoon cumin
• ¼ cup mirin or rice wine for cooking
• ½ cup butter
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 jalapeno, thinly sliced (optional

Preheat oven to 400° and grease either a large cast iron pan or casserole dish.

Place the bread in a large bowl and set aside. (You'll use this bowl to assemble the stuffing before baking, so it does need to be large!)

In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium-high heat and cook sausage cubes until they’ve darkened in color and curl a little around the edges (about four minutes). Remove them from the pan with a slotted spoon and add them to your bowl holding the torn bread.

Lower the heat under your pan to medium, and melt leek, celery, fennel and garlic, stirring vigorously, until all the vegetables soften (about eight minutes).

Toss water chestnuts and mushrooms into the mixture and season with soy sauce, fish sauce, Sichuan peppers, anise, five spice and cumin.

Continue to cook until the mushrooms wilt (another three minutes) and then transfer vegetables to the large bowl with the bread and sausage.

Add mirin to the pan, and cook off the alcohol while scraping down the bottom of the pan. Add butter. When the butter is melted, transfer the contents of the pan to the bread mixture.

Add oysters to the bread mixture, and stir until combined.

In a small bowl, whisk eggs with stock until completely combined and slowly drizzle over the bread mixture.

Toss with your hands or a wooden spoon until all of the liquid has absorbed into the bread.

Arrange the stuffing evenly inside either a buttered cast iron pan or casserole dish and cook, uncovered for 15 minutes.

After the top layer has browned, lower the oven temperature to 350° and cover your vessel with aluminum foil and bake for an additional 35-40 minutes, or until cooked through.

Remove from the oven and serve directly from your pan or dish or plate along with jalapeno slices, allow to cool for five minutes before serving.