Ingredients
Large knob of butter
1 onion, chopped
85g/3oz dried apricots, chopped
200g/7oz fresh chestnuts, roasted, peeled and chopped
140g/5oz fresh breadcrumbs
250g/9oz good-quality pork sausagemeat
about 3 tbsp chopped sage (or you can use dried)
2 tbsp port
salt and freshly ground white peppercorns
Method
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Melt the butter in a frying pan and soften the onion over a medium low heat for about 10 mins. It should be pale and soft, not coloured at all. (Alternatively, you can soften a whole onion in a pan with the giblets if you are making gravy stock, and then chop.)
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Let the onion cool for a while, then spoon into a bowl and gradually mix in the remaining ingredients. (Oh another thing – do use fresh roasted chestnuts. I know they’re a faff to peel, but they are the best, and
anyway it’s a good sitting-down job that the kids can do.) -
Take a tiny teaspoonful of the mix and fry off for about 3-4 mins. Taste this and adjust your seasoning. Now you can either stuff your bird as I suggest, or press the stuffing into a buttered shallow dish, cover loosely with foil and bake at 190C/fan 170C/ gas 5 for 35-40 mins
