NG2 April/May 2022

Get
Stuffed!
Stuffi ng has been around since at least
Roman times. The cook book ‘Apicus
de re Coquinaria’ has recipes for
stuffi ng made from vegetables, herbs,
nuts and offal and it was used to stuff
chicken, pigs and even dormouse!
Since the late 1800’s in America it is
called ‘dressing’. This stems from the
way it was cooked at Thanksgiving,
outside the bird rather than in the cavity.
Stuffi ng was also deemed too crude a
term for the well to do.
The great thing about stuffi ng is that
you can stuff pretty much anything with
pretty much anything! From chicken
(see Kiev recipe opposite) to seafood
and most vegetables. But also thinking
outside the box you can hollow out
a loaf of bread, stuff it and you have
the perfect picnic food. It isn’t just for
savoury fi llings either. You can stuff
pancakes, cookies, cupcakes, apples
and the list goes on...
Stuffi ng as a method of cooking is used
across the globe. From Greek stuffed
vine leaves to Indian stuffed paratha to
the Russian pirozhki (stuffed bread). If
you think about it every country has a
speciality that involves stuffi ng. How
about a Cornish pasty? Or an Italian
Calzone? Or a Japanese gyoza? We
love to stuff everything!
My absolute favourite has to be sage
and onion. Not the dry stuff you get
from a packet, but homemade with
grated onion, dried sage, breadcrumbs,
sausagemeat and an egg. I bake it in a
dish and could eat it all day.
Ali Wale