Wild Mushroom Leek And Filbert Dressing Food

WILD MUSHROOM, LEEK, AND FILBERT DRESSING

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush a 2 1/2-quart baking dish with butter.
• Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add onion, leek, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 7 to 8 minutes. Stir in thyme, and transfer to a plate.
• Return pan to stove, raise heat to medium-high, and melt 2 tablespoons butter. Saute half the mushrooms with 1/2 teaspoon salt, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to plate with onion and leeks. Saute remaining mushrooms in same manner, and transfer to plate.
• Return pan to stove over medium-high heat. Add wine, bring to a boil, and cook until reduced by half. Add broth, and bring to a simmer.
• Place bread in a large bowl. Pour broth mixture over bread, and toss until evenly absorbed. Gently stir in mushrooms, onion and leeks, nuts, and eggs; season with pepper. Stuffing can be made up to this point (do not add eggs) 1 day ahead and refrigerated. Let come to room temperature before stirring in eggs and baking.
• Transfer dressing to baking dish. Cover, and bake 30 minutes. Uncover dish, dot with remaining 2 tablespoons butter, and bake until top is golden brown and crisp, 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool 30 minutes before serving.

STUFFING WITH MUSHROOMS, LEEKS AND BACON

Steps:

• Heat oven to 250 degrees. Butter a 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Trim the crusts from the white bread and cut into 1-inch cubes; if using corn bread, coarsely crumble it. Spread the bread pieces out on one or two large baking sheets. Toast in the oven, tossing occasionally, until very dry, about 30 minutes for white bread, 1 hour for corn bread. Transfer to a large bowl to cool. Increase oven temperature to 375 degrees.
• In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook the bacon strips until crisp. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain, leaving the fat in the pan. Add the leeks to the bacon fat and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the mushrooms, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Cook, tossing frequently, until mushrooms are tender and most of their juices have evaporated, 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the sage and cook 1 minute. Add the wine and cook until it evaporates, about 2 minutes.
• Spoon the mushroom mixture over the dried bread. Stir in stock. If using white bread, stir in the cider. Add parsley, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. The mixture should be moist and very soft. If you like your stuffing extremely moist, add enough stock to make it seem slightly soggy but not wet. (Think pudding.) Crumble bacon and stir it in.
• Transfer the bread mixture to the prepared baking pan. Drizzle 3 tablespoons melted butter over the stuffing. Bake until golden, 35 to 45 minutes.