Portuguese Sweetbread Stuffing with Cranberries and Shitake Mushrooms

This was one of the big hits at the Thanksgiving table this year. The sweetbread works really well, while the mushrooms, celery and onion give it a nice balance.

Ingredients:

1/2 loaf of Portuguese Sweetbread (get a really dense one), about 2 days old

1 pint vegetable stock

2 tbsp butter

3 celery stalks, chopped finely

1 small onion, chopped finely

1 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped

1 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped

1 tbsp fresh sage, chopped

6 dried shitake mushrooms, rehydrated and chopped

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

kosher salt and fresh-ground pepper to taste

Cut sweetbread into largish cubes and arrange on 2 cookie sheets. Bake at 325 for about 10 minutes until the bread starts to brown and crisp at the edges (there’s a LOT of butter in Portuguese Sweetbread, so it happens pretty quickly). Move bread into a large mixing bowl and save for later.

Meanwhile, in a large sauté pan, sauté onions and celery with herbs in the butter for about 10 minutes until onions are nice and soft. Add salt and pepper as needed. Add walnuts and cranberries and sauté for about another 5 minutes, then remove from heat and pour this mixture over bread.

Take dried shitakes and cover with water in a small pan. Set to boil for about 10-15 minutes over medium heat until mushrooms are rehydrated. Discard stems (they’re too woody for cooking, although they make good stock) and chop roughly, then throw into the stuffing mixture along with the liquid. Fold everything together to incorporate all the ingredients, then layer everything in a lightly buttered 13 by 9 Pyrex pan and pour veggie stock evenly over the stuffing. Bake at 325 for about an hour, until ingredients are nice and brown, and stock has soaked up into the bread.