Oyster Holiday Stuffing Inspired at Hog Island Oyster Farm

As promised - the Oyster Stuffing experiment. Of course, I changed a few things, but kept the essentials the same. Adapted from Hog Island's Recipes.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb. Italian or French Bread cut into cubes (6 cups)
• 1/2 lb. Corn Bread cut into cubes (6 cups)
• 1/2 lb. sliced bacon cut into 1/2 inch pieces - make sure to use good thick sliced bacon!
• 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 medium yellow onions
• 1 1/2 cups chopped celery
• 3 T. chopped fresh thyme or 1 T. dried thyme, crumbled 
• 1 T. finely chopped sage or 2 tsp. dried sage, crumbled
• 1 T. minced fresh garlic
• 1/2 tsp. salt (sea salt would be best)
• 1/4 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
• 2/3 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1/2 (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 18 oysters, shucked, drained and chopped (should equal 3/4 -1 cup)
• 2 1/4 cups turkey giblet stock or low sodium chicken broth 

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

2. Toast bread cubes in 2 shallow baking pans until golden brown. Cool bread in pans then transfer to large mixing bowl.

3. While bread cubes are toasting, cook bacon in heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring occasionally until crisp.  About 10 minutes.  Transfer to paper towels to drain, keep fat in skillet.

4. If bacon renders less than 1/4 cup fat, add enough olive oil to skillet to total 1/4 cup fat.  Add onions, celery, thyme, sage, garlic, salt and pepper to fat in skillet over moderate heat stirring until softened; 8-10 minutes should do it.  Mix into bowl with bread cubes, then stir in bacon, parsley, melted butter and oysters.  Drizzle with stock then season with more salt and pepper if desired.  Toss well to combine everything.

5. Transfer to a buttered 3-4 quart shallow baking dish.  Bake uncovered in middle of oven for 30 minutes.  Then uncover and bake for about 30 minutes more until browned.

Tom loved this stuffing!   For just the two of us, I was able to cut the recipe in half very easily.  And yes, I did eat a whole serving...

P.S. The Fish Flatware is available - I am always looking for ways to use my set!