Wild Mushroom Fennel Stuffing

• Produce

  • 1 Fennel, bulb
  • 8 Garlic cloves, rough
  • 1/2 oz Mushrooms, dried
  • 1 1/2 lbs Mushrooms- shiitake, fresh
  • 1 tbsp Rosemary
  • 1 tbsp Thyme, fresh

• Refrigerated

  • 1 Egg, large

• Baking & Spices

  • 1 tsp Fennel seeds - optional
  • 1 tsp Kosher salt
  • 1 tsp Pepper

• Oils & Vinegars

  • 3/4 cup Butter or olive oil
  • 1 1/2 cups White wine - or sub stock plus teaspoon vinegar, dry

• Bread & Baked Goods

  • 14 oz French bread

• Liquids

  • 1 1/2 cups Water, HOT

• Other

  • 2 cups Chopped leeks (white and pale green parts only 2 extra large leeks

Found on feastingathome.com

Description

Ingredients

• 14 -16 ounces French-bread cut into one inch cubes ( or sub gluten-free corn bread)
• 1½ cups hot water
• ½ ounce dried mushrooms
• ¾ cup butter or olive oil
• 1½ pounds fresh mushrooms- shiitake, chanterelles, button, cremini
• 1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced ( optional, sub 1 ½ cups celery)
• 2 cups chopped leeks (white and pale green parts only) 2 extra large leeks
• 8 garlic cloves, rough chopped
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds - optional
• 1½ cups dry white wine - or sub stock plus teaspoon vinegar
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1 tablespoon chopped rosemary
• 1 large egg, beaten to blend ( or use Vegan Eggs- see notes)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 and heat a kettle of water.
• Cut bread, place on baking sheet and place in oven (while its still warming up) for 15-20 minutes, to lightly toast, or dry out. Set aside.
• Pour boiling water over dried mushrooms in a bowl, cover with plate and let stand 20-30 minutes.
• Cut mushrooms ( stems OK, except shiitake stems, discard those)
• Heat butter over medium high heat in a large heavy bottom pot or dutch oven. Add mushrooms. If butter gets too hot add a splash of olive oil. This will temper it. Stir mushrooms every few minutes or so for 10 minutes. Add leeks, fennel, garlic and optional fennel seeds. Continue cooking another 6-7 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Add wine or stock with a teaspoon of vinegar). Let this cook all the way down, until its completely evaporated. This will take 5-10 more minutes. Be patient. At the same time strain dried mushrooms, reserving the liquid. Chop and add to the pot.
• Once liquid has evaporated, combine this mushroom mixture with cubed bread in a large bowl (or at this point you could refrigerate the mushroom mix (without bread) making it ahead,and assembling the day of).
• Season with 1 teaspoon kosher salt and pepper. Toss in the fresh herbs, and enough of the reserved mushroom liquid (or stock) to moisten the bread (about 1 cup). Mix in the beaten egg. You want the bread moist, but not sopping wet.
• Pour into a 9x13 inch greased baking dish and bake 40-45 minutes, covering with foil for the first 15-20 minutes. Then uncover, so it turns nicely golden brown and puffs slightly.
• Scatter with fresh sprigs of rosemary or thyme
• Notes: You can keep this gluten-free by using gluten free corn bread. You can beef this up by adding cooked sausage to this when combining with the bread, perhaps reducing the salt a little. Also, you can make this without the dried mushrooms, and sub stock for the mushroom water- but the dried mushrooms do seem to boost the mushroom flavor. You can cut back on oil or butter- I tried this ( using ½ cup) and it was just ok, not quite as good. Traditionally, it calls for a cup of butter, so ¾ cup is slightly less. 😉 To keep this vegan, use egg replacer like FOLLOW you HEART Vegan Eggs.