Gingerbread stuffing

• Ingredients:-
• 500g (3 medium-sized) onions
• 2 eating apples, peeled and cored
• 45g butter
• 1 x 15ml tablespoon vegetable oil
• 750g streaky bacon
• zest of 2 clementines/satsumas
• 2 x 400g gingerbread loaves (such as McVitie’s Jamaica ginger cake), loosely crumbled
• 2 eggs, beaten approx.
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Directions:-

      Using a food processor or by hand, finely chop the onions and apples.

1. Put the butter and oil in a large, wide saucepan over a medium heat and fr ythe chopped onions and apples until soft, about 10–15 minutes.
2. Finely chop the bacon in the processor, or by hand, and add this to the softened onion and apple mixture. Cook everything, stirring frequently, for about 5minutes more.
3. Add the zest of the clementines/satsumas.
4. Take the pan off the heat and let it cool a little before mixing in the gingerbreadcrumbs. You can let this get properly cold now if you want.
5. Just before you want to cook the stuffing, add the beaten eggs and pepper,and use it to stuff the cavity of your turkey, or cook all of it (or what’s left afterstuffing your bird) in a buttered baking dish. I don’t stuff the bird but put all ofmy stuffing in a very generously buttered old Le Creuset terrine, with internal dimensions of approx. 25cm x 9cm x 7cm deep.
6. Bake it in a hot oven (200°C/gas mark 6) with your turkey for about the last 45 minutes. If the stuffing’s going into a full oven – which it no doubt is – there should be no need to cover the dish. If the oven is less full, and therefore hotter and less steamy, you could cover with foil for the first 30 minutes.
7. Let the cooked stuffing sit in its terrine for a good 10 minutes out of the oven before turning it out and slicing it. Or just spoon from the dish if that’s less stressful. (I love a slice of this, cold, in a Christmas night or Boxing Day turkey sandwich.)