Previously, Saucyman agreed with Sara Dickerson’s conjecture that stuffing is the most expressive medium from the Thanksgiving kithen. For the last few years at the holiday Saucytable, stuffing has expressed itself in a less than traditional fashion. Rather than fill the bird orthodox manner, the breaded goodness known to some as stuffing, to others as dressing, the stuffing came cooked in English Muffin batter filled with smoked sausage/ham, herbs, onion, celery and cooked wild rice. These little savory pancake-like treats, are better known by the contraction of STuffing and cRUMPETS; Strumpets.
Strumpets are probably more akin to a Cornish Pasty or buckwheat blini, but they sit comfortably at the Thanksgiving table, seamlessly offering a bready, flavorful treat in lieu of traditional turkey stuffing. The advantages of leaving the turkey empty - An un-stuffed bird cooks quicker, dramatically reducing the chance of a dry bird. Others don't worry about overdone as much as they are understandably concerned about eating undercooked stuffing from previously raw poultry. And for the avid outdoors cook – there is no way to BBQ or deep fry a stuffed turkey.
Just as people distinguish stuffing as the filling cooked in the bird and dressing to denote the same ingredients cooked by themselves; Saucyman designates an English Muffin as a the mass produced, pre-cooked version of a fresh crumpet even though they are both made from flour, yeast, milk, egg, water, salt, butter. Crumpets and their puntacular kin, strumpets, are about as difficult to make as pancakes* and while they will save time on the bird baking end, they do need to be made close to eating time. Assuming there is no electric griddle, this will tie up the stovetop at a very critical juncture of the day. Fortunately, the duty can be assigned to someone who has pancake level skills or better and has offered to help.
Strumpet Filling
See previous stuffing post for more ideas - anything can be used, but whatever gets used needs to be cut into tiny, sized pieces. In addition to honey I shrunk the stuffing type of prep, anything placed in the batter will not do any additional cooking – only warming, so make sure strumpet filling is cooked to desired consistency.
1 or 2 days before – cook a ½ cup of wild rice in a cup in a half of water of stock for 45 minutes. Finely mince one onion, not as finely 3 ribs of celery and sauté with ¾ of a pound of smoked sausage. Mince 4 leaves of fresh sage with fresh thyme and parsley. Salt and pepper of course.
Strumpet Batter
Beth Hensperger’s wonderful and encyclopedic The Bread Bible includes a recipe for English Muffins. Like other Bibles, I have not taken the word so literally and in this instance, I have changed what is written to make it more adaptable to my needs. The truth here needs to be a little more savory, so stock gets substituted for milk. The batter needs only 2.5 to 3 hours to rise.
¾ cup warm water
1 Tablespoon yeast
½ teaspoon sugar of honey.
4 cups Flour
1 egg
1 ¼ Cup Turkey, chicken or vegetable stock – warmed to 110 (Hands are about 98 degrees, so it should be warm to the touch. Microwave is good.)
Add water, yeast and sweetener together and leave in a warm spot in the kitchen. In about 10 minutes it will become frothy. At this point...
Mix everything together, keep mixing until lumps are gone. Pour into a mixing bowl, whose inside has been lightly oiled to prevent the dough from sticking. Cover and set aside in a warm place for about an hour and half to 2 hours. If counter space is a premium, the top of the fridge works well.
½ stick of melted butter for cooking
After the batter has roughly tripled in volume, gently deflate it by running a spatula around the side of the bowl and folding the batter inward. Preheat griddle to (Set to 325 if it is electric) on medium low. Lightly oil the surface of the griddle- If using the handy, dandy rings (pictured) fill the ring 1/4 full with batter. If you are working free form – spread batter out in a rough 3 inch circle about 1/4 inch high. Once bubbles start to form on the surface, add strumpet filling, then top with batter. Continue cooking for 5 minutes, flip and cook the 'b' side for 10 minutes.Keep on the griddle until ready to serve.
* Once you have had them, there is no going back to the toasted packaged variety.
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