Oyster Stuffing by Reading Terminal Market Chef Stormy Lundy

We promised you Stormy's oyster stuffing recipe, and we are girls who keep our promises, so here it is in all its glory....

Oysters - in every shape and form are readily available from both of the seafood vendors at Reading Terminal Market

Stormy’s Oyster Stuffing:

• A loaf of day old bread unsliced from The Market bakery or Metropolitan bakery
• 16oz Jar of Oysters, available from the seafood merchants at the Market; keep the liquor for use in the stuffing mixture itself.
• 6-8 leaves of fresh sage
• Few sprigs of fresh thyme – strip the thyme off the woody stem
• 1x medium sized Spanish onion
• 3x medium sized carrots
• 2 sticks of celery
• 1 cup of raisins
• 8oz of butter
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Cut the bread into small, evenly sized cubes
2. Finely dice the onion, celery and carrot
3. Add butter to fry pan and sauté the onion, celery and carrot, once softened add bread and fry all the mixture until the bread begins to turn brown
4. Dice sage finely and strip the thyme leaves from the woody stem – it’s easiest to run your thumb and finger up and down the length of the stem. Discard the stem itself.
5. Add herbs and salt and pepper to mixture in fry pan, stir for 2 minutes then remove from heat. Leave to cool.
6. Add oysters and their liquor to the mixture and stir gently. Stuff the cavity of the turkey with mixture. (Refrigerate turkey if you are not planning to cook immediately.)

Your turkey from the Market’s own poultry merchants - Godshalls, Haltermans, Fair Food, Smuckers and Giunta's all stock turkey at this time of year - is now ready to go!

Follow cooking instructions recommended by the USDA. 

Full details available from this useful website.  Use a thermometer to check that stuffing has cooked all the way through.  Stuffing temp should reach a minimum of 165.

Stormy's Thanksgiving: Holiday tips from Reading Terminal Market's Chef

Today’s guest cook, Stormy Lundy, is by day Director of Special Events of Reading Terminal Market’s Catering Company.

And Stormy is a gal who knows how to throw a stunning party – she regularly orchestrates out-of-hours events at the Market for anywhere up to 2,500 guests.



The Market is a super-cool venue after hours...












Stormy argues that the same principles apply to creating a great party whether that be for 25 or for upwards of 2,500 partygoers…


...some things never change.


One of her key tips is to do with food consumption.

If like us, you tend to over-cater (for fear of being caught short and running out of food), best to heed Stormy’s advice if you want to get the quantities right! 

Two important questions to consider:

What’s the ratio of Men to Women at your event? Guess what? No surprises; Men eat more than Women -especially in a buffet situation. Stormy suggests allowing 1.5 servings per head for a male guest to every 1 serving for your female guests.

Is there a game on TV? If there’s a game on, then expect people to eat even more.

As Men cluster around the TV to watch their fave team over the Thanksgiving weekend, so they tend to pile their plates up with food.

“It’s the psychology of food,” explains Stormy. “There’s a funny thing going on. Men tend to look across and check out what other guys have on their plate. If one person says “these ribs are delicious”, then you tend to get a run on the ribs suddenly.

"In our family – I had 5 brothers & Dad - there was always a fight over the turkey legs; it was a big deal who got the legs!”

Stormy is herself an adventurous cook who loves to push the envelope at Thanksgiving.

Her typical menu features a turkey with oyster stuffing, sweet potatoes bolstered with a dash of Drambuie and turkey gravy enlivened by a cup of Old City Coffee from the Market.

Look for Stormy's much coveted recipe for oyster stuffing in our next post......