Yellow Squash Cornbread Dressing w/ Mushrooms and Fresh Herbs

As the song goes, "I'm just a Mississippi boy.  Still got Mississippi mud on my boots.  I'm just a Mississippi boy.  Well, I wanna go back to my roots.  Tired of the fast food.  Raised on cornbread and collard greens.  Chitlins and hog maws!  A big old pots of beans... "  Uhh, now what y'all know 'bout that?

It's that time, again!  The winter holidays are here.  While the holidays are largely a time of year to celebrate cultural traditions and enjoy our families, it's also important to maintain the utmost regard for cultural competence during the holiday season.  We can all do so simply by respecting the different faith traditions and cultures in our communities and country at large.  For a case in point, consider an acquaintance whom I witnessed wishing someone Merry Christmas and the person turned out to be Jewish.  Awkward.  As another example, I was recently at a legislative breakfast for work and one of the attendees decided to pray in the middle of his introduction.  It was not ecumenical.  Then, on two separate occasions, the absolute worst thing imaginable happened: I had to eat stuffing.

I am obviously joking about the stuffing, but cultural competence does, in fact, extend to the traditional foods that we eat.  About once a year, I tell one of my friends (from the Northeast) that I'm making cornbread dressing for Thanksgiving or Christmas and without fail, I'm met with a puzzled look.  Then, I explain to them exactly what I mean, and we get a good laugh out of the ordeal because they usually think I'm talking about salad dressing.  Bizarre!  So, I figured it's as good a time as any to revisit the stuffing vs dressing debate.  While the terms have technical meaning: stuffing the bird as opposed to dressing the bird, they are also regionalized descriptive terms: dressing (in the South) is traditionally made with cornbread and stuffing (in the North) is traditionally made with dry bread or croutons. According to Clinton Kelly from ABC's The Chew about "83% of northerners say stuffing and about half the people in the South say dressing". Over on the Food Network Blog, they state that "many southerners are die-hard dressing fans" and I fall squarely in that category.

Cornbread dressing has more of a cohesive, casserole-like consistency and there are a variety of techniques for making it.  Some cooks use only cornbread, while others use leftover biscuits, sandwich bread, crackers, or other breads that are leftover and/or frozen for later use.  I, personally, like the casserole-like consistency of dressing and the added textured of toasted bread in my dressing so that's what I use.  Then, for some protein, I usually add oysters; however, I was out of luck this year.  I went to two different grocery stores and they were both out of oysters.  So, I improvised.  Considering I've made yellow squash dressing in the past with great results, I decided to use yellow squash and a gourmet mushroom blend of baby bella, shiitake, and oyster mushrooms.  After tasting the dressing, I must say that I'm officially sold.  The dressing was absolutely scrumptious and considering that yellow squash and the gourmet mushroom blend cost about half as much as the oysters would have, I might call it a bargain.

Yellow Squash Cornbread Dressing w/ Mushrooms and Fresh Herbs 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb cornbread
• 1 loaf Italian bread (1/2 lb total), cut into 3/4-inch cubes (6 cups)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 lb gourmet mushrooms (baby bella, shiitake, and oyster)
• 1 large red onion, finely chopped (2 cups)
• 1 1/2 cups chopped celery
• 3 tbsp chopped fresh thyme (or 1 tbsp dried thyme, crumbled)
• 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh sage (or 2 tsp dried sage, crumbled)
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 4 yellow squash, washed and sliced into 1/4" rounds
• 2/3 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted
• 2 1/4 cups vegetable stock 

Directions:

Prepare cornbread batter and bake until fully cooked and golden brown.  Set aside.

Preheat oven to 325°F. Spread bread cubes in two shallow baking pans and bake in upper and lower thirds of oven, switching position of pans halfway through baking, until golden, 25 to 30 minutes total. Cool bread in pans on racks, then transfer to a large bowl. 

Heat olive oil in a 12-in heavy skillet over moderate heat.  Cook mushrooms, celery, onions, thyme, sage, garlic, salt, and pepper, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened, about 8 to 10 minutes. While the vegetables are cooking, steam or blanch the yellow squash rounds until just soft, about 4 to 6 minutes.  Set aside.

Transfer cornbread and bread cubes to a large bowl and crumble to the desired texture.  I prefer to crumble the cornbread and some of the bread cubes (about 1/3) into small pieces and leave the remaining bread cubes intact.  Add the vegetable mixture and yellow squash to the bowl, then stir in parsley and butter.  Drizzle with stock, then season with salt and pepper and toss well. 

Transfer stuffing to a buttered casserole baking dish.  Bake, covered, in middle of oven for 30 minutes, then uncover and bake until browned, about 30 minutes more.  

Three-Mushroom Bourguignon

I recently attended the 28th Annual Mushroom Festival in Kennett Square, PA.  The town and festival were both a real treat.  The town center is charming and quaint with several interesting restaurants and boutiques in the immediate vicinity of the main strip.  Talula's Table is worth mentioning considering the notoriety the restaurant has achieved.  As explained in this Saveur article, reservations for the restaurant have to be made a year in advance for the sole table of the night to enjoy their solitary prix fixe BYOB dinner.  Kennett Square is known as the mushroom capital of the world because the surrounding region produces over a million mushrooms a week.  If you ever drive through this area during mushroom season, as I have, your olfactory senses will be assaulted with one of the most unpleasant odors imaginable.  For the sake of comparison, it's much worst than anything you might encounter on the New Jersey Turnpike.  The odor is caused by the composting of mushrooms, which releases moisture and ammonia.  This is a point of contention for many PA suburbanites in mushroom farming communities.

So, take a wild guess at the foods available at the Mushroom Festival.  Mushroom Ice Cream.  Check. Mushroom Soup.  Check.  Fried Mushrooms.  Check.  Mushroom Chili.  Check.  Grilled Mushrooms.  Check.  I even had a mushroom ice cream bar w/frozen slices of button mushrooms that was surprisingly good.  It was truly a mushroom lover's dream.  When I made mushroom bourguignon with portabello, cremini, and shiitake mushrooms, I was transformed back to the festival.  It's the perfect rich, comforting dish to highlight mushrooms.  The recipe below is adapted from Smitten Kitchen by way of The Taste Space.

Three-Mushroom Bourguignon

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp butter, softened
• 1 pound portobello mushrooms, cut into 1/4-in slices
• 1/2 pound cremini mushrooms, cut into 1/4-in slices
• 1/2 pound shiitake mushrooms, cut into 1/4-in slices
• 1 small yellow onion, finely diced
• 1/2 carrot, finely diced
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves 
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup full-bodied red wine
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 cups vegetable broth (I prefer Rapunzel Vegetable Bouillon Cubes)
• 1 1/2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 cup pearl onions, washed and peeled
• Sour cream and chopped chives or parsley, for garnish
• Buttered eggs noodles, potatoes, or crusty bread, for serving

Directions:

Heat one tablespoon of the olive oil and one tablespoon of butter in a medium Dutch oven or heavy sauce pan over high heat.  Add all mushrooms to the pot and sear until they begin to darken, but not yet releasing any liquid--about three to four minutes.  Remove them from pan and set aside.  

Lower the flame to medium and add the second tablespoon of olive oil.  Toss the onion, carrots, thyme, and salt and pepper to taste into the pan and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are lightly browned.  Add the garlic and cook for another minute.  

Add the wine to the pot, scraping any stuck bits off the bottom, then turn the heat all the way up to reduce it by half.  Stir in the tomato paste and the broth.  Add the reserved mushrooms, with any juices that have collected, and bring to a boil.  Reduce the temperature so it simmers for 20 minutes, or until the mushrooms are fork tender.  Add the pearl onions and simmer for an another five minutes.

Combine remaining butter and the flour with a fork until combined; stir it into the stew.  Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.  If the sauce is too thin, boil it down to reduce to the right consistency.  Season to taste.

Serve the stew with buttered egg noodles, potatoes, or crusty bread.  Garnish with a dollop of sour cream and sprinkle with chives or parsley.