Recipe: Aloha Bread & Macademia Stuffing with Chinese Sausage and Pineapple

Aloha Bread & Macademia Stuffing
with Chinese Sausage and Pineapple

This has become one of my Thanksgiving favorites, and even Thanksgiving purists have been known to take second helpings of this "stuffing with a Hawaiian twist."

Hawaiian Bread, sold in round loaves (in the bread aisle), is a slightly sweet egg bread. Portuguese emigrants brought it to the Hawaiian Islands, and its rich, mildly sweet flavor and light texture lends itself well to such Asian seasonings as ginger, pineapple, and sweet Chinese sausages.

Chinese sausages come in vacuum-packed packages as hard links and do not need to be pre-cooked before use. They are already air-cured—just slice them up and add them to the mix. Asian markets sell them under various names: lap cheung, lap suong, and lachang. They're reddish-brown in color, about the diameter of a nickel, with a slightly sweet flavor.

1 (1-pound) loaf Hawaiian bread (sweet egg bread),
   crust removed and cut into 3/4 inch cubes
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
5 cloves garlic, minced (about 1/4 cup)
1/4 cup peeled, finely chopped fresh ginger
1-1/2 teaspoons ground coriander seed
3/4 pound sweet Chinese sausages, sliced
4 ribs celery, preferably with leaves, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and cut into matchstick julienne
2 cups chopped green onions, white and green parts
1 cup chopped water chestnuts
   (fresh or an 8 ounce can drained)
2 cups diced fresh pineapple, or
   one 20-ounce can drained and diced
1 cup coarsely chopped dry-roasted macadamia nuts
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup dry sherry
1/2 cup (about) homemade or low-salt chicken broth

Heat oven to 350 F. Place bread cubes on baking sheet. Bake until dry and firm, stirring occasionally, 16-20 minutes. Transfer to very large bowl.

Melt butter in wok or large skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and ginger. Cook, stirring occasionally, until garlic is cooked through, about 5 minutes.

Add the ground coriander, sausage, celery and carrot. Stir fry until vegetables are beginning to soften but still very crisp (about 4 minutes). Mix in the green onions and stir fry another minute.

Dump the vegetables into the bowl with the bread cubes. Toss in the pineapple, macademia nuts, and white pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.)

Butter a 15x10x2-inch or similar-sized baking dish. Mix the cilantro and sherry into the stuffing. Add just enough chicken broth to moisten. Transfer stuffing to prepared dish. Cover and bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees F. Uncover and bake until golden brown on top, another 15 minutes or so.