This East-meets-West stuffing is delicious. It is my mother’s bread stuffing recipe, but while she uses bacon, I now make it with Chinese sausage (lap cheong) and liver sausage (yuen cheong) – a suggestion by food stylist Nellie Ming Lee.
Chinese liver sausage is very soft, and slices more neatly when it's chilled. But lap cheong is very firm, so is easier to cut if it's at room temperature.
There is no need to use expensive bread for this – I buy the cheap sliced sandwich bread with the crusts cut off. Cut the bread into squares, then spread them on a tray and leave them to dry at room temperature overnight. This way, when you make the stuffing, the bread cubes will absorb more of the poultry stock.
If you're serving this as an accompaniment to turkey, start to prepare the stuffing while the turkey is in the oven. Put the stuffing in an attractive oven-proof serving dish, then bake it while the turkey is resting.
Cut the bread into 8mm (⅜in) squares, put them on a large tray and leave at room temperature for about eight hours, occasionally mixing the pieces so they dry evenly.
Quarter the sausages lengthwise, then cut them into 5mm (¼in) pieces. Cut the onion and celery into small dice.
Put the sausage pieces into a wok (or large skillet) and place it over a high flame. Cook until the pieces start to sizzle, then turn the heat to medium. Stir occasionally until the sausage is fully cooked, then remove the pieces from the wok, leaving behind as much fat as possible. Put the onion into the wok (no need to wash it) and cook over a medium flame for several minutes, then add the celery. Sprinkle lightly with salt and cook until the onion is soft and translucent, about three minutes, stirring often. Mix in the sausage pieces.
Add the bread to the wok (if it doesn’t all fit, do this in two batches, then mix them together before putting everything in the baking dish). Over very low heat, pour in some of the poultry stock, mixing it with the bread and other ingredients. Add enough stock so the bread is moist but not sopping wet. When all the bread has been sufficiently moistened with the turkey stock, season to taste with salt and pepper. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly so the sausage, onion and celery pieces are distributed evenly amoung the bread. Spread the mixture into a baking dish – the stuffing should be about 3cm (1¼in) deep. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for about 20 minutes, or until the surface is crusty and lightly browned.