Since many of you have come here seeking my Persimmon Stuffing, I’ve taken a break from today’s cooking craziness (well, while the brownies and chestnuts are in the oven) to give you the recipe.

You have two options: To doctor a mix (as some of them are pretty good these days), or to make from scratch. They really aren’t very much different, except one includes a lot of cutting.

I started with three loaves of bread–make sure to select ones with the least amount of crust so that your stuffing is both light and easy to make. Crust is hard to cut through! You need to cut your bread in thin slices, then take stacks of the slices and cut them in strips, and then pull the strips apart by hand. The ripped texture rather than cut texture is what allows the stuffing to become one body again. If you cut everything cleanly, your stuffing will have trouble not falling apart. If you can, leave the cubed bread out (the smaller you cut, the better your stuffing will be) and let it get stale. If you’re in a hurry, rotate sheets of thinly layered bread already cubed into the oven at a “warm” setting for 10-15 minutes at a time.

Chop evenly (I like to use a diced size) fairly equal amounts of carrot, celery, and yellow onion. Be sure to add salt & pepper at this point. Sautee it in olive oil and butter, until onion is translucent. Add julienned fresh sage (alternatively dried sage), thyme (fresh or dry), a few caraway seeds, and a dash of cumin. Sautee a little more, you want it all to be soft.

Next, set this mixture aside and on high heat sear ground pork mixed with fresh sage. Break the pork up into small pieces. Meanwhile, cut the tops off of your persimmons, and then make the persimmon into small cubes by again cutting in slices, then strips, then across into cubes. Add it to the searing pork when the pork is mostly grey but still has some pink left. Let the persimmon get a little soft and brighten in color. If it begins to fade in color, you’re finished, and should take it off the heat. Mix the meat and persimmon mixture and the vegetable mixture with the stale/dried bread until the other items are coated in crumbs and no longer seem glossy or oily. You can preserve the mixture at this point overnight if you wish.

1 hour before cooking, make the mixture wet with chicken or vegetable broth (do not use beef, its flavor is too strong). I made home made chicken broth a few days ahead using bay leaves, peppercorns, parsnip, carrot, celery, onions, and chicken backs, but the low-sodium store kind works as well. It is important in stuffing to use a good quality stock as it provides so much of the flavor to the dish.

Pack the mixture into a pan not too deep so that you have a nice crust and get it wetter with more broth until it is not soaking but is soft and wet to the touch. You can now cover the top with persimmon slices to make it pretty. Cook at 365 for 45 min-1.5 hrs depending on the quantity and the shape of your container–just check in on it.

The week before last I was asked to come and cook for a good friend of mine and his roommate. I gave my friend–who I love to tease and challenge–a complicated grocery list that would send him shopping in at least three places, one of which was Japan Town in San Francisco. He procured everything exactly as I wanted (to my surprise, as I was prepared to improvise for missing items), and I showed up with a great, inexpensive Falanghina to sip on while cooking & eating the first course, and a great 1998 Norman Cabernet Sauvignon to accompany our duck breast with persimmons and medallions of roasted Japanese yam course.

I prepared  Tuna con Yuzu, and followed it with whole, head-on shrimp pan fried and served family style with warm buckwheat noodles covered in hazelnut oil & toasted sesame seeds. Had I not been a few glasses of wine in, it would have been garnished with a tarragon sprig. The main event, though, of this three-course savory meal was the pan-seared, oven-finished duck breast.

It was my first time cooking duck at home, and I felt after a whole year of watching P effortlessly cook duck breast from Japan town medium rare and over and over surpass even the best local restaurants in execution that I could take on the challenge. I did, and it turned out fantastic.

The pan was searing hot, and I scored the duck breast in a diamond pattern, salted & lightly peppered it and threw it skin down. There it sat, sizzling, until the sides had curled up a bit, and the fat had turned a beautiful caramel color. Then, I tossed in some persimmon slices (from the short, squatty variety), made sure they had a whole facing touching the pan, turned the breasts over and put the pan in a 375 degree oven for 4-6 minutes. It came out perfectly rare and incredibly juicy. How restaurants manage to screw this up over and over is beyond me.

So looking ahead, I’ve decided to pseudo-host Thanksgiving. As my converted Victorian duplex is too small for a crowd, we’re hosting at E’s house, he’s doing the turkey (“How do I cook the turkey?” / “It’s meat, you’re the man, you figure it out,” was my reply haha) and I’m doing most of the other items and the rest are being supplied by guests who want to pitch in. So this year, similarly to last year, I’m making:

Persimmon & Sage Sausage stuffing (except this year, I’ll fashion up my own sage sausage)

Whipped yams with fresh roasted chestnuts & tarragon (or maybe fried sage leaves on top instead, what do you think?)

Kathleen & Caroline’s Hard-hittin’ Stonewall Bourbon drink (2 ladels hot spiced apple sider, 1 ladel maker’s mark)

Fresh cranberry-orange compote

Vanilla-bourbon whipped cream (for the desserts people will inevitably bring)

I’ll post recipes the day before Thanksgiving when I’m prepping all of the dishes. Stay tuned!