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.